Chinese Culture & Business Etiquettes

WeChat: An Overview

China is a nation in East Asia and is the second largest state in the world by land area. I have been staying in China for my graduation and masters course. during my stay, I have encountered certain issues which are of utmost importance and cannot be overlooked and tell about the state of China.

In this assignment, I have discussed WeChat, an application which is widely used in China for entertainment purpose, official and business purpose and for making digital payments without requiring to keep up with cash thus eliminating risk factors related to cash.

The next thing which I have discussed in detail about China is problems related to unsafe tap water in China which is not suitable for drinking purpose and its alarming impact on the health of people.

Pollution in China is a peculiar aspect which has been discussed as pollution of all forms is increasing in China and utmost care must be taken to resolve issues relating to the same.

I have been putting up in China for the purpose of my master’s course. During my stay, I came across various experiences which I am adverting below.

WeChat is an application developed by Tencent and released in January 2011. It is supported by iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry and Symbian phones. It is a free instant messaging application which has over billions of accounts by the active users of the application (Lihong, 2013). The user is required to install the application on a mobile phone device supporting its authentication. WeChat is user-friendly and offers features like voice messaging through hold-to-talk, messaging through texts, broadcasting of messages, sharing the location of the users, photos and video sharing and video conferencing. It also supports an exchange of contacts with people in the range of Bluetooth. It also provides the feature of machine translation and embellishment of photos using captions and various filters (Longlong & Xiaoju, 2013).

The user is required to register as an official user of the account by serving requisite details and information and interaction with subscribers is enabled through the same. WeChat accounts are bifurcated into three major classes; subscription account, service account and enterprise account. The users are required to choose the type of account they wish to operate as once chosen they cannot switch to another type of account (Ying, 2013).

I have been using WeChat for sharing music, posting articles, images and texts and for liking and commenting on the Moments. Privacy is a significant aspect in WeChat where from the contacts of the user only the friends are able to view the comments and moments. Syncing of activities of WeChat with Twitter and Facebook is my favorite feature which saves a lot of time when I wish to post the same information on various platforms at once (Jin et al., 2015).

WeChat is widely used in China by the stores as well and the users who have provided information of their bank account can also make payments by using WeChat (Wu & Wan, 2014). Also, for corporate purpose and enhancement of business communication, a special version of WeChat was launched in April 2016 where the application helped employees in separating private life from work life. For the companies, it enables in keeping a track of the expenses to be reimbursed, annual leaves and for tracking reporting time of the employees. Companies are required to register before the services are put to use by the employees (Lien & Cao, 2013).

Unsafe Tap Water in China

I have been using WeChat Pay which is a digital wallet and assists transfer of funds between contacts and making payments. The balance in the WeChat Payment account can be acquired by receiving money from other users or by linking it to the debit card.

During my stay in China, I also used the feature introduced by WeChat in 2014, for distribution of gifts as virtual envelopes among the members of the family and to the contacts, including the groups where money is distributed among the members of the group in equal proportions.

WeChat has received mixed reviews. Privacy issues started facing challenges where various cases were accounted for. Hu Jia, Human Rights activist was sentenced to imprisonment for sedition. Allegations were put that the security bureau traced his voicemail messages. The application has been claimed to threaten individual safety as well as the criminals are able to trace the location of the victims whereas, the supporters of the application assert that WeChat is absolutely safe as people will add only acquaintances and knowns to the groups and their contact lists (Zeng et al., 2013).

QR codes were successful in china but it drastically failed in the western market including UK and many other countries. In china it is so much important that most of the brands do not market without them. If comparison is made between china and uk than in china it has approximately more than 600 million monthly users and in uk there are very less numbers. QR code was a failure in UK because there was no mobile landing pages and many of the brands did not accept it. Another drawback of QR codes in UK was that the codes were poorly placed. These reasons make QR codes successful in china rather in UK.

Water is a vital element essential for supporting life and its drinking requirement varies from person to person. Potable water or drinking water is defined as water which is safe for the purpose of preparing food and for drinking purpose without menacing health. Unsafe drinking water is contaminated water which leads to health issues and other severe ailments (Ahmed & Haboubi, 2010). China contains only 7% of world’s fresh water which can only sustain 20% of its population. It is very less amount of water which would be required for the population of Chinese people.

Initially, when I moved to China, I drank tap water and fell sick with severe diarrhea. Then I got to know it was due to the undrinkable and unsafe drinking water that I had consumed. Then I started analyzing the quality of tap water and I got to know that huge quantum of chlorine is used for purifying water and removing pollutants from the industrial wastes but these bacteria re- enter water due to a poor piping system. Then I studied the quantum of chlorine required to purify swimming pools and I was taken aback to learn that the tap water in China contains chlorine more than what is recommended for the swimming pools. This excessive chlorine can lead to skin diseases, cancer, and asthma. This report is made on the basis of my own exerpince in china. I observed that water in china is far more polluted than other countries in this world. Therefore, one should be careful before drinking water in china.

Pollution in China

Tap water in China is considered unsafe for drinking before it has been put to boiling and is marked undrinkable otherwise. The tap water is not purified and carries contaminants like bacteria, chlorine, virus, sediments, rusts and heavy metals and can lead to gastrointestinal issues and other severe problems (Zhang et al., 2011). Nearly 2.5 million residents in West China were given strict orders to not drink tap water as it was found to be contaminated with carcinogenic substance hazardous to health. Benzene was reported to be twenty times the acceptable limit in the samples which can lead to leukemia and lymphoma. It can also cause irritation in the stomach, problems of the heart, insomnia, and dizziness (Ebenstein, 2012).

There are arrays of tips that can make undrinkable tap water drinkable. Barrels are easier and cheaper options available for families and it are recommended that the water must be used within a week for prevention of growth of bacteria. Another option is bottled mineral water which is expensive compared to barrels and it must be seen that the seal is intact and does not tamper. Another option which I found feasible to make the tap water drinkable is to boil water at 160-degree centigrade for two hours to remove bacteria completely.

According to Bear & Verruijt (2012), pollution refers to the presence of harmful or hazardous substances in the environment that have an adverse effect on the health of individuals and for other living beings and their surroundings. The environment in China is reported to be severely degraded. This pollution has put negative impact on the people living in china.

Industrial pollution is growing rapidly in China which is a major cause of premature deaths and serious respiratory ailments. With rapid advancements in technology and growth of industries, wastes have started to accumulate in increased quantities which are not even treated properly and are not suitable to be disposed of in the environment. I read an article which mentioned that industrial pollution is the major cause of cancer in China and is leading to increasing in a number of deaths every year. Another article stated that pollution caused by lead is leading cause of deaths in the form of local pollution. After analyzing this article it was given that all tap water and other chemical water have shown negative impact on the people living in china (Ma, 2010).

Water resources in China are reported to be affected severely by pollution and shortages. Industrial waste is dumped into oceans and rivers without treating them properly. This waste, in turn, is killing marine life and deteriorating quality of water thus making it unfit for use and consumption. Therefore, it could be inferred that each and every people in china should be drinking only portable water (Zhang et al., 2010).

Air pollution is a critical issue in China. Particulate matter is generated from coal combustion which causes bronchitis, asthma and other respiratory ailments. It can also lead to death when the condition is aggravated. I read an article in the Telegraph which mentioned a case of an 8-year-old girl suffering from lung cancer and the cause reported by the doctors was air pollution, especially from vehicles. In 2013, four-color alert system was launched by Beijing for keeping a check on air quality index (AQI) which is used for determining how polluted or clean the air is. In 2016, this color alert system was revised (Matus et al., 2012). There we have shown how color alert will be helpful in mitigating population problems in today’s world

AQI	Description
101-150	Mild pollution
151-200	Moderate pollution
201-300	Heavy pollution
301-500	Hazardous

Color	State
Blue	“Heavy pollution” in the next 24 hours
Yellow	“Hazardous” in next 24 hours or “heavy pollution” for next three consecutive days
Orange	Alternate “heavy pollution” or “hazardous” for next three consecutive days
Red	Average of “heavy pollution” for four consecutive days, “hazardous” for two consecutive days or average AQI over 500 for one day.

Electronic gadgets, technologies, and their use are increasing at a great pace. China produces the huge amount of electronic wastes which is increasing day by day. Also a huge amount of electronic waste is imported from overseas. Handling electronic wastes properly and treating them in a manner that it does not harm the environment is quite important. Sustainable development is also possible only when the needs are taken care of and resources are put to judicious use (Chi et al., 2011).

Soil pollution in China has reduced to a great extent due to growing population. At the same time, it is seen as a benefit for promoting sustainable agriculture, the safety of food and for the environment (Li et al., 2014).

Waste production in China is reported to decrease and it is becoming a nation which is chirking up other countries for developing systems to reduce wastes. In 2008, a ban came into effect which prohibited shops, departmental stores, and supermarkets from using plastic bags. This has shown all the environemetnal effects in easy and determined approch.

Conclusion

In the given assignment I have discussed various put outs related to China and experiences during my stay in China. I have developed a base for understanding WeChat which is quite popular and is widely used in China by individuals, corporates, and businesses. I have accentuated on the features offered by WeChat and its benefits in the present world. The next I have discussed the state of tap water in China which is not at all suitable for drinking and measures for its purification and making it fit for drinking purpose. Then I have thrown some light pollution and its variants in China and how it has been affecting China.

References

Ahmed, T. and Haboubi, N., (2010), “Assessment and management of nutrition in older people and its importance to health”, Clin Interv Aging, 5(1), pp.207-16.

An, W., Zhang, D., Xiao, S., Yu, J. and Yang, M., (2011), “Quantitative health risk assessment of Cryptosporidium in rivers of southern China based on continuous monitoring”, Environmental science & technology, 45(11), pp.4951-4958.

Bear, J. and Verruijt, A., (2012), “Modeling groundwater flow and pollution (Vol. 2)”, Springer Science & Business Media.

Chi, X., Streicher-Porte, M., Wang, M.Y. and Reuter, M.A., (2011), “Informal electronic waste recycling: a sector review with special focus on China”,Waste Management, 31(4), pp.731-742.

Ebenstein, A., (2012), “The consequences of industrialization: evidence from water pollution and digestive cancers in China”, Review of Economics and Statistics, 94(1), pp.186-201.

Jin, H., Park, S.T. and Li, G., (2015), “Factors influencing customer participation in mobile SNS: Focusing on Wechat in China”, Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 8(26).

Li, Z., Ma, Z., van der Kuijp, T.J., Yuan, Z. and Huang, L., (2014), “A review of soil heavy metal pollution from mines in China: pollution and health risk assessment”, Science of the Total Environment, 468, pp.843-853.

Lien, C.H. and Cao, Y., (2014), “Examining WeChat users’ motivations, trust, attitudes, and positive word-of-mouth: Evidence from China”, Computers in Human Behavior, 41, pp.104-111.

Lihong, X.J.H., (2013), “Research on Information Service Mode of the Library Based on WECHAT [J]”, Journal of Modern Information, 6, p.013.

Longlong, W. and Xiaoju, Y., (2013), “A research on the services of university mobile library based on the weChat public platform [j]”, Research on Library Science, 18(13), pp.57-61.

Ma, C., (2010), “Who bears the environmental burden in China—An analysis of the distribution of industrial pollution sources?”, Ecological Economics, 69(9), pp.1869-1876.

Matus, K., Nam, K.M., Selin, N.E., Lamsal, L.N., Reilly, J.M. and Paltsev, S., (2012), “Health damages from air pollution in China”, Global environmental change, 22(1), pp.55-66.

Wu, J. and Wan, Q., (2014), “From WeChat to we Fight: Tencent and China Mobile’s Dilemma”, In PACIS (p. 265).

Ying, C., (2013), “A Research on the Application of WeChat Public Platform in Library Mobile Services [J]”, Research on Library Science, 20, p.015.

Zeng, Z., Hu, X. and Mei, S., (2013), “Factors affecting a mobile application’s acceptance: An empirical study of user acceptance of WeChat in China”.

Zhang, J., Mauzerall, D.L., Zhu, T., Liang, S., Ezzati, M. and Remais, J.V., (2010), “Environmental health in China: progress towards clean air and safe water”, The lancet, 375(9720), pp.1110-1119.