On a Friday afternoon a while ago, the first beautiful, warm, sunny day of the year I went to a local Internet club. I needed to find a few facts for another text I was writing. I couldn't, there were no computers available.

The day was not special in any way, afternoons are always so busy, there are always people queuing, waiting for computers, when students from a high school nearby finish their classes.
Apart from my age (I was about ten years older than the other customers), the colour of my eyes and my hair, I was different because of yet another reason. I wanted to look for information, the others, a hundred people, were chatting on-line, watching films, or playing games.
Over half of high school students in China wear glasses, the gym I go to is always empty. When asked, what do you do in your free time, my students usually say, 'sleep,' or 'play computer games.'
Two yuan an hour, good fast connection, hundreds of chat rooms, cheap, colourful, fashionable. One day in Harbin I counted seven clubs in one building, there were twelve clubs around the entrance to my university. The second campus, located outside of the city, had three restaurants, two shops, a basketball court, and six Internet clubs.
Last summer 25 people died in a fire in an Internet club in Beijing.* The authorities closed every single club in the whole country for over a month, to perform safety inspections. It was "the most boring month of my life" as one of my students said.
A way of controlling bored young people, stupid ideas or petty crimes, that result from having nothing to do?
Maybe a form of distraction from the lack of perspectives?
Only the brightest, the most motivated, or the best connected will succeed here. The masses, millions of people, due to laws of economy have no chances.
Maybe it's better to give them cheap entertainment, a colourful world that will replace reality?
03.2003
01.2004. I found this in a newspaper recently: "The All China Sports Federation recently recognised video gaming as a sanctioned sport. [...] there is even talk of video gaming becoming an Olympic event."
 * As a result of this tragedy (the fire had been set intentionally) and subsequent tightening of rules, thousands of smaller internet-cafés closed.
11.2007. In July this year a new law was passed that bans opening new internet-cafés – this is due to a growing number of young people addicted to the internet, and to growing numbers of related crimes and social problems.
In 2006 there were 130 million people with access to the internet in China, 26% more than the year before – this was second highest in the world, behind USA only. Predictions are, that in two years China will overtake the United States as the country with the largest on-line population
11.2007