In the Palms of Our Hands

by+Xuan+Kang

For Chinese people， one of the greatest thrills of this Spring Festival （Lunar New Year） was sending electronic red envelopes of“lucky money” as gifts， particularly through Alibabas Alipay and Tencents WeChat.

Electronic hongbao， literally “red envelopes，” first arrived for last years Spring Festival. According to statistics from Tencent， the fifth-largest internet company in the world after Google， Amazon， Alibaba， and eBay， more than 8 million of its users swapped e-hongbao during the week-long holiday from January 30 to February 7，

2014. A year later， the exchange swept the country even more feverishly and peaked between 00：00 and 00：02 on February 19， the 1st day of the first lunar month： Every minute， 1.65 million packets were “torn open.” Statistics from Alipay showed that during Spring Festival in 2015， more than 100 million people in China sent and received red packets， with an average amount of 59 yuan （US$ 9.5）.

New Custom for the New Year

The emergence of e-hongbao happened by chance. The concept can be traced back to Pony Ma， executive director， chairman and CEO of the Tencent Holdings Lim- ited. Ma would send red envelopes to his employees every Spring Festival， and his employees would chase him in the office building for hongbao before the holiday. Inspired by the tradition， a product manager developed an electronic version for WeChat as a novelty， but users unexpectedly loved it.

Therefore， big family dinners on New Years Eve during Spring Festival 2015 were often not as warm and affectionate as years previous because so many were glued to their phones. Even more surprisingly， 35 percent of respondents to a WeChat survey indicated that they could barely imagine Spring Festival without wifi and mobile phone， and only 14.7 percent declared they prefer the holiday without wifi and mobile phone.

The mobile phone has become an integral piece of the Chinese New Year celebration， facilitating New Years greetings， online shopping， social networking， and receiving and sending red envelopes， as well as a wide range of potentially supplemental services such as catering， entertainment， travel， ticket reservation， and housekeeping.

Others dont think mobile devices have made dramatic changes in Chinese customs to celebrate Spring Festival. Rather， they provide easier access and a larger platform for celebration of the occasion.

Positive or negative， no one can deny the fact that the mobile internet is a major factor in social services and social contact in modern China.

Smartphone Users

The smartphone serves as a primary access to the mobile internet in China due to its portability， privacy， interactivity， and individuation. In 2013， GroupM， a leading media investment management group in China， launched research and investigations on smartphone users. The results are intriguing： Mobile phones seem more important than significant others. Over 60 percent of users broke up via phone， over 60 percent preferred giving up a month of sex over a week of their phones， and 95 percent of Chinese users received information from their phones within an hour before going to sleep.

Statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center show that mobile phone users in China numbered 420 million in 2012， more than computer users and leading all internet access devices.

Consequently， increasing numbers of“phonies” can hardly live without a phone. Whats more， mobile devices are becoming necessary tools to navigate daily life， with applications serving transportation， banking， recreation， and shopping. Most people always have their phones at hand， even in the bathroom. “Anywhere， anytime” seems to be the spirit of mobile devices. Such behavior has inspired the saying， “The farthest distance in the world is not between life and death but in the message you send me when we sit face-to-face.”

Mobile Life

Ning Jing is jolted awake at 7：00 a.m. sharp by her mobile phone alarm. Shes on a business trip， so she checks the local weather forecast with one app. By 7：30， shes browsing news on another while having breakfast. Then， she taps yet another to call a cab to take her to meet her client.

Hitting the morning rush hour head on， Ning locates a shortcut with GPS mapping and manages to avoid the worst traffic jams because theyre displayed in real time on her phone. In the afternoon， she attends a teleconference and gives a presentation seen by hundreds around the world via Skype on her iPad. Later， she meets her colleagues for dinner and cashes in online discount coupons.

The mobile phone has become an icon of the era.

From the invention of the wheel to the microprocessor， science and technology have been dramatically changing human civilization. The trend has reached an exponential curve in the 21st Century as the world becomes smaller and closer due to globalization and the mobile internet.

Today， usage of the mobile internet has completely surpassed the PC-based web in volume of users， usage time and even total devices.

People are debating about the growing human dependence on mobile devices.“The advent of the mobile phone does not mark a great disaster； it is an inevitable outcome of social development and the scientific and technological progress，” asserts Ma Guanghai， professor from the Philosophy and Social Development Academy under Shandong University. “It is still early to judge the specific changes it is making in China.”