Internet Evolution:
China's Youth Culture Grows Up in Cyberspace
By Erica Schlaikjer
Logging On
I’m sitting at an Internet café—or wang ba, in Chinese—and I feel like I’m involved in some shady, underground operation. The lights are turned off, the rusty chairs don’t match, and the computers are falling apart. My keyboard keeps sticking, and I’m sweating, thanks to today’s smoggy Shanghai weather. Dusty fans whir in the background as teenaged boys click away on their mouses. But instead of planning some illegal scheme, they’re just fighting Anime characters in an online game. One guy next to me fingers a cigarette in one hand as he hawks something slimy onto the cracked tile floor.
I guess I was expecting a revolution, not mindless recreation. I assumed using the Internet was a powerful way for China’s youngest middle class, the “Yellow Generation,” to criticize the Communist government and wave its free speech flag: a World Wide Web united—liberated—by the power of free information exchange.
But there was no cyber-political upheaval here. No government overthrow or anti-censorship campaigns. Just teens getting away from the noisy traffic outside on a Tuesday afternoon, away from the watchful eye of their parents.
I came to China to learn about the Internet and youth culture. Before I left, I read articles about Internet addiction treatment clinics for game-loving teens, government crackdowns on instant messaging, cyber police raids, illegal “naked chatting,” and online dissidence. While all of the news was true, it was also somewhat over-hyped and “makes China out to be a really scary place,” as one student told me. Political or subversive activities are actually confined to only a small minority.
The majority of China’s Internet users, however, are young, well-educated males with high-paying jobs, who log on primarily for information or entertainment purposes, according to a November 2005 survey report by Guo Liang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Services in Beijing.
The number of Internet users in China hit 111 million at the end of 2005, a 17 million increase since the previous year, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). By the time this article is published, the number will no doubt soar even higher.
As of now, the number of Internet users in China comprises only 8.5 percent of the country’s total population, but it ranks second in the world, following the United States, in terms of total broadband subscribers.
Only about a third of users have had more than five years of Internet experience, with television still being the dominant media, but survey results show that the Internet is gaining popularity. Since 1995, when the Internet first became commercially available to Chinese individuals, the majority of users log on for general browsing and reading the news, communicating in chat rooms and instant messaging systems, and hanging out in Internet cafes to play games and download music. They are less likely to use the Internet for e-mail, banking or online shopping.
“All these statistics show that rather than being an information highway, the Internet in China is more like an entertainment highway,” Professor Guo writes.
While the Internet in China is still in its preliminary stages of development, it shows exciting promise among at least 51 percent of users, who say it will “make the world a better place,” according to Guo’s report.
During my travels to different Chinese cities, I held informal conversations with Chinese youth to better understand how the Internet plays a role in their lives. From the country’s first-ever Chinese Bloggers Conference in Shanghai to a coffee shop discussion about Wikipedia in Beijing, I began to identify different sub-cultures of Internet users.
Perhaps the following categories over-generalize the population, but they also provide some useful clues about the day-to-day online habits of Chinese youth, which are not so different from how my American friends and I use the Web, but that certainly exist in a different social and political context.
Through my research, I could tell the impact of the Internet in China was significant. Everyone I talked to seemed so excited about this “new” technology, and at the same time there was always the concern about government restrictions. Almost like there’s a perpetual showdown between two regimes: Who will win? The netizens or the cyber-police? Perhaps they’ll just learn to adapt to one another’s demands. Unfortunately, my time constraints and limited language skills made it difficult to understand the real depth of the situation.
One thing is clear: There’s no turning back now. As the rest of China continues to get wired, as online business grows, and as information overwhelms the censors, there’s bound to be widespread change. But it’s too early to determine exactly what direction that change will take.
The Intellectuals
The Chinese version of the free, online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, Wikipedia, known as Wei Ji Bai Ke in Mandarin, is home to more than 48,000 registered users contributing nearly 59,000 articles. But it is still relatively small compared to other versions, such as the one in English, which has more than one million users.
Part of the wane in activity is due to Chinese government censors who have repeatedly blocked the free online encyclopedia in the Mainland over the past two years. The first block occurred in June 2004, during the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square riots. It was lifted soon after two “Wikipedians,” users named “Shizhao” and “Mountain,” submitted a letter of appeal to their Internet service providers. The second block lasted only four days in September that year. The third block—arguably the most serious one—began on Oct. 19, 2005 .
In all three instances, no explanation was given for limiting access to the website. People could only speculate—did someone post controversial articles about Falun Gong or Taiwanese independence?
The author of the first appeal, Shi Zhao, submitted another request to lift the most recent block last October, but to no avail. In his letter, he stated, “If we block Wikipedia, we lose the opportunity to speak with the world with a Chinese voice…we lose a channel through which we could access knowledge, a channel whose importance is rising constantly; blocking is no different from cutting away our own voice and tongue, or shutting our own eyes and ears; it is isolationism in the age of the Internet,” according to one English language translation.
Some Wikipedians say part of the reason the government blocked the site might have something to do with Wikipedia’s “neutral point of view (NPOV)” policy, which says the mission of the encyclopedia “is best served not by advancing or detracting particular points of view on any given subject, but by trying to present a fair, neutral description of the facts,” according to Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales.
“Chinese government officials don’t agree with a neutral point of view; they have their own point of view,” says 35-year-old Wikipedian Yong Xinge. “So they have a problem with Wikipedia, which shows all points of view.”
Among those who are willing to challenge an absolute version of the truth, the recent government censorship of Wikipedia has left many feeling confused and angry.
“I feel disappointed,” says Ye Taiyang, 22, a medical student at Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University, who says he enjoys Wikipedia’s “free and open” atmosphere.
“Wiki is such a good information tool,” he says. “You can share knowledge and develop your interests, meet people, and learn new things. There’s never been anything like it before.”
Even when the government tries to control information, it seems people can always find proxy servers to circumvent the censors.
“It’s impossible to control the Internet because it’s too open,” Ye says.
The young Wikipedian admits that his online hobby puts him in the minority. Most educated Chinese youth are pressured by their parents and teachers to make money with “practical” careers, like electronics, business, or medicine, rather than waste their time contributing articles for free online, Ye says. Plus, uneducated youth usually don’t have access to computers to begin with, or they would rather just play games.
In the meantime, dedicated Chinese Wikipedians who manage to evade the blocks say they are excited to have an opportunity to share their knowledge with the world.
One user, who writes under the pen name Neverland, says he is proud to be a “geek.”
“There are a lot of young people online, but all they do is chat, play games and flirt with girls,” Neverland says. “They don’t like using the Internet for things that take a lot of effort. It’s too tiring.
“Wiki is also amusement for us,” he continues, “just not in the same way as amusement is for them.”
The Amusement-Seekers
The total Internet market in China was valued at about 11.3 billion RMB (US$1.3 billion) in 2004, and 35 percent of that was spent on gaming, according to Guo’s report.
Many gamers frequent Internet cafés, where an hour of computer time generally costs less than 40 cents. For people who crave amusement but don’t have Internet access at home, these cafes are an escapist’s haven.
“There are three types of people that like to visit the wang bas,” one girl told me. “Boys who like to play games, people who like to chat with friends, and people who just like to waste time.”
The majority of patrons I met were between the ages of 16 and 24. Technically, city regulations make it illegal for minors under 18 to enter, and all users must present state identification to log on. Internet café owners are required to register with the government and install filtering software to control “subversive” elements, like pornography or “state secrets.” And illegal underground establishments may be shut down or forced to pay severe penalties.
One 14-year-old girl, Li Xiafei, told me that stories of Internet café violence and even child abduction are common hearsay, although she wasn’t sure whether or not the news was just government propaganda.
“Most of the time I can convince my parents that they don’t need to worry,” she says.
Extraordinary rumors aside, Internet addiction is a legitimate concern. “Little kids don’t understand,” one Shanghai café owner said. “It will affect their studies.”
In an informal survey I conducted, most people said they stayed at cafés for about two to three hours at a time, but some confessed to logging on for up to 12 hours in one sitting! Beijing, the nation’s capital, opened an officially licensed Internet addiction clinic in the summer of 2005, right before I began my research, to treat the Web’s most obsessed users.
The Expressionists
Other than providing entertainment, the Internet has also given Chinese youth the opportunity to express themselves—but with limits, of course. The Chinese cyber-police are sure to crack down on anything pornographic, anti-government, or anti-China.
At the country’s first Chinese Bloggers Conference in Shanghai, hosted by CNblog.org, “Everybody is Somebody,” according to the event’s motto. Hardcore bloggers praised the Internet’s contributions to society. Isaac Mao, one of the pioneers of blogging in China and founder of CNblog.org, said today’s bloggers will create a “social brain.”
“The combination of all these small voices will make our society smarter,” he said.
Mao spoke of the “pro-ams,” or “professional amateurs,” a powerful minority of online writers who prove that you don’t need a college degree to be an expert on something. Citizen journalists Wang Xiaofeng, a.k.a. “Massage Milk,” and Hong Kong-based Michael Anti from EastSouthWestNorth.com are some of the more popular examples of this phenomenon.
But not all expression is necessarily news-based and informative. Afterall, China’s blogosphere is home to some of the country’s biggest celebrities, like Furong JieJie (“Sister Lotus”) and Muzi Mei, two women who rose to fame by posting self-indulgent photos and journal entries of their sexual escapades and other personal experiences.
Adding to the trend of cyber self-expression is the popularity of podcasting, a fusion of Apple’s “iPod” and “broadcasting,” which allows virtually anyone with an Internet connection to create and share audio or visual recordings—everything from news talk shows to amateur music videos. In China, thanks to companies like Toodou.com, the country’s first podcasting service, people have seized the “do-it-yourself” attitude to explore their creativity and, on occasion, create their own stardom.
For example, a couple of college guys from the Guangzhou Arts Institute created a video spoof of Backstreet Boys music videos. The hilarious duo, dubbed “The Back Dorm Boys,” catapulted into Internet fame, and they were soon rumored to strike a promo deal with Motorola, the mobile phone company.
In a Sohu.com survey of more than 2,000 bloggers in China, about 83 percent said they hope to increase their Internet fame, and 86 percent sought economic benefits, which suggests that blogging and other forms of online expression can be a rather selfish enterprise.
The Moneymakers
Sometimes, it’s all about the yuan. In January 2005, Hong Kong native Edwyn Chan founded Concept Idea Technologies (CIT), a company based in Chengdu and Beijing that specializes in Web 2.0 technologies, such as RSS feeds, blogs, and other social networking tools.
“I’m online 15 hours a day—it’s like an addiction,” says Chan, 24, a graduate of New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Chan says he is less concerned with things like free expression than he is about maintaining high traffic on his Web site and attracting advertisers.
“I’m not a journalist, I’m a business person,” he says, emphasizing that even his personal blogs, which cover subjects like Internet advertising and web entrepreneurship, are merely for “investor relations.”
“I never think about how it affects people,” he says.
One of the core businesses of CIT is blogkumedia, a blog media network similar to Gawker Media in the U.S. , which publishes blogs using the conventional business model of print magazines.
Chan says he created blogkumedia to provide entertaining, customized content that you can’t find online anywhere else.
“There’s a lot of stuff that traditional media skips out on, like really weird, niche stuff,” Chan says.
To relieve browsers of the hassle of sifting through all the “crap” in cyberspace, Chan says his blogkumedia site targets net-savvy consumers who only want the “necessary info.”
The site hosts five blogs, covering consumer gadgets, gaming, humor, celebrity gossip, and movies. Each blog is written by young people, aged 18 to 26, who must apply to be accepted as full-time bloggers. This screening process, which Chan oversees, runs contrary to the notion that blogging should be open to everyone. In other words, it’s controlled free speech.
“Everybody is an expert on something and should have the chance to express their knowledge,” Chan says. I’m not taking away their chance to do that; I’m just doing it in a more organized way.”
Chan’s business model is a relatively underexposed concept in China ’s blog media landscape, which is mainly dominated by personal blogs, and on the flip side, a sophisticated system of Internet monitoring and filtering to control sensitive material. But with creative people like Chan taking the lead, young money-hungry entrepreneurs are bound to copycat his profit-making success, and ultimately change the structure and content of China ’s limited media.
Signing Off
As the Internet undoubtedly expands, the Chinese communist government continues to tighten its grip, finding new ways to preserve what has become known as “the great firewall.” Even big companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have succumbed to self-censorship in order to do business with China. Private individuals are even more defenseless against the country’s Internet regulations. Netizens who go too far can be sent to jail or—in some cases—sentenced to death.
But at the same time, free technology is difficult to restrain. There is a Chinese saying, “ wu ji bi fan,” which means, “things can turn into their opposite, when they reach the extreme.” What goes up, must come down. In this same way, if the Communist Party completely clamps down on the Internet, maybe it will eventually be forced to surrender.
No matter where you live in the world, the Internet inevitably paves the way for access to new knowledge, economic markets, foreign influence, self-expression and expanded social networks. And in a rapidly developing country like China, where state controls are increasingly at odds with liberalizing forces, the long-term impact of the Internet is even more profound. And its full effects remain to be seen.
At the time of this writing, Erica Schlaikjer was a senior editor for “Abroad View,” interned at “Shanghai Talk” in China during the fall of 2005 through Teaching and Projects Abroad. Her research on the Internet and Chinese youth culture was made possible by The Medill School of Journalism’s Eric Lund Global Research and Reporting grant. Erica worked as an intern at “National Geographic” this summer and is now applying for a Fulbright grant to research indigenous rights and culture in Taiwan . Contact her at e-schlaikjer@northwestern.edu