There was a good (not on-line) FT article on this topic yesterday. It suggested the following:All these aspects of the Chinese on-line beast are interesting and probably deserve analysis and extrapolation - but what first struck me is that Chinese users don't like to type - this tied in with essay I read recently of English as the lingua franca of the world and how this is unlikely to change given the humble charms, natural utility and pliant ease of the language which allows users both sophisticated and simple from diverse cultures to access it with great effect - whereas something like the Chinese language is so arcane and convoluted and needlessly complex that it was virtually nothing but a clumsy tool for the average citizen that overtly signified status and class until being simplified - imagine a language that needs to be officially simplified by a bureaucracy so that the average citizen can make somewhat coherent use of it! - but apparently not simplified enough to allow for adaptation to something as uncomplicated as QWERTY [this amounts to Western arrogance, no? Possibly - still in essence true though - or true enough?].
1. Chinese tend to "roam the web like a huge playground," whereas Americans and Europeans use it more as a giant library.
2. Chinese users are more likely to use the web for entertainment and less for business, relative to Europeans.
3. Chinese users are younger and less educated.
4. Chinese users don't like to type ("Typing is a pain in Chinese") and thus they use the mouse much more for navigation.
5. "Most portals have reacted by filling their pages with hundreds of colourful links competing for attention -- creating a cluttered and disorderly view to the western eye but making life easier for Chinese users."
Also ties in with a photo essay I saw that profiled a rebellious underground youth music scene in Beijing that was basically recreating the British punk movement of the 70's [yet more Chinese usurpation?] - but what struck me was how the posters advertising these concerts were of course written in Chinese but the names of the bands were all written in English.
Causes me to wonder if in the coming war between China and America, whether it be virtual or real, cold or hot, if what decides it in the end may oddly turn out to be language and all the dynamics and bonds and attributes implied, signified, imported, franchised and sanctioned thereof. [might do well to remember the context in which lingua franca flourished, ie the decline of Rome [meaning what exactly? since we assume America is Rome here] - and how the nature of the Chinese language may or obviously does serve the ends of an authoritarian regime]
