Original post by Jakin Lam on October 15, 2017
Have you ever wonder about the number of apps that you need to use in a day. Are you using an app for every task you need to complete? If you have ten different tasks to complete do you need to go through ten different apps in order to get everything done?
Since working in China as an educator from 2010, I have seen the transformation of the Internet and use of social media in the last seven years within the boundary of China’s “Great Firewall”. As China is becoming ever more protective of what citizens can access on the Internet, the more homegrown tech companies have flourish. WeChat is one of the example where it has become successful due to government access restrictions to the western counterpart like Facebook and Google. With WeChat being around for as long as I have been working in China, it has grown from a simple instant messaging app to a complex culture that emcompasses all aspects of life including education. Through my personal and professional development as an educator and technology integrator, I will analyse WeChat features and its emerging educational facet that is highly prized by tecg giants like Apple, Google and Facebook
I have employed the use of a photo journalism style (there are both photos and videos) to introduce WeChat and provide insight to this culture that have exploded in a short period of time. I am also inviting everyone to create a WeChat account (if you do not already have one) to experience first hand this massive culture with over 900 million users that powers China every day.
To access the photo album you can follow this link to Google Photo. Click on the first photo to begin. Click on the comment speech bubble at the bottom to read the caption/content for each photo. Do not use the slideshow feature as you’ll not be able to read the content. Swipe right or click > to go to the next photo/video. Feel free to add any comments but it will ask you to login to Google first.
References
Brennan, M. (2017, April 25). 2017 WeChat User Report Is Out! – China Channel. Retrieved October 4, 2017, from https://chinachannel.co/1017-wechat-report-users/
Fang, B. (2016, November 03). How WeChat Is Reshaping Online Education. Retrieved October 3, 2017, from http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1502/how-wechat-is-reshaping-online-education
Gao, C., & Wang, J. (2017). Mobile Teaching of Digital Mapping Based on the WeChat Official Account Admin Platform. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 12(07), 56-67.
Jing, M. (2017, April 25). WeChat is top workplace communications app for 90 per cent of Chinese professionals. South China Morning Post. Retrieved October 9, 2017, from http://www.scmp.com/tech/apps-gaming/article/2090472/wechat-top-workplace-communications-app-90-cent-chinese
Shi, Z., & Luo, G. (2016). Application of WeChat Teaching Platform in Interactive Translation Teaching. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 11(09), 71-75.
Wang, Y., Fang, W. C., Han, J., & Chen, N. S. (2016). Exploring the affordances of WeChat for facilitating teaching, social and cognitive presence in semi-synchronous language exchange. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 32(4).
WeChat’s world; china’s mobile internet. (2016, Aug 06). The Economist, 420, 52. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/1810528556?accountid=14656
To follow up to my last post about Hong Kong Tech: This post about the Chinese social media giant WeChat seemed so appropriate. While China has famously constructed the “Great Firewall,” They have simultaneously developed a supplemental platform called WeChat which is monitored by the communist party. This post does a fantastic job of documenting the capabilities of the platform, but understandably leaves out the negative elements (I believe that the author was writing within China). The platform itself was developed as a way of bypassing the Great Firewall and providing citizens with a social media outlet which can be monitored by the government. This prohibits free thought and speech for citizens.
The platform which IS used in other parts of the world, is even used to silence Americans who speak about the Chinese governemtn. See this article which explains how Americans were banned for speaking about the elections in Hong Kong last November: https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/25/20976964/chinese-americans-censorship-wechat-hong-kong-elections-tiktok
While the app itself is impressive, it is important to not forget what it represents: Censorship.