Take a break

Tomorrow is the beginning of the National Day holidays. And finally, I can have a break from the job, research and reading. I can be lazy.

Also, I am going to Paris for several working days. I am so excited to go back to the city. Besides Amsterdam, Paris is the city I loved most in Europe.

Hope this time I can see more of the city, working along the streets, buying books, doing a little bit shopping. Also, observe people with their mobile. It has been my habit to observe how do people behave with their mobiles.

Consuming culture and public politics

I planned to write something on Super Girl. Today, I readed this article online and decided to quto it. You can read more in the following paragraphs

Sorry for those who cannot read in Chinese. The article said that Super Girl election is turned from a entertaining event to a social event. For me, I would rather say that it is a media event. Ordinary people have no where to hide from this media hype. Why? There are too many sensitive topics which cannot cover in china. The media have turn to entertaining events, even dig for entertaining factors in other area. For example, the media sell Clinton's visit to Hangzhou with "old good-looking man" as their main mesage. Chinese media is entertaining orientated, popularized and tabloid-like.

Abstract:
超女事件的一个重要特征就是思想公众把一个娱乐事件转变为一个社会事件,这是继1990年代“人文精神”和大众文化讨论以后的重要转变。先前的讨论关心的只是审美、趣味或精神追求的雅俗高下之分,而如今则已经开始涉及大众文化、娱乐和文化消费的“民主”、“公民”和“公民社会”问题。尽管由于“短平快”式的观点交锋，这些问题还没有充份展开，但可以预见,在“超女”热潮和短平快的评论迅速消失之后, 这些问题以及其它有关如何理解民众公共政治特征的问题会继续在各种与大众文化和群众社会有关的讨论中不断出现。
You can read more on http://column.bokee.com/89138.html

When a dull person becomes keen to new technology

Mobile to me was merely a phone. I made phone calls with it and sometimes I send SMS to my friends. That’s all. I never tried MMS, WAP, IVR even the popular ring tone. My mobile was not personalized. However, this has changed about 4 months ago when I choose to work as a researcher for a telecom company.

It could be strange for most people to think that a person who is familiar with mobile phone market and VAS market never tried to use those value added services or to buy the latest model of mobile phone. But it is true when it comes to me.

I guess my days in the Europe make me a technology dull person. My knowledge about color ring back tone was at least 1 year late than ordinary Chinese. My first mobile with carma came about six months late than ordinary Chinese. It seems Asians are keen to new technologies than the Europeans do. Why was that? Possibly because IT industy and the Internet is currently the only technology that the West and the East are almost at the same level. (Someone would argue that biotec is another one). Psychologically, the Asians are more eager to change their lives than the Westeners do.

The most important consequence of my new job is that I, joined other Asians to be keen to new mobile technologies and the impacts on the society.

I got to know about mobile QQ, QR code, Skype, 3G, IPTV and many more. It is interesting to work in a high technology company as a researcher on human factors. It is interesting to try to figure out the next hype services for the market. And it is interesting to observe how people behave with their mobile phones and how do they construct their personal identities on weblog ...

Heroes vs. Celebrities in Contemporary China: thinking about sports stars

“The hero was distinguished by his achievement; the celebrity by his image or trademark. The hero created himself; the celebrity is created by the media. The hero is a big man; the celebrity is a big name” (Boorstin, 1978)

Heroes are a national issue with a thick context for the Chinese. It has to do with the special history of China. Politics, history and society impact Chinese young people in a much stronger way than in the West. Sports, too possess a much more complex meaning than in the Western world. Sport supports a way of restoring Chinese national identity and international recognition; that is why athletes become peacetime heroes in China.

For more than 50 years, the Chinese hero was a figure whose status was ratified by self-sacrificing patriotism. Chairman Mao Ze-Dong and other leaders of his generation were considered heroes by ordinary Chinese people. They earned themselves the status of heroes by what they did in building the nation.

However, there is another type of traditional Chinese hero: government-subsidized heroes. These heroes are constructed by the Party media, promoted with slogans such as “Everyone learns from Lei Feng.” Lei Feng, a soldier was promoted as a hero and role model for Chinese citizens since the 1950s.

In The Aeneid, Virgil created Aeneas as the archetype for Romans to use as a role model. Aeneas possessed qualities that were admirable in the eyes of the Roman government (primarily to serve society). Government-subsidized heroes like Lei Feng function in a similar way. They become political symbols, which are frequently mentioned by the Party newspaper, and many quotes are attributed to them. They are chosen to speak to the public as heroes by the party. Sport stars, too, are promoted as heroes in a similar way. Most of these sports heroes end up by working in the government, acquiring a position in a sport regulating body. They are reported in party media rather than popular media. In a sense, they are traditional war heroes manufactured by the party instead of celebrities. They are not the persons people want to approach, to talk about, identify with or even gossip about.

However, with the changing media function and the raise of popular culture, the star culture have led to the decline of the hero in the traditional sense; the extent to which sport stars today are perceived to be heroes is problematic. The term ‘hero’ has been used in several different ways. Synonyms are frequently used, such as celebrity, conqueror, exemplar, man of the hour, star, idol, just to name a few. Boorstin (1961) and Campbell (1988) distinguish between the hero and the celebrity. Campbell (1988) states that heroes act to redeem socity, while celebrities live only for themselves. Boorstin argues, “the hero was distinguished by his achievement; the celebrity by his image or trademark. The hero created himself; the celebrity is created by the media. The hero is a big man; the celebrity is a big name” (Boorstin, 1978).

However, in contrast to such conservative distinction between ‘hero’ and ‘celebrity, the distinction is not so neat in the case of Chinese sports stars such as Yao Ming and Liu Xiang. Sport stars become heroes because of long-term, consistently outstanding performance as well as their morality, social responsibility, and intellectual capability. Sport stars are real in the sense that they perform live under unpredictable sporting conditions over which media have little control. Although the stories and programs their fans read or watch are determined and amplified by the camera lens, the shooting angles, replays, gossips, photographs, and talk shows, sport stars are much more authentic and more easily acquire heroic status than stars in any other field.

Home Sick?

All of a sudden, I am thinking about Amsterdam today. I don't know why and what brings Amsterdam to me today. I miss the flowers there, the narrow streets there, my small appartment there, the bridges there. But first of all, the buildings in the University, Bushuis liberary where I spend A LOT of my time. How are my friends? How are the swans swimming in front of the building?
Can I call it home sick? Hardly. I am a Chinese girl. However, the waters, the bridges, the old and pretty buildings left their trace in my memory.

I am going to return to the city during the fall. I miss it.

Youth and Instant Messenger

I am conducting researches on Chinese youth and their usage of Internet services. I have been thinking why QQ, the Chinese local instant messenger is such a big success.

Because of the one child policy, most of the teenagers are the only boy/girl in their family. They have no one to share their secrets, their dreams, their happiness and sadness. So they turn to IM for accompany. Even if they do not chat online, knowing that their friends are also online. They won’t feel lonely.

IM gives them a way to do identity experiment. Some youth admit that they are shy and have difficulties to express themselves well in real life. In the world of I.M, they can free themselves, pretending to be someone else. The hide online and lead another life. In this virtual reality, they are someone they want to be.

QQ, the Chinese I.M tool gives the youth a platform to express themselves. The youth can construct their own online identity by avatar, alias, images and emotional icons. Although other I.M tools such as ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger also have those ways of identity construction, the functions are not so vivid.

QQ is more than just an I.M. It integrates online games, virtual reality, into I.M. Users come to QQ not just for chatting but also for entertaining.

This successful I.M tool is not free from troubles. It is not a pure region for the youth. There are too many strangers online sending annoying advertisings. When the teenagers become older, they would find it is a childish tool. The platform should segment its market according to the needs of users.

(I will write more on articles, this is only my initial thinking)

Do celebrities sell product or not?

Recently a research agency released their study and one point is that celebrity endorsement is of little influence on Chinese people’s consumption. Chinese think celebrities are too far away from their daily lives.

The conclusion, somehow, conflicts to my own studies. I agree with the second point that celebrities are far away from ordinary Chinese, however, in the other hand, they are longing to be one of them, especially the youth. The recent Super Voice Girl Competition clearly reflects my point. The competition is similar to American Idol. Chinese are crazy for the competition. When the final competition came, the competition became an election than an entertaining program. In order to vote for the singer they like, some well-to-do white collars even bought thousands of SIM card to vote through SMS. Others gathered outside of department stores, parks etc to show support to the singers. Scholars call it “grass-root democracy”.

I have to say I do not agree with those who call the competition “grass-root-democracy”. What kind of democracy it is if the riches can buy thousands of SIM card in order to vote. However, the phenomena do reflect that the Chinese youth is eager to be someone.

For the first point, I cannot agree at all. If the conclusion of the agency is correct, then there would be no NBA hype, no Beckham hype, no Yao Ming hype, no Liu Xiang hype at all. A survey in the 1990s reveal that Michael Jordan is the most recognized American in China. The sneakers with Jordan’s name sold extremely well. Yao Ming sells products from telecom services to drinks, from watches to visa cards. If celebrities can’t sell products to Chinese, how could we explain brand queuing in the line waiting for Liu Xiang to endorse for them?

My conclusion is that celebrity sell products very well in Chinese market, if the endorser is well select and appealing to the target consumers.

M-Zone, the pre-paid service of China Mobile is a very good example of celebrity. Since M-zone target at the youth market, especially the University students. The company select Jay Chow as their endorser. Who is Jay Chow? He is a Hong Kong pop singer.

It is hard for adults to understand why this guy becomes idol of the youth. He is not well looking. His music to the adults’ ears cannot be called as music. However, the youth likes him. Some of my research respondents’ replies are representative:
- I know he is not good looking, but I think he has personality, he is unique.
- I like the lyric of his music, it is so special
- He is successful, he works very hard.
- I subscribe to M-zone because of Jay Chow. He gives me sense of security so I think the brand he endorse for can also supply me the sense of security.
I think I need not to say more about it. If you have chance to come to China, you can judge with your own eyes.

Digital Divide

Freshly admitted college students rush to their new lives freshly and happily. Shops are happy to find their pockets are full of money and eager to spend somewhere for digital devices such as MP3, mobile phone, and laptop. Well, maybe not all of them, there’s divide between students from well-to-do families and poor families.

When the students from well-to-do-families rush to digital shops, the poor are worried about their tuition fees. They cannot afford the device. Some of them never know there are such things in the world before. Their wishes are paying the tuition fee and staying in the university for a better future. Go to university is their only hope to possibly have a better future. After ten-years hard working, some of the poor have to give up the chance because they cannot afford the tuition fee.

Whose fault it is? China is a developing country with unbalanced developing rate. When my friends from the West come to big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, they are surprised by the developed level of the cities. However, in the rural area, it is still poor. Some remote villages remain unchanged for 50 years.

When students from remote area come to university they find they are illiterate although they have been studied hard for 12 years. They are illiterate in terms of computer. They have to learn from the very beginning. Furthermore, since the homework in the college are assigned online, and the professors prefer electronic version of papers, they will find it is very inconvenient not having a computer.

Without a mobile phone, they will find they are isolated by their fellow students. When their fellow students sharing a SMS joke, they can’t join in; when their fellow students sharing pictures taken by mobile, they cannot; when their fellow students organizing an outing they will be forgotten. In order to avoid the isolation, some of the poor buy a mobile or a cheap computer when they get financial aid.

Then comes a policy that forbidden the poor students buy themselves a mobile or a computer, because they are “luxury”. I cannot agree with the policy. Digital divide cannot be expanded to a social divide. Digital devices cannot be the symbol of social class. Why forbid the poor to change their loneliness and isolation by having a cheap handset?

A study taken several months ago indicated that the tuition fee of Chinese Universities is the highest in the world if taken the GNP into consideration. It is about 7 times higher than that of Netherlands.