More Than 100 Million Youths Celebrate the Chinese New Year Online
Is meeting in person still necessary
to celebrate important festival after the pandemic?
Affected by the epidemic, Wang Song, who works in Haikou City, Hainan Province, hasn’t seen his mother thousands of kilometers away in the United States for more than a year.
As the Chinese New Year approached, he could only learn about his mother's condition by phone. Even in China this year, he was one of many young people who could not be reunited with their families. They were all in response to the country's “Stay Put for Spring Festival" initiative, which aimed to reduce mobility and reduce the risk of the spread of the disease.
Those measures may seem rigorous, but they have really worked, so that the number of confirmed cases in high and medium risk areas has been cleared 13 months later since the Wuhan lockdown, even as the epidemic continues to spread around the world.
For the “X-Generation" who grow up in the era of the Internet, many of them are faced with the dilemma of "no job where there is a home, and no home where there is a job".
According to the report on the development of China's floating population released by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, China had more than 200 million floating population in 2020, with the new generation accounting for more than half, or 51.1%. In other words, more than 100 million young people may celebrate the Spring Festival staying put this year.
Hou Zewu is one of them.
Wang Xiaochuang, a deliveryman from Beijing, was also one of the young people celebrating the Chinese New Year on the spot.
“ I deadly miss my mom's cooking. So she sent me this." He said.
“Compared to last year's Spring Festival, the delivery volume in Beijing's Daxing district was not as high as this year’s. Different from last year, this year's volume is more about online shopping,"Wang Xiaochuang said.
The searching rate for "Spring Festival goods" on Taobao rose 240% on the first day of the online Spring Festival shopping festival. “Post-90s" took the baton for the first time, becoming the new main force of purchasing Spring Festival goods online. According to data from JD.com, the turnover of young consumers born after 1995 and 2000 grew rapidly.
What does the hometown package contain?
SOURCE: DATA BLOG
The top five favorite Spring Festival goods of the post-1995 generation are online sales, baking pastry, fruits, dairy cold drinks, animation and health tonics.
Under the epidemic, live broadcast has become an important way for many young people to "cloud purchase" Spring Festival goods.
In addition to buying the Chinese New Year goods for their own, the Spring Festival of 2021 has also given rise to the term "reverse delivery of Spring Festival goods". "Buying health" has also become the first choice for many young people to be filial to their elders. Through express gifts to send New Year wishes, many netizens have called this way of New Year's greetings "Taobao style".
“Cloud New Year greetings” and “Cloud parties” let this year's atmosphere of the Chinese New Year increase rather than decrease. “My family fought landlords cards, played mahjong, and sang karaoke online. Sometimes I even think it's good to celebrate the Chinese New Year this way. It's simple." said Yang Shidou, a post-95 who just started working not long ago.
Elderly people are also more likely to give red envelopes online, with the number of the elderly over 60 years old increasing by 210% in giving and nearly 430% in receiving, according to Alipay.
"Young people, like me live a stressful life, convenience is my primary concern. Internet has solved almost all of my problems, ordering, chatting, entertainment etc, no matter we meet in person or not.”
Text: Ye Wei, Lei Ning,
Video 1: Hou Yanyan
Video 2: Xu Qi
Photos: Hou Yanyan, Lei Ning, Ye Wei
Infographic1、2: Hou Yanyan
Shorthand: Ye Wei
