An exploration of virtual experiences and environments in and about China.
If you’d like to be a tester for the new Chinese virtual world HiPiHi, and you speak Chinese or know someone who does and can help you, you’ll find an application form here. If you’re REALLY interested and can’t figure out how to fill out the form, why not try sending an email directly to: cookei_blfpw_two@yahoo.com.cn
Second Life has no Chinese port yet. Welcome to HipiHi, a China-produced and Chinese language version of Second Life.
There’s been some buzz about it over at Second Life Insider, and at various blogs in Virtual China: LaoBai has written a post about it, and a Chinese blogger who reports heavily on Second Life was hired by them just recently.
Screenshots and a demo clip (where you can watch the female commentator’s avatar change into a more provocative outfit as her first task, get it here) reveal a rather unoriginal take on Second Life, though their website claims that they will later provide Flash & cell phone interfaces to the virtual world.
They’re still in private beta right now, so there is time yet for them to define themselves as merely more than a "Chinese Second Life."
They’re hiring too, in Beijing, if you’re interested.
The desire to communicate across linguistic barriers is driving a lot of experimentation in the online world. While we wait for translation software to improve, people around the world are studying Chinese in order to get closer to the Chinese people, and Chinese are studying English. Virtual environments are starting to provide platforms for Chinese and others to learn from one another. Here are a few projects that point the way forward:
Found this on Youtube: a clip from Sky TV from the Internet addiction clinic in Beijing. It’s based in a military hospital and is run military-style–the kids even wear camouflage. I’ve tried to get an interview and a visit at the place but haven’t been able to yet. The part where they set them up with real-life shooting games instead of virtual ones is brilliant!
ChinaTechNews reports that Tencent has partnered with Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL to develop an Internet-enabled,
interactive TV with QQ-branded applications such as IM and games. It’s
called iTQQ. IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is moving ahead relatively quickly in Japan, South Korea, and especially in Hong Kong. It is already available to some Chinese urban residents via pilots such as the one that brought IPTV into the tiny one room apartment of a migrant worker family I interviewed in Shenzhen in 2006. No-one in the family had ever been online, nor did they have much of a sense of what that even meant (aside from a vague idea that their son would have to learn about it to get a job in the future). Nevertheless, they were learning to navigate an interactive screen via the familiar remote control and a new set-top box that had been installed in their apartment by their landlord, for which they were paying a monthly fee. It may be that for many ordinary urban Chinese, virtual China will be experienced in the coming decade not through the PC at home, work, or Internet cafe, not even through the phone–but through the ubiquitous television, so beloved by most Chinese families.
IPTVWorld.net has photos of the recent iTQQ demo at TCL’s Industrial Research Institute in Shenzhen: 
Intel’s Mobile in China blog posts details:
this
new iTQQ TV not only can play TV programs, but also can provide
interactive services for end users such as online game, photo album,
e-cards and instant messagers…aged people can now inquire the working status
of their children through the device even with no former internet
experiences. Furthermore, remote controller can be used to communicate
with the children to know whether and when they will come home for
dinner. Besides, with such an innovative TV set at hand with QQ IM
functions, the end users may share their favorite TV program with
friends instantly…Unlike traditional TV users need TV controller and
set-top-box controller at the same time to switch between two screen,
iTQQ TV users have seamless entertaining experiences with both TV
program and internet value-add service . very impressed !
Looks like the big news is that Sohu is no longer in the top 3 portals in China, but has been knocked out by Tencent. 55% of Chinese Internet users used Sina last year; 51% hit Netease; 48% used Tencent, according to the Internet Guide 2007 China Internet Survey Report (in Chinese), put out by the Data Center of the Chinese Internet. The rest of the top three rankings as follows:
blog sites: Sina 33%; Qzone 19%; MSN 16%
IM: QQ 79%; MSN 34%; Sina UC 11%
search: Baidu 81%; Google 36%; Yahoo 26%
car sites: Sina Auto 17%; Sohu Auto 12%; Pacific Auto 11%
games: QQ 37%; Lianqun/Ourgame 20%; Shanda 20%
podcast/video sharing: Toodou 10%; Yoqoo 9%; Mofile 9%
C2C auctions: Taobao 55%; eBay 37%; Paipai 20%
mapping services: Baidu 33%; China e-Map 中国电子地图网 19%; Go2Map 图行天下 11%
Link to Chinese BBS post (via TOPChinaLabs).
I found this via an attribution on Fons’ China Herald, and it looks like it will be worth visiting every now and then, especially if more people start contributing (that’s always the issue with these web 2.0 things, isn’t it?): Chinamemes describes itself as "a web 2.0 social news site with a focus on Chinese Internet and Technology companies." It looks like it was started recently, sometime around Dec. 20 or so, and has 20 "top users" currently contributing news stories and voting on those they consider most interesting, all good stuff…and they tagged a couple of Virtual China posts : )
Tencent, QQ.com’s parent company, is being sued by an angry user for impersonating a friend and getting him to link through to a contest site. Damages sought: 40,000 Q coins, and 445 5-digit QQ numbers (see previous post on the value of QQ numbers). Is this the first time that a court of law has been asked to award virtual currency in a settlement? It all points to the way that Q coins are increasingly being used as an alternative to the RMB for online economic transactions. It makes sense, given that a) so few Chinese have credit cards with which to pay for online goods and services; b) the vast majority DO have QQ accounts and Q coins with which to purchase online goods and services; and c) You can accumulate Q coins by playing online QQ games.
A 12/29 article in China’s International Finance News 国际金融报 reports that Tencent itself is suspected by some users of instigating Q coin robbery schemes. According to a QQ user quoted in the piece, "Nearly every QQ user has felt the pain of having their QQ number and QQ coins stolen." "Little Wang" had 3265.15 Q coins in his QQ account, earned from playing a QQ game. He was just about to buy a new suit of clothing for his QQ avatar, when he discovered his account only contained 265.15 Q coins. He contacted Tencent directly, but in the meantime was robbed again and left with ony 5.15 Q coins. The company told him that they wouldn’t do anything for him until he reported the theft to the police. Wang goes on to say that from what he’s seen in the QQ BBS forums on Q coin theft, other users have had the same experience as him–Tencent doesn’t do anything but offer tips on how to protect themselves from further theft, and doesn’t reimburse them.
Mr. Li, an unidentified "Chinese finance expert" goes on to say, "A lot of netizens are going online at home, with official-version anti-virus software installed. QQ numbers should be very difficult to steal. Some netizens suspect Tencent…Every Q coin exchange has a record. Every QQ account has an IP address associated with it. It should be easy to find out whether a Q coin has been stolen in order to be spent, so why won’t Tencent do it?…"
For background, Kent Ewing has written the most informative piece on QQ coin in English that I can find, in the Asia Times on December 5 (my apologies if this is really old news to some readers!). A few key excerpts:
Public prosecutor Yang Tao issued this warning: "The QQ coin is challenging the status of the renminbi [yuan] as the only legitimate currency in China." In an article published recently in the Nanfang Daily,the prosecutor wrote that the central government would act to "limit the application of QQ coins" and assure that their use is restricted to the virtual world.
…Tencent boasts more than 220 million users, and its QQ coins can be purchased with a bank, telephone or "QQ" card at an official price of 1 yuan (12.5 cents) per coin. Originally, the virtual coins were designed to pay for Tencent services such as electronic greeting cards, online games and anti-virus software. Now, however, they have reportedly developed into an alternative currency
traded on the black market and used for other, less savory services, such as online gambling and
private chats with "QQ girls".
…the operators of some Internet forums are now paid in QQ coins rather than the official currency. And there is evidence that other online sites not associated with Tencent also accept QQ coins.
If this is true, that’s what will tip the scale.
跑跑卡丁车 ("Kart Rider", or "Crazy Racing") is one of the most popular online games in China. It’s basically a variant on the Mario Kart formula, and comes from South Korea.
Here’s a Flash version of the game, which is sadly stripped down, but still fun as a casual game:
At Icebin’s blog, via PostShow.
(Space bar to jump, left and right arrow to navigate, and the car automatically accelerates.)
Lyn pointed me to a BusinessWeek interview of Anshe Chung. (She’s based in Germany.) Here’s an excerpt I found particularly interesting:
"What do you do on a typical day?
I usually get up very early in morning, then get in touch with the sales team to finish transactions they prepared. After this is done and information is passed on to the billing department, I have to deal with many quality-control issues with the development teams. Then I also get in touch with Guni (my husband), who is managing our development team, discuss projects and the market situation of the day. I also spend a little too much time with media."
And something that’s dear to many of our hearts:
"To what do you attribute your success?
One reason for my success here, I strongly believe, is that I am not only here for business. I am very deeply rooted in this world, like a real native person. Most people who just come here for money fail miserably. They are foreigners, act like foreigners, and lack deep understanding of this virtual country. Many of them are also lazybones who think you just need money to make more money. The truly successful people I know here all are deeply involved in life and society here too."
Also, I did some digging around on the Anshe Chung Studios website and found this:
ACS - Xian Reloaded QiPao - Design by June.
Update: check out the recent Q&A between Anshe and Stephen Hutcheon at the Sydney Morning Herald’s smh.com. Of particular interest is how her studio in China will evolve given her ambitious scope:
The teacher
who is flipping virtual land in her spare time is two- year-old
news. Together with my husband I have built a business with more
than 30 employees that not only offers realtor services, but
literally grows the Second Life world from within. Anshe Chung
Studios has become a full-scale development company that creates
new land, content, communities and experiences for both private and
corporate customers on virtual platform worlds 
Since
I like teaching, one of these favourites is hiring and training
more and more people to do amazing things with us. There is still
much to do in the Metaverse, that Second Life is such an exciting
part of. We have barely begun yet
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