Futures of Learning

Cara Wallis

China is a country where extraordinary transformations are taking place, caused in large part by the government’s policy of “reform and opening” (gaige kaifang) – known as the Open Door policy outside China – initiated three decades ago. We are all probably familiar with China’s economic growth: although China is feeling the effects of the current global economic downturn, the country’s GDP has hovered in or near the double digits for most of the last two decades. The 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing last August were a chance for the nation not only to showcase its athletic prowess, but also to present Beijing as a modern, high-tech, global metropolis and China as a significant player on the world stage. In everyday life, however, it is not just that people’s material standard of living has changed. Rapid urbanization, the birth of a consumer society, a policy emphasis on “informatization,” and a degree of liberalization of the media have helped to usher in new values, life opportunities, and modes of being in the world. Through a “compromise legitimacy” the Communist Party promises to deliver economic growth and “a relatively comfortable lifestyle” (xiaokang) (Lu, 2004) in exchange for “self discipline” by ordinary citizens in matters of political dissent.

Clearly, new media technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones have become an important part of both realizing and troubling this agreement. While the government has invested heavily in telecommunications infrastructure, it is also wary of what it perceives as harmful influences – moral, political, social – that are spread through such technologies. This point has been driven home by the government’s recent banning of hundreds of websites, both foreign and domestic, for “pornography” and “vulgarity,” which also seem to include politically sensitive content (a topic that will be explored in more detail in my post focusing on the Internet). Still, while the Internet and cell phones circulate viewpoints and feelings that can be perceived as subverting the official discourse, they also have become key platforms for nationalistic sentiments. These tensions, combined with the profound changes that have occurred and are continuing to occur in nearly every realm of Chinese society, make China a fascinating country to observe how new media practices emerge and are constitutive of certain social, cultural, political, and economic factors.

In this introductory blog post, I will present an overview of background information relevant to understanding people’s engagement – particularly youth engagement – with new media in China, with a particular focus on demographic data and telecommunications development and standards.

Demographic Data

China has about 1.3 billion people, which accounts for one fifth of the total world population. 20 percent of China’s citizenry is under 15, (http://www.prb.org/Countries/China.aspx) and another 23 percent is aged 15 to 29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_People’s_Republic_of_China). Due to China’s one-child policy, instituted in 1979, nearly all of China’s urban youth have grown up without siblings. Because they enjoy the attention of their parents as well as doting grandparents, they are often called “little emperors” who are spoiled and who do not know how to “eat bitterness” (chi ku). However, these youth also face tremendous pressure as huge expectations are often placed on their shoulders in terms of academic performance and future professional success. In rural areas the situation is quite different because rural families are allowed two children if the first child is a girl or disabled. In reality, it is quite common for rural families to exceed the regulated number of children and to pay fines as a result (most of China’s 55 ethnic minorities are allowed two or even three or four children). Rural youth are often disadvantaged compared to their urban peers, particularly in terms of material standard of living, access to quality education, and future opportunities. Most rural youth “go out to labor” (chu dagong) in urban areas after finishing middle school or part of high school. The youth (aged 15 to 24 years old) literacy rate in China is 99 percent, according to UNICEF statistics (http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/china_statistics.html#46); however, this statistic refers primarily to urban areas.

Currently, China’s urban population makes up about 44 percent of the total population, compared to just 20 percent during the 1980s (http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2007-10/22/content_6921882.htm). The reason for this change is that starting from the mid-90s as China sought to transition more rapidly from a centrally-planned to a market-oriented economy, there was a parallel shift from an agrarian to an industrialized, urban society. While some formerly rural areas were incorporated into urban areas, this shift also necessitated the loosening of China’s restrictive household registration system, or hukou, which in the past severely restricted population mobility and created a bifurcated society divided between the urban and rural – with the former enjoying a range of state welfare benefits, material standard of living, and perceived degree of “culture” far surpassing the latter. Though the hukou policy has been severely eroded (but not eliminated), it continues to serve as an institutional barrier for those rural residents – many of them young adults – who have poured into China’s cities in search of jobs and a better life. Currently there are an estimated 130 million of this so-called “floating population” (liudong renkou), and they usually take jobs in the low-level service and industrial sectors. In urban areas, migrants often face discrimination and exploitation, and are blamed for overcrowding and crime. Unlike urban residents, many of whom now enjoy new housing, cars, and myriad forms of leisure and entertainment (the exception being laid-off state workers), migrants in the city are often treated as second-class citizens in their own country.

Telecommunications Data

Though China now has the greatest peacetime internal migration on the planet, the rapid growth in its telecommunications landscape over the last couple of decades is almost equally as staggering. Through a series of reforms and restructurings designed to increase competition (the latest was begun in May 2008 and completed in October 2008), there are now three major telecom companies in China, all state-owned, and all offering fixed-line, broadband, and mobile services: China Telecom (formerly a fixed-line and broadband provider only), China Mobile (formerly a mobile carrier only), and China Unicom (which swallowed up fixed-line and broadband provider China Netcom). These are all overseen by the newly formed Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

To understand the dynamic growth of China’s telecom industry, it is useful to consider that in 1980, shortly after the Open Door policy began, there were only 4.1 million fixed-line telephones in China, for a teledensity (the number of telephones per 100 persons) of .4 (Lee, 1997). By 1990 this number had tripled (He, 1997), and by 2007 China had roughly 365 million fixed-line telephone subscribers, with a teledensity of 27.8 (http://www.miit.gov.cn). Though the urban areas have more than double the number of fixed-line phones as the countryside, rural areas have also seen tremendous growth in recent years, a result of both government policy and market strategies.

Although the number of fixed-line phones continues to grow, China’s mobile phone growth has also been remarkable. In 1999 there were nearly 15 million mobile phone subscriptions; in 2004 the number had risen to 188 million; by 2006 the figure was 398 million; and currently China has roughly 616 million mobile phone subscribers, the largest number in the world and representing a penetration rate of nearly 47 percent (http://www.miit.gov.cn). China has both CDMA and GSM networks, although the latter is more widespread. After much delay and anticipation, in January 2009 China finally issued 3G licenses to the three state-run carriers. China Mobile, which is the world’s largest mobile phone operator and home to about three quarters of China’s mobile phone subscribers, was given a license for TD-SCDMA, China’s domestically developed 3G standard, which, though heavily supported by the government, is still viewed as subpar by many. China Unicom and China Telecom were granted licenses for WCDMA and CDMA 2000, respectively, 3G standards which are already used globally.

About 90 percent of mobile phone users in China rely on pre-paid phone cards, which come in a range of plans (e.g., caller pays, bulk text messaging, etc.). As elsewhere, pre-paid services in China are valued for their flexibility and convenience. Cards come most often in increments of 50 to 100 yuan (approximately $6.50 to $13.00), and vendors selling pre-paid cards are ubiquitous in supermarkets, outdoor newsstands, and mobile phone stores. Though a range of services is available on mobile phones, text and voice are the most commonly used functions. However, as of December 2008, 117 million Chinese had used their mobile phone to surf the Internet (http://www.cnnic.com). Mobile music is also seen as a huge market for growth (M:Metrics, 2008).

Because major cities like Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai have become relatively saturated with mobile phones, the number of new subscriptions in these cities is declining. This has caused China’s mobile operators to look to rural areas (where teledensity is still only 12 percent) as a source of new growth. In 2007 China Mobile added roughly 68 million new subscribers, and nearly half of these were in rural areas (Nystedt, 2007). Still, China’s countryside is vast with large disparities between more well-off areas where mobile operators are likely to set their sights first, and impoverished regions where many people do not have landlines. For this reason, mobile phones are, at this moment and in particular for rural youth, largely configured as part of an urban, cosmopolitan lifestyle.

Internet growth in China has also been rapid and unevenly distributed between the cities and the countryside. From 9 million in 1999, to nearly 80 million in 2003, to 137 million in 2006, China now has the largest number of Internet users in the world, with 298 million as of December 2008, representing a 22. 6 percent penetration rate, mostly concentrated in urban areas (http://www.cnnic.cn). More than 90 percent of China’s “netizens” (wangmin) access the Internet via broadband. Most use desktop computers for such access although the use of mobile phones, as mentioned above, as well as laptops is growing. Currently there are 84.7 million domestic computers (desktop and laptop) that have Internet access in China. 78 percent of Internet users access the Internet from home while only about 21 and 11 percent access the Internet from work and school, respectively.

It is common for urban families to have a computer with a broadband Internet connection in their homes, for which the monthly fee is around US $20 for unlimited use. For those without home or school access – in particular for rural-to-urban migrants – Internet cafes have become extremely important and are used by 42 percent of Internet users. The majority (68.6%) of China’s netizens are under 30 years old, and junior and senior high school youth continue to be the fastest growing online population (http://www.cnnic.cn). As will be discussed in more detail later, the Internet in China is most commonly seen as a medium for entertainment (Guo, 2007).

In future posts I will be examining a range of new media practices in China, starting with mobile phones on Wednesday, followed by gaming, Internet practices, and digital media production. The information presented draws from both Chinese and English sources – academic and popular – as well as my own research in China. I look forward to readers’ comments and suggestions.

References
China Internet Network Information Center, China’s Internet development statistical report (multiple years) (in Chinese).

China Ministry of Information Industry, 2007 national communications industry development statistical report (in Chinese).

Guo, L. (2007, November). Surveying Internet usage and its impact in seven Chinese cities (the CASS China Internet Project Survey Report 2007). Center for Social Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He, Z. (1997). A history of telecommunications in China: Development and policy implications.” In P. S. N. Lee (Ed.), Telecommunications and development in China (55-87). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Lee, P. S. N. (1997). Telecommunications and development: An introduction. In P. S. N.  Lee (Ed.), Telecommunications and development in China (3-20). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Lu, H. (2000). To be relatively comfortable in an egalitarian society. In D. S. Davis (Ed.), The consumer revolution in urban China (124-41). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

M:Metrics. (2008, February). M:Metrics now measuring China, the World’s Largest Market.

Nystedt, D. (2008, March). China Mobile posts strong 2007 growth, gains music, users. Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/03/23/AR2008032300447.html.