China Has A New Way For People To Blow Off Steam

Opening in Bejing in September 2018, Smash is a place where people can go to break things and grow crazy in a controlled environment. There, participants are given bats, hammers, or other equipment to blow off some steam destroying old or broken appliances and things such as mannequins, televisions, furniture, and even glass bottles. Smash was started by Jin Men and some friends who quit her job in public relations to create a space dedicated to helping people destroy things to help relieve stress. It is catered to people around the ages 20 to 35 although adults of all ages are welcome. After a while, they began letting people bring in their own things to destroy as a way of helping people let go of the past or do something productive with their garbage.

Jin commented that  “A woman brought all her wedding photos here, and smashed them all […] Every time when we come across this kind of circumstance, makes us believe that we’ve provided a safe place for people to let out negative energy. And we are happy about that.” Because it can be extremely stressful being a young adult, particularly in Bejing, they don’t believe that they’re promoting violence but instead giving people a way to release some of those primal urges that can lead to actual violence. After paying, participants are lead to the “anger room,” where they can smash things to their heart’s content, just not each other.

Image Credit: Каратель Тахтабашов / YouTube