text messaging

Netizens Defend Free Weixin Service

China’s three mobile telecom operators want to charge a fee to the more than 300 million users of Weixin, Tencent’s popular mobile chatting application, according to a government official. From Reuters: China’s...

Technology Aiding Labor in China (Updated)

In the New York Times, David Barboza and Keith Bradsher write about the role of technology in the Honda Lock factory strike: It is labor revolt by text message and video upload, underwritten by the Chinese government. On...

Han Han: “From Now On, I’m a Vulgar Person”

ChinaGeeks has translated a blog post by Han Han about the recent order banning “vulgar” text messages: Aside from sending pornographic texts to males, beginning tomorrow, I will also be sending sexual harassment...

Free Speech In China? Text Me

From NPR: If Romeo and Juliet lived in modern China, their dialogue would probably be in 70-character text messages. That’s how college student Wong Lei’s boyfriend courted her. “He told me his experiences from...

China’s Mobile Revolution: The Rise of 3G Technology

The Times looks at the role on mobile technologies in helping survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake: The mobile phone came of age in China last month when a devastating earthquake ripped through Sichuan province. Its vital role...

The Great Sichuan Earthquake

In the Far Eastern Economic Review, Michael Zhao reports on the role of information technology in spreading breaking news about the earthquake: In the moments following the quake, the world’s source of breaking news on the...

Beijing Investigates Spam Attack

From BBC News: China is investigating a spam attack after almost half of China’s mobile phone users received unwanted text messages from advertisers. Text messages were sent to more than 200 million mobile phone users...

Chinese Love Letters Over a Half Century

A comparison of Chinese love letters from the 1950’s with a series of brief SMS love messages posted this week on Sina reveals just how far the concept of love has traveled in the reform era. Translated by CDT: (A typical...

Group: China Gets Tough on Texting – AP

From AP via CNN.com: A Beijing city regulation clamping down on people who send text messages that “spread rumors” or “endanger public security” is a threat to freedom of expression, a watchdog group said Monday. China Human Rights Defenders, an international network of activists and rights monitoring groups, said the recent regulation on text messages […]

OMG! LOL! PRC! – Peter Winter

Peter Winter is a junior majoring in International Relations and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California. He published this article in last month’s US_China Today website: Text messages pass along more than just knock-knock jokes in China; to the displeasure of some leaders, they are also a popular way to […]

Chinese Get The Message On Texting – Dawn C. Chmielewski

From Los Angeles Times: Real estate agent Xu Jianzhong is wired — but in a way that few in the e-mail addicted, BlackBerry-packing West would understand. The 20-year-old from China’s rural Henan province doesn’t own a computer. He visits the local Internet cafe to check his e-mail every couple of weeks. That’s not to say […]

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