The reliance on the internet is astonishing here. I know I would find extremely difficult to not go online, as most Americans would too, but for the most part, our hobbies and social lives don’t exist in the virtual realm. For my Chinese workers, their life exists on the internet… one thing especially funny is their obsession with Happy Farm.
Anecdote 1: Xiao Xu is married, and his pregnant wife is in the hospital. He says now that she isn’t home, he’ll go eat fast food and then play computer games the rest of the night. The other coworkers then joked the only difference with her gone was that he no longer ate homemade meals. But apparently they were only half joking. He said today that a normal day for him is to go home, eat dinner with his wife, and then each of them go watch tv or go online until bedtime. Perhaps this is a normal working couple routine, when both people are too tired to do much else, but I start to wonder when a 29 year old man plays WoW or Happy Farm every night instead of hanging out with his wife.
Anecdote 2: During the Suzhou trip, Xiao Hong suddenly exclaimed “Oh no, I forgot!” and hastily pulled out her cell phone to call her husband. I thought she forgot something urgent, but no…she told him she wouldn’t get back until late and asked if he could sign on to her Happy Farm account to collect her vegetables. A 27 year old woman collecting virtual vegetables to sell in her virtual restaurant to cute animated people to make virtual money…to buy more vegetables. When I asked the office what the fuss about it was, they told me it was like Americans with Facebook. Oh and that it’s not just collecting vegetables, you can buy pets and upgrade your restaurant so more customers come!
I don’t know. I haven’t seen this kind of phenomenon in America, where every demographic of the population is obsessed with a game—especially one that looks like it’s meant for elementary school children. I know that sounds really disparaging, but seriously—it’s a brightly colored flash game, with cute animations, simple concept, no real brainpower needed.
Why do Chinese people need Happy Farm? Clearly, it’s all about escapism. The Happy Farm game actually reminds me of Neopets, this cute online game everyone plays when they are 11. Looking back on those days, the best aspect of the game was you had complete control. For an 11 year old, it’s liberating to make all these incredibly important decisions, such as what to feed your pet or what price items in your shop. I think Happy Farm works the same way for Chinese people. After a mind-numbing day at work/school where they are told what to do or force-fed information, it gives them a chance to make money, to make their own decisions (buy a white puppy or new curtains?), and to make friends. The main website is a huge networking website like Facebook, but actually has a lot of functions that work well.
But I think the craze may also be due to a rather juvenile collective mindset. There isn’t a very high level of sophistication in terms of clothes, food, and activities (middle-aged women often dress nauseatingly “fashionably” with ruffles, rhinestones, fur, and stiletto leather boots—all in one outfit.) So Happy Farm is appealing because Chinese people aren’t used to anything more advanced. Sometimes what we need is a brainless, fun game to decompress after a tiring day, but I believe in age-appropriateness for everything.
I sometimes help the interior designers do some sketches for the client.
Magnolias are the city flower. For about four days, there were gorgeous white and pink magnolias all over the city, but they're gone now.
Strongbow! It was 25 kuai at City Shop, an overpriced foreign goods store. But if I were rich, I'd shop there too.
On the bus to work today, I saw this great example of worker safety in China.
