Why We Can’t #DeleteWeChat

Family/relatives Groups

Personally, I am currently in three family-related Groups: one consisting of my parents and I, and two for relatives on my mom and dad’s sides respectively. The latter two both contain members across three generations – thanks to elderly-friendly smartphones, my grandparents have turned into devoted WeChat users, obsessively sharing articles and photos in our family Group every day.

My relatives are dispersed in many different cities and countries, and our family groups have done a terrific job in gathering everyone together in an intimate manner that we never felt during the pre-WeChat era. An extra bonus? Endless red packets during festival seasons! (My 82-year-old grandfather once lovingly complained that he was on the brink of going bankrupted because of Red Packets – “WeChat is making me broke!”)

Advanced Red Envelope Techniques

Article Feb 14, 2018

Work-related Groups:

As long as you are working in China or with Chinese people, chances are you are in at least one work Group on WeChat. They are the ones that you can’t mute (a considerate function of WeChat, which allows users to mute some of the chats and eliminate pop-up notifications), can’t delete, and in most cases have to purposely hang to sticky status (again, another very considerate in-app function). They destroy your weekends, break your work-life boundaries, and make holidays utopian. Unless you have the guts to declare WeChat-disappearance from your boss, you can expect endless in-group “@” that reminds you of your never-ending workloads anytime, anywhere.

Rants aside, we have to admit Groups really do a superb job in boosting productivity and, more importantly, cultivating interpersonal connections. You might have never met some of the group members you are working on a certain project with, but by adding them as your personal WeChat contacts, you are instantaneously granted entry into a more private dynamic of their lives with the potential to foster personal connections. Doing business in China is all about relationships, and Groups, under the name of work, is the best place to start your relationship-cultivation.

Old classmates/friends/social organization Groups:

I know we are tossing a lot of things together under this category, but really, what we mean is the kind of Groups that you feel you socially belong to yet are not really bothered to engaged with on a regular basis. Most of these Groups are large in size (at least 20 people) and can be filled with members you are not exactly familiar with. Still, by putting them on mute and only checking occasionally, you get to keep up with occasional gossip, or even catch some red packets from random acquaintances.

Red packets in action

But not of all these Groups are “boring” or “useless”. When we asked our Chinese friends what their most-treasured WeChat Groups are, someone showed us a “Sticker-battling” (斗图) Group, where members constantly bash each other with self-made stickers and communicate through these creative visual expressions. From stickers of Peppa Pig and Gavin Thomas to Jiang Zemin, Groups like this one have acted as incubators for endless internet memes, providing young Chinese with a new language and space for entertainment.

Peppa Pigs, Thomas Gavin and Jiang Zemin – China’s hot Sticker Stars, being circulated all around WeChat

Since 2016, WeChat has gradually taken a stricter approach over the management of WeChat Groups. In addition to restricting the maximum Group members to 500, it has also reinforced the role of group “host” (群主), a specific individual that is legally responsible for all the in-group speeches and activities. Such policies are WeChat’s way of negotiating between the government and its users (now over a billion of us!): ever since WeChat launched in 2011, Chinese users have been utilizing Groups to run everything in the grey area, from pyramid-selling and gambling, to the sharing of porn and “incorrect political information”.

WeChat Groups for illegal loans (left) and porn (right)

As the old Chinese saying goes, “when the top has plans, the bottom always has counter-plans” (上有政策，下有对策). Despite tougher regulations, many Chinese today are still using WeChat Groups to leverage business interests, express political views or discuss social issues. “Some of my friends will send out ‘dangerous’ news in our group, wait for 2 minutes, then withdraw it in a flash,” says a friend we interviewed. “It is a useful and perhaps the last resort for us to see the other side of the story without getting everyone into trouble.”

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