网吧

The ubiquity of the 网吧 (wang ba - literally internet bar in Chinese) is fascinating to say the least. The vast majority of them are open 24/7 and have deals with local restaurants to bring food to hungry internet users. I remember in Latin America there was nothing as sophisticated as I've seen here. The internet culture in Chile was limited to online photo blogs, chatting on MSN, and occasionally listening to music. Here in China, people often do all three simultaneously while playing games or watching movies. What's more, the male-female ratio seems to be about 50/50.

There seems to be stiff competition for internet users here at the XiHua campus and around Nanchong city as well. The prices are usually 2 yuan - 2.5 yuan (~$.25) an hour during non-peak hours and 3 yuan during peak times. Compared to Chile which was usually 600 pesos (~$1.25) an hour and comparatively had much more poorly maintained facilities and equipment. There are a total of 13 internet bars on the new campus alone, with countless ones downtown. It would be safe to say that there is at least one or two on each block.

Here in China, people treat coming to the internet bar as a hobby and many do it quite seriously, often spending upwards of seven or eight hours on the weekends. I was once kicked out of an internet bar because I wasn't going to pay a fee to stay for eight hours from the period of 12 AM - 8 AM.

Because the Chinese alphabet (if we could call it that) includes upwards of six thousand characters, computer users type a word in pinyin, the Romanicized version of the Chinese character, and then choose the character from a list that match the pinyin. It's interesting to watch sometimes as most typists are highly skilled hunt-and-peckers. No one is taught how to use a keyboard as a middle school student from the United States might, perhaps because typing skills are so radically different. I haven't asked my students, but I suspect they were taught very early on how to read pinyin and typing naturally followed.

At around 7:00-8:00, every internet bar on campus is packed and there's a line of people waiting to snag an empty seat once it becomes available. Towards 9:00, the crowd starts thinning and by 10:00 it's nearly empty. The dorms close at 10:30 on the weekdays and 11:00 on the weekends and repeatedly coming in after hours could mean disciplinary action or even a fine.

The whole internet phenomenon is significant for a number of reasons. Modernity could be defined in a number of ways (literacy, healthcare, rich-poor gap), but with respect to the internet bar, the knowledge and ability to use a computer is invaluable. The Chinese internet population is around 86 million according to most sources and is now second in the world. Though we generally consider the US the center of internet activity (and in most accounts it is), it's only a matter of time before China becomes not only a major communication/IT hub, but the leader in the internet field.

More on this later.