12/19/2023 0 Comments Changer langue wechat china![]() ![]() Is writing more oriented towards written or oral language? Are elements of Internet language, such as typical abbreviations, but also emojis, used, and which functions can be assigned to them? Is attention paid to language correctness? Are automated translations of texts used within WeChat? Are there code switching phenomena, and if so, how do they work? In which languages other than German (especially Chinese and English, but also others) is WeChat used for communication in chats, voice messages, etc.? Which communicative features of WeChat are used, and how often? Which applications are used besides WeChat? ![]() What are the habits of using WeChat by the German-speaking expatriate community in China? The paper sets out to answer the following research questions: 30,000 German speakers living and working in China, one of the larger groups of foreigners in the Middle Kingdom. It is rather on how exactly expatriates, who come to China for a (for the most part) limited amount of time, use the application, and to learn more about communication practices in terms of possibly describable patterns. The question is not so much whether foreigners in China use WeChat – they practically cannot live without it in their everyday lives. This is the backdrop the focus of the present paper is molded on. Although its WeChat Pay, in particular, has expanded to countries like Japan, the platform’s overall attraction and usage to non-Chinese speakers awaits further evidence. By now, WeChat’s overseas reach is largely confined to the Chinese diaspora. He content and uses of WeChat stay decisively Chinese. Chen/Mao/Qiu note that WeChat’s reach beyond its initial target group needs yet to be verified: WeChat’s user interface is available in multiple languages, which makes it accessible as a tool for expatriates to support them in all of their endeavors in China, regardless whether professional or private. This makes it also useful also to those new to China, arriving and being unfamiliar with its (digital) culture and possibilities. The ever-growing number (literally hundreds of thousands) of so-called micro-apps (apps within the WeChat app, see below) makes WeChat the focal place for everyone based in China to go about one’s online business. ![]() It is widely considered a very influential platform: “If future events take place that fundamentally change China, then there is still a fair chance they may occur on the super-sticky platform of WeChat.” (Chen/Mao/ Qiu 2018: 101) In practice, one could for the most part regard it as the Chinese internet, since most users won’t ever need to leave the app, regardless of what their online business might be (cf. Used by more than one billion people, it combines the functionalities of WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many more apps used separately in other (mainly Western) cultures. Designed as an “all-in-one mobile application” (Zhou/Hentschel/Kumar 2017: 3), it quickly evolved into the most far-reaching, dominating application on the Chinese internet. The messaging application WeChat (微信, Wēixìn, ‘micro message’) was introduced by the Tencent corporation (腾讯, Téngxùn) in 2011. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |