In the last few blogs, we briefly discussed how to use social networks to read Chinese materials on contemporary topics. We know you were probably told by numerous people that social networks are not the best way for learning and that you should spending more time reading actual books. It maybe true in an English environment, but when it comes to learning Chinese, not necessarily.
First, for most of the Chinese learners, reading full-fledged novels or academic books in Chinese is simply unrealistic. As all Chinese learners must have noticed, even after mastering spoken Chinese, there is still a long way to go until reading with speed. In fact, even native Chinese children normally start reading chapter books at a slightly older age than native English speakers do because of the difficulty in remembering the thousands of characters.
Second, if you are interested social science topics, which is a focus in AP Chinese exams as discussed in our previous posts, former Chinese publications are often outdated because social sciences tend to be under-funded in Chinese universities and is subject to many restrictions. More vigorous discussions often happen outside the official social science arenas.
We already mentioned Weibo, which has a format that was obviously inspired by Twitter. Users can repost and comment a message or use hashtags for discussing popular topics. It is arguable that Weibo thrived partly because Twitter is blogged in China. But to be fair, there are some merits to Weibo that Twitter should learn from. For example, when two people are engaged in a debate regarding a certain original post, that original post is always visible in a smaller font under the debate, which makes it easy for readers to understand what they are debating about. On Twitter, however, it can take quite a few clicks to figure out what’s going on. And because the high visibility of original Weibo posts, those who initiate debatable topics by posting high-quality original content will be quickly rewarded with increased reposts and followers. In other words, it’s hard for good content to not be noticed (well, unless it’s removed by the censors, which also happens quite a lot). Better still, although Weibo only displays 140 characters each post, there is no limit on how long a post can be. Readers can simply click “more” to see what’s beyond the 140 characters. All these smart designs make Weibo into one of the most important arenas for Chinese content producers to compete against each other.
WeChat is a completely different species. It probably modeled Facebook to some extent, mainly serving as connecting people who already know each other. But it has some very unique features that are worth mentioning. Most importantly, Facebook allows users to set their posts as Public, friends only, or some other options. WeChat, however, does not provide such a choice and every timeline post is always friends only (there is simply no share/repost button). That means you can only see the timeline of your friends. And you cannot see the comments to a friend’s post except those posted by your shared friends. Such a highly private feature certainly is not good for content competition or social debate. But it is extremely appealing for many people because you don’t feel the pressure of making people react to your posts. No one knows how many comments you received or how many friends you have. For people who are not active content producers, such privacy may actually serve as a relief. This is probably why the number of WeChat users quickly surpassed Weibo only a few years after it was launched.
In general, when you make a Chinese-speaking friend, you ask for their WeChat if you want private conversations with them, or ask for their Weibo if you want to follow their thoughts and ideas.
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