Cultural Drivers Behind Mobile Usage in China
This study includes some interesting cultural observations about mobile usage in China. In recent years, the world’s fastest growing economy has exhibited a decidedly technological bias as urban conventions start to cascade into the rural areas as necessity.
In China, not answering your mobile telephone is considered rude, no matter where you are, whom you are with, the time of day or what activities you are engaged in. And voice mail does not exist. Despite this cultural imperative to be available anytime and anywhere, there is a simple work-around practiced by hundreds of millions of Chinese. Manually removing the telephone battery creates a message to in-coming callers that the telephone’s owner is out of range and thus unable to answer the phone. This regular subversion of the cultural imperative functions as an open secret, even playing a prominent role in a popular 2003 Chinese film called Shouji (”mobile telephone”).
…
Beginning in 1979 out of concern for overpopulation, the Chinese government instituted a one child policy that effectively transformed the composition of the typical family. A massive nation of single children has created unprecedented social effects, with family structures now described as “4-2-1″ referring to four grandparents, two parents, and one child. There has also been much discussion about whether these single children, nicknamed “little emperors”, are stressed from being the sole locus of family concern and aspiration, or spoiled from the attention and indulgence provided by six adults. Without a doubt, both forces shape this unprecedented generation of youth and young adults.With almost every Chinese person under the age of thirty having no siblings, the implications for communication technologies are clear. From the earliest age, Chinese kids seek peer companionship outside the nuclear family.
http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/china-and-the-next-billion-mobile-customers
