Jetlagged in Shanghai

This is a billboard in Beijing advertising Motorola's E680i multimedia mobile handset. I spent a jetlag day in Beijing yesterday before heading down to Shanghai, and already my friends are telling me how they expect China to be leading the world in wireless media innovation.  People are definitely using way cooler phones on average than the average cellphones people use in the U.S. - with much more color graphics, video, pictures, and music functions. Going online through your phone has already become a normal activity at least among Beijing/Shanghai users. Somebody also showed me an application he has downloaded onto his phone that basically works as a Skype for your mobile phone - allowing you to call anywhere for the cost of mobile internet access only.  When will I get that in the U.S. I wonder?

Meanwhile, as one Chinese political blog gets shut down, a large group of Chinese bloggers will hold China's first ever blogger conference in Shanghai tomorrow: a demonstration of how, as long as you play within the rules and avoid certain subjects, there's still a lot that people are saying and doing online in China. As with all blogger conferences everywhere, people are tremendously excited to have a chance to meet the people they've been getting to know just by reading and linking to them.

Speaking of saying, doing, and even living and dying online...  Roland Soong in his ESWN blog points out that a group of Chinese gamers recently held a memorial service inside the online multiplayer game, World of Warcraft, for a gamer called "Snowly" who died after playing intensely for several days straight. Joi Ito, an avid World of Warcraft player, has posted his perspective on what happened: that people are developing tight social bonds and carrying out collective social action online in these multiplayer games. Blogs are one form of online community, and this is another. What the socio-political implications will be here in China are anybody's guess, but if I were looking for something to write a PhD thesis on, the potential socio-political implications of online gaming in China would be a pretty fascinating topic.

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[Frank Dai]

Wang Yi, whose blog had been shut down, is moving to another location: http://zhivago.bokee.com/