Convenience first

Despite the modern conveniences, personal visits at Spring Festival are still the most ceremonial, but those who keep to this tradition are mostly seniors in their 60s and 70s.

Song Jianxin, who is in his 70s and lives in the west of Beijing, has visited former colleagues and friends during every Spring Festival as far back as he can remember. "As long as I am healthy enough to make a personal visit, I will persist in this tradition," Song told ChinAfrica. "It is a chance to visit former colleagues and friends. We were close when living in the dorm-styled apartment buildings. Housing conditions do have improved nowadays, but we are far away from each other. Making a personal visit shows intimacy," Song added.

Making New Year greetings by phone is preferred by middle-aged persons in their 50s and 60s. "Between ordinary friends, there is no need to give a personal visit. Even for those intimate friends, they may not be at home when we visit them," said Zheng Li, a 56-year-old retiree. Zheng traveled to the Philippines with her children this past Spring Festival. "Like me, people tend to go traveling during holidays. Also, I don't know how to send text messages. A phone call is the most convenient way for me to make greetings." 

With the rapid development of Internet and a netizen count of 457 million, many people have began to send their best wishes by instant messenger systems, like QQ and MSN. Online voice and video chat has also provided another convenient avenue for Spring Festival, especially for those who work and study abroad.

Zhang Xiaolei from Luohu District in Shenzhen had a special Spring Festival this year. Her husband, Kang Xinlong, was sent to work in Ethiopia and couldn't return home to reunite with his family. But she received a special gift during the festival. Using the online audio conferencing service provided by Skype made it possible for the family to greet each other. "It is a special New Year. Although my husband is thousands of miles away, he joined us to celebrate the festive occasion thanks to the web phone," she said.

Sending greetings by microblog was the most fashionable way of making a Spring Festival courtesy call in 2011. It is also low-carbon. "There are lots of advantages to sending New Year greetings on a microblog. For example, it is fashionable, money-saving, low-carbon and environment-friendly," Liu Hongqin, a student from Shenzhen University, told ChinAfrica. Sending New Year greetings on microblogs was the preferred choice among all Liu's classmates. "We used to express our greetings by sending text messages. There are so many people to greet. And during the festival time, there are message jams. We also have to pay for the messages. This year, we changed to use microblogs and it is liked by all of us," said Liu. By February 2011, the number of microbloggers in China had reached 200 million.

From personal visits, to sending postcards, telegrams, making phone calls, paging by beeper, and sending e-mails, text messages, and now microblogging, each step in the communication evolution reflects the changes in society. The common thread that runs through this evolution is the tradition of uniting at the most important holiday of the year and that is something that will remain an entrenched part of Chinese tradition.