What Social Media says about Chinese Culture
Illustration by Alex Gross
Fast Company’s spread on China’s plentitude of social networking sites designed in the image of Facebook is a foray into the culture of China’s online denizens born in the 1980′s and 1990′s.
Because Facebook is prohibited by the Great Firewall of China, dozens of sites have taken a share of the social media market over the past few years. The article contains some truly cultural insights, which I’ve posted below.
Liu Neng, a sociologist at Peking University, says that [the young] generation has come to see social networks as ‘a place of escape. Online, they find a sense of security and a sense of social worthiness. It’s a place where they can derive their own youth culture. These are things they cannot get from their real lives, where they feel pressure.’
…In a society where the collective has long been emphasized over the individual, first thanks to Confucian values and then because of communism, these sites have created fundamentally new platforms for self-expression. They allow for nonconformity and for opportunities to speak freely that would be unusual, if not impossible, offline. In fact, these platforms might even be the basis for a new culture. ‘A good culture is about equality, acceptance, and affection,’ says Han Taiyang, 19, a psychology major at Tsinghua University who uses Renren constantly. ‘Traditional thinking restrains one’s fundamental personality. One must escape.’
This tells us individuality is a new value youth culture is embracing more than ever before. This also alludes to important implications for the commercial applications of social media sites:
…According to Netpop Research in San Francisco, Chinese Internet users are twice as conversational as American users; in other words, they’re twice as likely to post to online forums, chat in chat rooms, or publish blogs. And to the joy of advertisers and marketers, social media is twice as likely to influence Chinese buying decisions as American ones, which explains why brands such as BMW, Estée Lauder, and Lay’s have flocked to China’s social networks.
Because so many social sites are nearly identical copies of their predecessors, the concept of intellectual property in China is an important theme of the article. Wang Xing, founder of one of China’s most successful social media sites – Renren, echoes the view that in a very group-oriented society, copying and re-producing ideas is not seen as stealing, but rather supporting the community through improvement:
When asked how [Wang Xing] could be so comfortable with copying, he says he has nothing to say about intellectual-property rights. In fact, many Chinese have remarkably lax views on IP. Copying usually isn’t seen as wrong as long as you’re making something better or cheaper.
This is a powerful case that illustrates a culturally-based view on IP. It reminds me of the stories I’ve heard in chatting with other intercultural consultants. During tests and examination, Chinese students will often whisper their thoughts on the correct answers (otherwise known as cheating in the West). When the Western instructor intervenes, the candid response of the students depicts their strong desire to help their teammates – not to compete with them.
Furthermore, ideas on the rule of law are commonly expressed by Chinese youth where they compare it to law in the West: “In the West, law is like an .exe file. In China, law is like a .txt file.”
Did you get that? “In other words, in the West, the law works. In China, it exists, but doesn’t operate…” according to the article. The loose enforcement of laws in China speaks to the more case-by-case approach most Chinese take to rules.
What else do these websites tell you about the culture of China’s future middle class? How can this cultural knowledge impact your decision to do business in China or with Chinese colleagues?
Sean
