The news story this morning declared that “6 in 10 foreigners living in China use WeChat“. Perhaps some will be surprised that the figure is that high, but here in Nanjing, it might be closer to 100 percent. With the familiar social media of our home countries obscured behind the Great Bamboo Firewall, almost everyone eventually succumbs to the ubiquitous local social medium. Once the big toe is dipped into the cyber-water, it is easy to become hooked. WeChat is so powerful here, that many people today have stopped using email, and SMS messages from your phone just don’t cut it anymore. Perhaps this inexorable surge to the home-grown social communication is sounding the death knell of this email? Maybe, after 10 years, even this needs to move to WeChat. [FYI, around 300 people open this email each week, around 10 percent of the mailing list, which is about average for this industry – Ed.]
Nevertheless, it is still true that not everyone is locked into electronic communication. People still wait for the hard copy of The Nanjinger each month, and swapping and sharing of books continues to be part of expat life.
