The Battle’s Frontline – China’s Internet Cafés

The Battle’s Frontline – China’s Internet Cafés
Feb 13, 2009 By Fred Dintenfass , eChinacities.com

The stats on internet use – be it by phone or computer – in China are dizzying. Chinese have taken to the net in droves and more are on the way. There are an estimated 25-100+ million Chinese blogs, and the role of the internet in the public and political sphere continues to expand.

The new figures on mobile internet users in China have raised an important issue – Chinese don’t own personal computers in nearly the numbers that westerners do. So where is all this internet using taking place?

If you’re in China it’s all around you – on phone handsets on the subway and in the endless internet cafes (网吧 | wǎngbā) or ‘bars’ that are burrowed into the alleys and neighborhoods of all Chinese cities. If you go down the rabbit hole - into a roomful of glowing monitors, you’ll see rows of Chinese basking in a wash of neon light clicking away madly at computer games or MSN, talking into webcams or just sitting back and watching movies with one of China’s many streaming movie services.

If you want to use a computer yourself you’re going to need to register with some form of official ID – like a passport. While there won’t be any liquor served, the rules and regulations the government imposes on Chinese internet cafés are indeed similar to bars – under laws that went into effect in 2002 internet café’s must be over 200 yards from a school and they card at the door. If you’re under 18 you’ll need to convince the owner it’s worth the fine they’ll get if a police sweep catches you there. If you’re under 18 you got the gaokao to study for.

In 2005, the number of cafes was cut nationwide from 200,000 to about half of that. China routinely struggles with the internet – witness the current anti-porn campaign – and the definition of illegal activities is often wider than one might expect.

China, more than any other country, has made public steps to raise awareness and treatment of internet addiction. Every internet café keyboard will have several blank keys – what used to be the a, s, d, etc. have been worn away by frantic pawing by sweaty gaming fingers. In September 2007, a 30 year old man died in a café after a 3 day nonstop gaming binge.

Like everything else in China, with big numbers comes big business. Last year, a New York Times article exposed ‘gold farming’ - a new billion dollar industry in which Chinese gamers work 12 hour shifts collecting computer game points which are then sold to other gamers. While the government is worried about the political power of the internet – witness such recent scandals like Cigarettegate or the biggest internet slang of 2008 – computer companies are loving it.


Image from Ge Jin’s documentary on gold farming by

The government may be moving to shift café ownership into the hands of a group of larger companies – most cafes have at least 20 computers, some have several hundred. In a country where individual computer sales are unusually low the 110,000 legal internet cafes(and perhaps an equal number of illegal ones)are too big a market to either squash or ignore.

With a HK billionaire whose name sounds like cash register being rung - Li Ka-shing – Intel plans to open “i-Café Music Studios” that will enable Chinese musicians to use the cafes to publish their music.

In the past few years the clashes between government ‘morality’ and technological progress have been increasingly interesting. The Chinese government wishes to aggressively modernize its already up-to-date technological infrastructure –launching 3G cell phone networks and installing WiFi in city centers – while limiting usage of the new technologies by citizens.

It’s a battle being fought by virtual gold farmers, underage kids watching a streaming version of American Pie 6, addicts unwilling to stop gaming even to eat or sleep, and blogger-activists flirting with house arrest on one side; and government bodies struggling to adapt to the breakneck pace of technological progress and an increasingly less linear world on the other. The war is being fought in over 110,000 rooms saturated with flickering LED glare, the clacking of keys and muted whirr of fans, ripe with excitement and yesterday’s sweat - China’s internet cafés.
 

Related Links
Shanghai Internet Bargate: Couple Gets Nasty in Public
The People's Republic vs. Porn

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1 Comments

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ShenzhenGuy

The Chinese are just like the Koreans - they both love those computer games. Spending hours upon hours on games. I don't know how they do it. If I mention PS3 or XBox 360 they have no idea what I'm talking about. Totally different world over here. lol

Sep 05, 2011 03:04 Report Abuse