Will Facebook lose face in China

When the movie Social Network became Golden Globe Nominee and Oscar Nominee, Chinese fans made the following Chinese version poster "Everything happens in this movie is coincidental. All websites mentioned are made-up by the writers, please do not try to access, especially facebook.com." And of course, the movie about a website to many Chinese that never existed will not be released in China. But the website now seems to have a chance.

Last year we saw Mark Zuckerberg's China visit photo all over Chinese SNS, and his guide is Li-Yanhong, CEO of the dominant search engine Bai-Du. It stirred some speculation about the partnership. Now April 2011, rumors come again. Rumor here and there say that Facebook has made a contract with Baidu to enter China market by the end of 2011 the earliest.

How to work with the rigorous censorship, not repeating the same road of Google has been a main concern from US press. But after so many years, I totally believe BaiDu's emergency responding system to delete any sensitive posts. The partnership with Baidu will probably secure Facebook from making any politically wrong mistakes. Plus, I really don't see too many people talking about politics on social network sites as on microblog. My interest is if it can change the content of the SNS in China.

Right now, either Kaixin or RenRen, two major SNS lack original personal content. In the US Facebook is known for its user personality. But in China, most people will only forward (even not copy & past) other people's content, and even worse, most them are gossip news from TMZ kinda websites, just startling titles and sensual photos. Ren Ren might be better than Kaixin from my observation, but still reading the same posts most the time. If Facebook can fundamentally encourage people to share their own photos and thoughts that will change the current SNS quandary. There are many ways, through better mobile interface/site interface or campaign (so many "talented" Internet writers in China). Though it is indeed challenging in a country where no copyright laws (or laws in general) and people are enthusiasm about human powered search and ethic judgement ruthlessly.

Eventually, the worst thing could happen is not Facebook retreats from China mainland market but becomes a GFWed Facebook. The lethal rumor I heard is that Facebook will just make a Chinese version which is not connected to the global database. It will be so disappointing that Facebook completely surrenders to Chinese media censorship and GFW without even trying. That is totally losing face.

6 Reasons China must qualify for 2014 Brazil WorldCup

Finally get back to track, will keep update regularly, yet can't say how regular it is, targeting a weekly update. But I have the best reason that I was not updating last month, the 2010 World Cup.

It is such a big thing for Chinese, even we've only being qualified for one time in the whole World Cup history, and not because of our strength but thanks to Japan/Korea who were hosting that year, therefore we got one more quote for Asian team. I remember that year I was in high school and we stopped the class to watch the game, which China lost 0-4 to Brazil.

This year, again, China did not advance to the final 32. Seeing all these enthusiasm from fans, just really think China must bear the "if not win go to coal mining " oath to advance in the final 32 in 2014 Brazil for the following reasons:

1. Promote nationalism. Nationalism is always a core value to promote as seen in any media products controlled by central government, yet this every four year sports event is probably the best opportunity to do so. Especially when World Cup has been interpreted with political references, as a low rank team, if China can compete with traditionally strong European teams or South America teams and even win a game, it will bring the confidence that cant be achieved anywhere else.
2. Harmonious society. Another core value. During this World Cup month, Chinese media forget the flooding, the drought, the coal mine explosion, all the front pages are covered by World Cup teams, players, their girl friends and wives. So do Internet users. Forget all the social problems, all of us are totally get entertained by the game. This is just what being dreamed by the SARFT.
   
3. Economy Boost. The news says Spain's TV rating hits the highest record since the team first time advanced to the Final and won the trophy. The total audience reached about 15.6 million. China, on the other hand, totally not of our business but we contributed 52 million audiences in the month. Imagine if China ever wins the game, how many commercials broadcasters can sell and how many beer we can drink.
   
4. Chinese Brand. Even this year, we've seen Ying-Li, this Chinese energy company's ad board in every single game. Imagine if China team gets there, how many companies will be eager to sponsor the game and promote their brand.
   
5. Grassroot spirits. Since modern professional football starts from the low-income working class in England, it still shares this grassroot identity and local awareness even though some international clubs are highly commercialized. Football still brings this hard-working spirit. It can inspire some workers in southern Chinese factories, like the Faxconn, to dream something or expect something than hopelessly work the the cents.
6. Professional League. If some points above are some kinda of joking, this is crucial. Anyhow, the ultimate goal is not just the World Cup but the professional league that can nature talents, bring progress, win fans' respect and make money.
   

This is my first time watch Word Cup outside China, in a place where very few people have passion for football. It's kinda lonely but the contrast really shows the energy, the passion from Chinese audiences. Hoping China can get into the world cup final groups is kinda wishing all these can be paid back.

Brilliant Parody: The War of Internet Addiction

Last month’s Wired ran the article “The Lost Boy” by Christopher S. Stewart, about a boy who was identified as Internet addicted by his parents and sent to the recovery camp and died there after only 14 hours.

It is so terrifying that these so called therapeutic centers use electroshock along with other torture to relieve the “addiction”; yet it is indeed happening widely after those professors, doctors and government officials claim that Internet addiction is a clinical disorder threatening young people’s mental and physical health. The article listed the government’s initiatives to control the teen’s use of Internet, especially their obsession with online game World of Warcraft, and the tragic consequence.

This is totally one side of the Internet addiction opinion, and that’s why I highly recommend this fan made machinima “ War of Internet Addiction”. It is definitely a brilliant parody of this whole Internet addiction phenomenon in China and moreover, the conflict of Internet business, and of course, the restricted Internet use in China.

This machinima is based on the news that Blizzard announced changing partnership with The 9th City (previous licensed company for WOW China business) to the Netease in 2009, which brought inconvenience to game players due to their irresponsible transactions. However, after Netease gained the partnership, the GAPP (General Admission of Press and Publication) considers this game is inappropriate and requires Netease to close the server in November, 2009. Back and forth with these American, Chinese corporations, and different government divisions, every party involved in this deal contends for their best benefits and no one cares the players. This video is the outcry of those game players, and essentially the exclamation from millions of ordinary Internet users.

According to the scenario, the parody set up these involved parties with funny nicknames, these game companies, the officials, the Internet addiction therapeutic centers. The protagonist named “Kan Ni Mei” symbolizes a candid, bold game player who wants to fight against all these black forces. In his personal journey against these rulers, the movie refers to tons of sarcastic terms relating to news events in 2009. For instance, Qin Gang, spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, his famous quote regarding the information control software Green Dam Youth Escort, “do you have a child” is in the line. If you follow these news and the derivative phrases and usages, you will definitely appreciate the humor of this video; therefore, it is a little difficult for foreigners to completely enjoy the story without enough references.

The message of the video is bitter even the video is so hilarious: why Chinese game players can not enjoy the game? Parents and teachers treat WOW players as shame, and international game players contempt Chinese players as gold mine farmers.

However, the message behind the video is inspiring, young people did not keep their mouth shut under the authority. Users as individuals think independently against brain-wash information, work collectively, collaboratively to make the video, and share the thoughts via viral videos.

Finally, here is the video clip. If you can understand Chinese, please go find the original one. This is subtitled, so the resolution is a low. And this is the highlighted part toward the end: