Young Chinese have a day of fun with strangers, then split
By The Straits Times China Bureau 06 November 2009
BEIJING: It is the latest craze among young people in China: Meet new people and share a day of fun together in an unfamiliar city.
Netizens call it shan wan, or literally, lightning play. If you are familiar with speed-dating, you get the idea. But unlike speed-dating, shan wan is about having a good time, not necessarily finding a potential mate.
The man behind it is Mr. Li Xu, a 25-year-old IT professional from the south-eastern Guangxi region whose work involves frequent travel. The idea came to him on a flight - in a flash.
In March, before leaving for an assignment in Guangzhou city, in neighbouring Guangdong province, Mr. Li posted online asking if anyone was interested in joining him.
A 23-year-old woman from Shantou, a city also in Guangdong, agreed to meet him and they spent a day sightseeing in Guangzhou. Then they went their separate ways.
Mr. Li’s ‘meet and split’ idea has proved so attractive because it is an ‘all fun, no obligation’ arrangement.
Thousands of young Chinese have joined online shan wan forums.
Shan wan groups are usually made up of two to six people, called shan you. They go Dutch on their outings, which pack in activities like sightseeing, eating, singing karaoke and shopping. The ‘players’ do not need to reveal their real names if they choose not to. And since they are meeting each other in a third city, their privacy is protected.
Some say they find the prospect of spending a day with strangers exciting - liberating even, because they can let their hair down.
But this phenomenon is worrying to some analysts, who say that making ‘fast friends’, like eating fast food, may not be good for individuals in the long-run. They warn that young people who prefer these meetings may not be able, or may not have the patience, to cultivate long-term friendships or relationships.
A survey of about 9,700 young people by China Youth Daily found that 53.3per cent would give shan wan a try. Their reasons were varied: ‘to relieve stress’, ‘to have a change of environment’, ‘to satisfy my curiosity’and simply because ‘it’s thrilling’.
Said a netizen who uses the moniker ‘ling’: ‘When I’m in a different city with a stranger, I feel less restrained. I can express that side of me that is usually hidden.’
To Mr. Li, ‘the destination is not important’.
‘All we are looking for, really, is a change of mood,’ he told The Straits Times in a phone interview.
Agreeing, Ms. Zheng Shufan, 23, an interpreter, told The Straits Times by phone from Shantou that she turned to shan wan to meet new friends, as she found daily life boring. She recently travelled to Shanghai to watch a rock concert with a girl from Nanjing, but they lost touch afterwards.
Said Professor Gao Bingzhong, a sociologist at Renmin University: ‘In real life, people you meet may have various motives for befriending you. Shan wan doesn’t come with those burdens. So it makes for a ‘purer’ kind of relationship.’
But such care-free socialising has its pitfalls. One netizen said her shan you ran off with her camera and she had no way of going after him.
Some analysts, such as Beijing Normal University psychologist Zhong Gulan, say shan wan provides just a temporary solution, especially for lonely people.
‘It’s like drinking. You feel worse after it is over,’ he said.
But Mr. Li contends that analysts are missing the point.
‘Shan wan is simply a new and exciting form of entertainment. People can still form long-term relationships through other means.’
1 comment:
Lightning dates minus the storms
Young Chinese have a day of fun with strangers, then split
By The Straits Times China Bureau
06 November 2009
BEIJING: It is the latest craze among young people in China: Meet new people and share a day of fun together in an unfamiliar city.
Netizens call it shan wan, or literally, lightning play. If you are familiar with speed-dating, you get the idea. But unlike speed-dating, shan wan is about having a good time, not necessarily finding a potential mate.
The man behind it is Mr. Li Xu, a 25-year-old IT professional from the south-eastern Guangxi region whose work involves frequent travel. The idea came to him on a flight - in a flash.
In March, before leaving for an assignment in Guangzhou city, in neighbouring Guangdong province, Mr. Li posted online asking if anyone was interested in joining him.
A 23-year-old woman from Shantou, a city also in Guangdong, agreed to meet him and they spent a day sightseeing in Guangzhou. Then they went their separate ways.
Mr. Li’s ‘meet and split’ idea has proved so attractive because it is an ‘all fun, no obligation’ arrangement.
Thousands of young Chinese have joined online shan wan forums.
Shan wan groups are usually made up of two to six people, called shan you. They go Dutch on their outings, which pack in activities like sightseeing, eating, singing karaoke and shopping. The ‘players’ do not need to reveal their real names if they choose not to. And since they are meeting each other in a third city, their privacy is protected.
Some say they find the prospect of spending a day with strangers exciting - liberating even, because they can let their hair down.
But this phenomenon is worrying to some analysts, who say that making ‘fast friends’, like eating fast food, may not be good for individuals in the long-run. They warn that young people who prefer these meetings may not be able, or may not have the patience, to cultivate long-term friendships or relationships.
A survey of about 9,700 young people by China Youth Daily found that 53.3per cent would give shan wan a try. Their reasons were varied: ‘to relieve stress’, ‘to have a change of environment’, ‘to satisfy my curiosity’and simply because ‘it’s thrilling’.
Said a netizen who uses the moniker ‘ling’: ‘When I’m in a different city with a stranger, I feel less restrained. I can express that side of me that is usually hidden.’
To Mr. Li, ‘the destination is not important’.
‘All we are looking for, really, is a change of mood,’ he told The Straits Times in a phone interview.
Agreeing, Ms. Zheng Shufan, 23, an interpreter, told The Straits Times by phone from Shantou that she turned to shan wan to meet new friends, as she found daily life boring. She recently travelled to Shanghai to watch a rock concert with a girl from Nanjing, but they lost touch afterwards.
Said Professor Gao Bingzhong, a sociologist at Renmin University: ‘In real life, people you meet may have various motives for befriending you. Shan wan doesn’t come with those burdens. So it makes for a ‘purer’ kind of relationship.’
But such care-free socialising has its pitfalls. One netizen said her shan you ran off with her camera and she had no way of going after him.
Some analysts, such as Beijing Normal University psychologist Zhong Gulan, say shan wan provides just a temporary solution, especially for lonely people.
‘It’s like drinking. You feel worse after it is over,’ he said.
But Mr. Li contends that analysts are missing the point.
‘Shan wan is simply a new and exciting form of entertainment. People can still form long-term relationships through other means.’
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