Hello! Welcome to Roundtable, where we serve up piping hot debates on the issues that sizzle in China and beyond.
I'm Yohong Lin. Do you remember the sound of a pager buzzing on your belt?
Or the thrill of sending your first text message?
From the beep of early telegraphs to the notification chime of smartphones, China s communication tools have transformed rapidly over the last few decades.
In this episode, we'll walk through the evolution of modern communication.
Let's listen to the sounds of the past and reflect on how far we've come.
Let's listen to the echoes of progress.
For today's show, I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Yushun.
Now, grab your virtual compass and follow us to the heart of the discussion.
In this special episode, we'll journey through the fascinating history of Chinese communication tools.
From ancient methods like pigeon post and smoke signals to modern innovations like video messaging.
The episode will be enriched with audio clips that represent each era s communication methods.
So I want to ask you this question.
If you have to imagine a sound that represents the earliest form of communication that you can think of, what would that sound be?
What is that? That's a carrier pigeon.
Oh, yeah. So you really do think that's a thing that people use pigeon to, you know, I think that's an established fact, isn't it?
I don't think that's folklore.
I used to wonder, you know, aren't these just things only in some fictional martial art or Uxia novels?
But actually, after doing some research, I found out that pigeons, they can indeed be trained to deliver messages using their homing instincts, but not as, you know, convenient as some of these fictional novels were describing that, you know, they can send anything that you want from wherever you are.
Well, it's not a drone.
No, they can't bring you your lunch.
But it's actually fun to think about how ancient people communicate with all these different methods, because when we think about communication nowadays, we think about sending messages, calling each other, but actually, in ancient time, they're not actually passing messages.
They're basically passing an object with the help of animal or a message person writing on a horse.
So they're passing an actual stuff instead of a message.
That is why if you think about the history of people sending messages to far away people, actually, it's not only in China, it's everywhere.
For thousands of years, people would need face -to -face contact to actually send information, which is why we talk about pigeon carriers.
We talk about smokes.
And also we talk about in war times, for example, in ancient times, it is actually very important for the soldiers to understand the command of a general, for example.
And I want to ask Steve this question.
I'm mainly curious because in China, we actually have different types of instrument for different messages.
Is that the case in the Western world?
What do you mean, different types of instruments, like different tools?
Different tools. For example, in China, actually, the method of war is always command with flags during day and with guns and drums at night.
So if it's happening during nighttime and we would see that actually advance at the sound of drums for Chinese ancient warriors and stop at the sound of guns.
That's why we have things like Ming Jin Shou Binh.
So if you make a metal instrument, which is the gun, if you hit on a metal, which is instrument that is the gun, then you're basically sending a message to the warriors that you need to stop, you need to withdraw.
So that's the situation for ancient Chinese wars.
The words ancient in Canada never appear in the same sentence.
Our country is quite young.
We're like a baby on the international stage.
So we don't have any kind of Athens word in Greece.
I mean, I know smoke signals were used to communicate with troops.
Right. And I remember living in Seoul.
If you go up to the Namsan tower area, which is the needle looking tower in the middle of the city, it's a popular tourist destination.
But up there, after you go up the mountain in that area, they have the old smoke stacks.
They don't use them anymore, of course, but they're still there.
And that's the way that they used to send out messages or to communicate to the to the public.
Speaking of, you know, tourist attractions, actually here in Beijing, one of the most well -known tourist attractions, the Great Wall, has a lot of these beacon towers that was used for these smoke signals.
These are actually one of these most important ways to signaling all of these information for warriors back then.
So, yes, when we talk about these ancient memories, some of them are still affecting nowadays.
We have a lot of Chinese idioms related to these ways of communicating.
And also we have the Great Wall, like Yuzhen has said, they're still there.
But if you really think about it, the effect they have for today's life is really minimum to the minimum.
They do not affect our daily life as well.
Not at all. Not at all.
Well, yeah, but one sign left, for example, is the pigeon carrier you talked about at the very beginning.
Actually, it has been a very important memory for, for example, the sound of Beijing.
A lot of people believe that that sound, especially some people in Beijing, they had the experience or they had the hobby of raising these pigeons and they would put a little whistle on the pigeon.
So when the pigeon actually flies, you can hear the sound of that whistle and the pigeon whistle sound is deeply associated with the sound of old Beijing.
Also, even when I was thinking about the smoke signal, I think in a lot of situations that when people see a huge smoke in the air with people who think of, oh, is there a fire?
Then I think that is probably, you know, the connected way of people are imagining the signal of a smoke.
Yeah. Or if you're a daredevil, like you shouldn't.
You might be exploring an unmanned island and you got stuck and you start a fire using the very, very ancient way of sending a signal to people who want to save you or something like that.
That still holds true in modern days.
That is a great point.
Yeah. Hopefully none of us will ever have to communicate with anyone for that purpose.
But other than that, actually those part of history is not that relevant to today's life.
Yet, if we take a closer look into history, we would see that for the past couple of decades, things have changed rapidly.
Starting by what I can think of would be the telegraph.
It is actually introduced in the late Qing Dynasty, which is around 1840s.
The telegraph basically revolutionized long distance communication by transmitting Morse code over wires and speaking of Morse code, you know, I've only seen, you know, the use of telegraphs and pagers or something like that in some films and TV shows because this is just really old gadgets.
One movie, The Eternal Wave or Yun Bu Xiaoshu de Tian Bo which is a quite old Chinese movie that was depicting these stories in the time of war and people use secret radios to transmit information.
And also, I searched up something about the international Morse code and I think I figured out how to call you guys by using Morse code.
Do you want to hear it?
So first of all, if I'm calling Yohong Ling, I will nickname her as Nyong Yo which is N .N.
So the Morse code would be ZZ.
Oh, that's simple. I like that.
Because that's two same consecutive letters.
And for Steve, I'll name you as STV.
That's more obvious to your name, right?
So that's going to be ZZ.
I think I like yours better.
Mine is easier to remember.
Your sounds cool. Oh, yeah, let me explain it.
Mine sounds like I'm sleeping.
Z is N, so N N is Z Z Z.
S T V. S T. What's yours?
You didn't find out yours.
I did actually, in case you don't have mine.
So, Y S, that's Y U Shuan, which is Z Z Z.
That one's even harder.
Yeah, it's too hard.
I cannot remember Y U Shuan's name.
Well done on that one.
Finding our Morse code sounds.
But it's really hard to send messages, isn't it?
If you think about it, you have to use this one short line, one long line, or just a dot and a line kind of method.
And you have to remember basically the formula.
Of numbers and letters and how to represent the numbers and letters with the dot and dash.
And that was a really hard way.
So for me, a telegraph is definitely something that we do not have a lot of experience about.
But one thing we do have experience, and we are even using nowadays, would be a fax machine.
Have you ever used a fax machine?
Yes. I mean, not personally, I think, but I've used stores to go into the store and ask them to send a fax on my behalf.
Yes. So if we say that telegraph is used to send a textual message, then fax machines would definitely be used to send a printed document.
Actually, in 1958, China's first domestic fax machine was manufactured in Shanghai.
And can you take a guess what fax machine was mainly used for?
Besides, for example, sending documents between different companies and entities.
A very interesting way of using fax machine.
Sending pictures? Yes, but actually sending newspapers.
If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense because back then, for example, in 1974, the Beijing to Chengdu microwave cricket was used to transmit layout samples of three different newspapers.
So you design the newspaper layout and everything with the pictures, with the text, passages, and you send it out with fax machines to different cities so that they can issue the paper at the same time.
Nobody really uses faxes that often.
No. Any more. Not anymore.
And the next thing in line would definitely be something that we're relatively familiar with, even though the form of it have transformed quite a lot.
And that would be telephone.
Oh, yes. Telephone came to China in the first time, what, late 19th century, so late 1800s when it first showed up.
Can you imagine how much that changed life for everyone in China when the telephone arrived here?
Talking about getting in touch with people.
You could do it in a completely almost futuristic fashion.
Oh, yes. Because you can hear somebody else from basically every corner around the world if you have a telephone.
And back then, I remember because when it was that popular, I think in the first stage, it was public telephone stations or booths, I would say.
And if you would like to contact somebody, you need to know that he or she contacted you.
And then I think at that time, people also use another machine called Pager, right?
The little thing that you hook it on your belt.
And it will be a little bit so that you know that people are calling you.
And I didn't have that period of time of using Pager, but I also saw some of the movies have that kind of things.
And I think one of the most recent ones is the Marvel movie in the Avengers.
Nick Fury, who is the founder of Avengers, used a Pager to contact Captain Marvel.
Yeah, right. So I was thinking even though these kind of era of these devices has passed, but people my age have hardly see them.
But today's audience can still learn about these things through these films and it's really impressive and fascinating to see all of these gadgets.
It makes a lot of sense to associate Pager with landline telephones.
Because even though we say that telephones have been there for quite a long time, actually, it is until 1981, China implemented a policy allowing ordinary households to install telephones.
And that year, rotary phones began to appear in the homes of everyday people.
And it is around 1983, Shanghai launched China's first Pager service, introducing the Pager to the country.
So relatively around the same time, people started to have the option.
Previously, it's more like for different entities and different companies, you would have a landline telephone.
And I don't know if there has been a period, because I've also seen certain clips in movies or TV shows that back then people would pick up the phone and they would directly talk to someone working in a phone station.
Yeah, a telephone company.
The switchboard operator.
And you tell them who you want to call.
So instead of a phone number, you call them, which actually means that there are not a lot of people with a phone number with a phone.
Not that many telephone numbers.
Not that many. I didn't live in that era.
That was a little bit before my time.
But I remember when I was a kid in Canada, we had our landline telephone in the house, and sometimes I would pick up the phone to call somebody.
And I would be able to hear a conversation already in progress.
So you pick up the phone, you hear someone talking, you didn't do anything.
Yeah, it's like if you and you were having a conversation on the telephone and then in your homes and then I pick up the phone in my house and all of a sudden I can hear you two talking for some reason.
No privacy at all. It wasn't always the case.
It wasn't the case every time, but it would be the mistake, perhaps, of the operator.
I don't know. I don't know why it would happen.
But anyway, I remember that.
And I remember entertaining myself as a child from time to time, just sitting and listening to the conversations people were having.
I had similar experiences, but it's more like I'm calling you Shun currently, and all of a sudden I hear Steve talking.
So that's also, I think, a kind of mistake, but it means we're sharing the same line perhaps, and we're using it already, and the signal got connected wrongly or something.
So instead of picking up the phone and hearing people talking, it's like our conversation was interrupted by some other voices.
Yeah, it's kind of wild to think that that wasn't that long ago when we were communicating in that way, and that's not even a thing anymore, of course.
But I saw that making phone calls back then was quite expensive.
You could just listen to people for no reason.
But anyway, what I saw was, you know, when these household telephones were very popular back then, but it was not that common to see in every household.
So in a lot of rural areas in China back then, they still have basically one telephone in one town, and if you have any needs of making phone calls, it will go to that spot to make phone calls.
And if somebody just called you and then that kind of people who own the telephone will just pick up the phone and receive the message and then tell you that, ah, you got a phone call.
Oh, yes. For my province, for my hometown, Shenxi province, actually, in 1978, the telephone pertrasion rate in Shenxi province was only 0 .57 phones per 100 people, meaning that only one out of every 200 people would have access to a telephone.
Yeah. Would you want to be the person who owned that telephone?
You have to. Probably not.
You have to share it with everybody, I guess.
With 200 or 199 others.
Hey, you should. Can I use your phone?
No, I'm sleeping. And also, it's very expensive.
And back then, we also have the idea of, for example, if you're calling someone for long distance, only certain telephone with access to long distance calls would be able to do that.
And also, it's really expensive, and it has been expensive for quite a long time, relatively speaking.
And later on, we introduced the policy that only the one who's calling would have to pay the phone bill.
The one who's receiving does not have to, which is why, for a certain period of time in my childhood, even in my childhood years, when I call my parents, they, because I think, again, for a certain period of time, we would not know who's calling.
There's no such function on your phone showcasing the telephone number who's calling you.
It was only introduced in a certain period of time, which is why, starting then, people would know the one who's calling me, the number of those who's been calling me.
So starting then, when I call my parents, they would always wait for me to hunt up and then call me back so they can pay instead of I would have to bear the bill.
So you didn't have the collect call system.
You know what I'm talking about?
The collect call? So if I called my parents and I was too far away so the call would be charged, then the operator would ask, who's going to pay for the call?
And I would say they will.
So then they get an automated message when my mom answers the phone, hello.
And then the computer voice, you have a collect call from, and then I say, I think we had that too.
And then do you want to accept the charges?
Meaning, are you willing to pay for this?
And then, you know, my mom would say yes.
But what was funny was, if I was home and my sisters were calling, you have a collect call from Shannon.
Do you want to accept the charges?
No, thank you. You're not talking to your sisters.
You should get so mad.
Yeah, so I think what we've taken for granted and what we see as something so ordinary and so common these days have been a luxury service that only selected or several people can enjoy for a long period of time back then.
This is something I don't think about for a really long time.
Do you remember Yushin?
Do you know what a rotary phone is?
I think I had a picture of that in a...
Museum? I had a picture of that in my childhood, but I don't think that is an actual telephone that is just a tool for me to take pictures.
It was okay to use.
If the number of the person you were calling, if they had a lot of numbers around one, two, three, four, because then you could dial quite quickly because you have to put your finger in the little hole and then pull it down and then do it again with the next number.
I never figured out how people call it using that.
It was a pain if your friend had numbers like eight, nine, zero in their numbers because then you've got to go to the back and dial all the way around and then let go and then go all the way around and let go.
My best friend in high school, his final four numbers were seven, eight, nine, eight.
I always used to complain to him about that, like, bro, can you get a better number for your house?
My finger is tired when I'm dialing.
Yeah, we used to do it like that.
And with time went by, we finally started to have mobile phones.
The giant brick sized mobile phones.
A nickname for that phone because in Chinese we do.
What's it called? We call it big brother phones because it is big because it's really, really big, like a brick.
Oh, OK. Yeah, probably something along those lines.
Those things were huge.
They look like satellite telephone.
Oh, yes. And you can actually have a kind of the line, rabbit tail.
Yeah, the antenna. Yes.
To pull it up and to make the signal better, I think when you have that phone.
So in the 1990s buying one of these big brother phones costs nearly thirty thousand yuan.
Wow. Imagine that's about four thousand two hundred US dollars.
Wow. And back then.
Yes, back then it was quite expensive.
So people treat it as a kind of a luxury item.
And then if you own a car and also with a big brother phone on your seat, you're rich.
You're rich. And you're showing off.
You're a successful businessman.
Oh, yeah. I mean, that would have been a real status symbol back in the day.
And I have to admit the age or the era of the big brother phone actually only stayed for a short period of time.
It's like gradually you see the phone getting smaller and smaller and smaller and to a certain period around the 2000s.
Actually, the advent of black and white screen digital mobile phones, the really small, affordable, portable ones.
They are called the Xiao Ling Tong.
I think it's kind of like they're small, they're fast and they're flexible.
These words actually mean that.
So basically those phones would have a little relatively speaking, less stable line.
And yet they are much, much less expensive.
They're much cheaper.
And I still remember back then there are so many different brands of mobile phones and you could not.
Well, you can. But the default ringtone of different brands of mobile phone is so iconic that you can remember.
And you can recognize basically each other's ringtone because it rings up so frequently, especially compared to nowadays.
And can you guys remember or recognize these different ringtones?
What is that? Yeah.
With your two hands shape.
This one. That's Apple.
First stage Apple. Yeah.
That's also Apple, isn't it?
Nowadays, Apple. Yeah.
But they have been so iconic.
Yeah, that's true. And I searched about the latest development of telephone.
And I realized that nowadays, if you still think about only think about telephone as a telephone or a mobile phone as a cell phone kind of function, the most distinct feature of that would actually be a satellite phone.
So for us, it might be not that useful unless you're a daredevil like you should and you do not want to start a fire or a smoke to showcase people that you're stuck in an unmanned island.
And if you're equipped it with a satellite phone, which you can get one here in China, you would be able to save yourself.
And like Steve said, won't need to communicate with others with smoke fire.
And we have to admit another revolution that happened to our life would be getting onto the Internet or being able to getting onto the Internet.
Oh, yeah. And what is your first experience of getting online or surfing the Internet with like finally on the line?
You know, I remember my first smartphone was Nokia E71.
If you know that phone, it was quite I think ahead of its time with the full QWRTY keyboard.
The whole keyboard.
I was typing super fast with that keyboard on the phone, you know, plus having web browsing and instant messaging tools on it was a big deal back then because before that it was not smart phone.
So you can actually use QQ and WeChat on that phone.
Although you were just sending texts because back then you don't have that much of pictures and also because of the speed of the Internet, you couldn't send that big amount.
When I say big amount of data, I mean several KB, right?
So everything was presented in pages of text and this was a result of that Internet speeds of that era.
Yeah, but I mean that was pretty advanced compared to what I grew up with with, you know, actually, I shouldn't say grew up with because I was already a young adult by the time the Internet came around.
But I remember the dial up sound, the dial up modem.
Have you ever heard that sound before?
You should. I don't think so because my first Internet or household Internet was broadband.
Oh, you spoiled spoiled.
This is what it sounded like.
That's what your computer sounded like when it was connecting to the Internet.
Okay. Yeah. I think he did a really good job.
I mean, really good at that.
Yeah, it sounds like some alien force trying to communicate with humans from another planet.
I remember that. Oh, my goodness.
And if you were if you were doing that, if you were connecting to the Internet with a dial up modem, you were using as far as I know, I'm not an expert.
But as far as I know, you were using your phone line in your house.
Yes. So therefore you couldn't make a telephone call if someone was on the Internet.
So in your house, you were either on the phone or on the Internet, but not but not at the same time.
Oh, and there used to be arguments.
Get off the Internet.
I got to make a phone call.
All the time. Yes. And actually you're paying the bill of your online data or online amount of time with your telephone bill, which is why when I first get online with the style of mold and it was I remember during a summer break and I was online quite a lot.
And my family, actually, my parents were worried about the telephone bill a little bit.
They were firstly confused about how much it was.
And then they ordered me to stop using the dial up style to get online.
And you shouldn't talk about different modes or different how small the actual item or the file that you're transmitting in the early days.
Actually, it happened to different types of ways of getting online with your computer or with your smartphones, both, which is why I remember specifically for special types of browsers, they would provide you with a picture less mode.
They would transfer all of the information of the page to save data to they've only give you the text of that page instead of pictures.
So do not have to use your precious and also expensive data to open or to view the pictures.
You know, I remember roaming in different regions was a thing back then, you know, for example, a number you registered in Beijing and then you can only use the network in Beijing or make phone calls in Beijing.
Otherwise you need to pay extra fees for calling another region or calling our side of Beijing.
And also back then the data, I was expensive for me as a middle school student, then I have that kind of more affordable plan that only allowed usage between 11 p .m.
and 8 a .m. And I think that is when I gradually develop a habit of just staying late.
Yeah. I mean, you grew up with broadband, right?
You mentioned that before broadband downloading something from the Internet was not a few minutes experience.
It wasn't an hour's experience.
It was a day's experience, wasn't it?
So you would start a download before going out in the morning, like before going out of the house in the morning.
And when you got home at night, you would hope it would be finished, not expect it to be finished.
You would hope that it would be finished.
And then if the connection speed was really, really bad, then you'd look at it and say, oh, no, 14 hours remaining.
Oh, no, this is going to take until tomorrow.
Yeah. But think about it.
We're only talking about less than 30 years ago.
Yeah. For example, in 1997, the total number of Internet connected computers in China was 299 ,000 with approximately 620 ,000 users.
So around 30 years ago, we're still in the dial up era.
We're still talking about using hours or even dozens of hours to download something.
So it's really not that far away ago.
And since Ushin has talked already about actually the Internet fee back then, we see that in that era, 58 % of Internet users had a household monthly income between 400 and 1000 yuan.
While a PC cable of connecting the Internet typically started at 10 ,000 yuan, which was really expensive.
So it's definitely a luxury.
It's really, really expensive.
Yeah. 1997, less than 30 years ago.
Yeah. It was a long time ago, 30 years ago.
You know, it feels like a long time ago.
In the grand picture, it's not long ago at all.
And it sounds like we're complaining about it, right?
But actually at the time when you could actually download some things from the Internet, like what is this magical place in the sky called the Internet, where I can use this little box in my house and suddenly get something, it was it was absolutely mind blowing then.
And it still kind of blows my mind today as well.
Yes. And also speaking of, you know, the price of using the Internet or just being online, we can see we've experienced several times of, you know, the drop of the price actually, even though the price was still very expensive.
Back then, according to a report by the Beijing Daily at the time to accelerate the development of the Internet in China in 1997, after caused investigations by the National Development and Reform Commission, domestic Internet service fees saw a significant drop.
And the lowest monthly rental fee was 50, when limited to three hours of communication.
And the most people would say that's maybe the cost effective way or plan was 100 per month with unlimited data, but only available from 2 a .m.
to 6 a .m. Well, you can only download that period of time and telephone costs were additional.
So we can see compared to that time right now, we have so many policies that is making the price of Internet so affordable.
And now we have 4G, 5G.
And we're so spoiled now.
I remember when 5G came out, you know, it was all over the news, all over the world.
Right. 5G. And I was like, wow, cool.
5G. Oh my gosh. Two weeks later, I was looking at my watch like, so when 6G coming, I'm not impressed by 5G anymore.
I need more G's. I want all the G's and I want them right now.
Well, actually, we see that mobile broadband users accessing the Internet via 4G or 5G had an average download speed of already around 130 megabytes.
And all of this supported by the world's largest and most advanced dual gigabyte network infrastructure.
So we talk about infrastructure construction.
We talk about how building these different infrastructures could help our lives.
And the changes actually happen before we notice.
And same thing goes with the number of people actually getting onto the Internet.
We see from December 2012 to June 2023.
So in the period of around 10 years, the number of Internet users in China grew from 560 million to 1 .8 billion with Internet penetration rate rising from 42 % to 76%.
And this is a huge change in the society because with this many people online, that makes it possible for us to communicate with each other almost all of our friends online, no matter where they are.
And that makes it possible for certain things happening online.
For example, if you do not have that many netizens, you would not start, for example, an online education classroom kind of thing.
You would not start something like doing medical service online with not that huge a market, that huge amount of people.
Those inventions and those applications could not have happened.
Yes, absolutely. I mean, everything changed when the Internet came.
And now with faster speeds and connectivity at a place where we've never seen it before, the sky is really the limit now.
In terms of the way that we communicate.
And also, speaking of the price of the Internet, we mentioned the roaming charge before if you need to pay for the cause and Internet to another region.
Now it's all cancelled in China.
You don't need to pay for that extra roaming fees because since July 1st, 2018, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, these three major carriers of China have cancelled roaming charges.
And upgrading all of these regional data to national data.
Yes, so the Internet is getting faster, it's getting cheaper and we want to do all sorts of things on the Internet starting with talking to each other.
That's the simple request we have.
So we want instant messages.
Think about the pager time now.
It sounds like dinosaur age.
You have to page someone.
Nobody uses a pager.
Right. They receive the message and they find a local or the nearest telephone and then they payphone, they call you back.
But now we can send people messages and send them voice messages and do video chats.
But before that, let's take time a little bit back, starting with instant message apps.
Of course, text message is the first thing.
But after text messages, actually, before we chat and even before QQ, I don't know if you've experienced the really, really short stage of fashion or face in China.
Oh, I think I do. Right.
That is a system based on your telephone number.
You would automatically have an account of this fashion and you would be able to send in each other messages through online data kind of platforms.
Instead of a text message kind of platforms, because when it comes to text messages actually have to pay for each text message or have a limited number of text messages per month.
It's still the same thing today only that nobody's using text message anymore.
And I remember that time I really thought fashion would be really big because you're using your data.
Yeah. It could be something that can be popular and you can never know here in China, actually, the popularity instead of going to fashion, it goes to QQ.
QQ was our very first popular instant messaging apps.
I was wondering what's the situation in other countries?
Popularity of messaging apps?
What's like the first stage or first generation of messaging apps that you've experienced?
I think the first one that I can think of would be Facebook.
Really? It was considered a messaging app at that time?
No, it was the first one that well, the first one that I used, I think, and I was actually late to the Facebook party because it was all the rage and everybody was talking about it.
So that kind of annoyed me.
So I didn't I didn't want to.
I didn't want to sign up to it too quickly.
But yeah, that was that was definitely it wasn't an instant messaging app, per se, not the way that we think about them right now.
But at the time, I think that's the first one that I can remember using kind of consistently.
Yeah, I think it's similar with QQ.
That is something that you have to sign up for an account a little bit like Facebook and like WeChat today.
And then with people who also have an account in this platform, you would be able to send them messages.
And it was not instant messages at the very first stage because it was something that you use with your computer instead of your phone.
Only later on that smartphones would allow you to download these app only when we start to have smartphones.
And then it started to if you have your data on, you're connected to the Internet all the time, they'll be able to push the notification to your phone and it turned into an instant messaging app.
I remember when my sister texted me and not replying her.
No. Many years ago now, but she texted me.
She's like, hey, Steve, I was like, hey, what's up?
She's like, Mom didn't know about instant messenger before, but she does now.
And I gave her your contact.
You're welcome. It's kind of like inviting your mom to your Facebook account, isn't it?
Wow. That's a big decision.
It was really funny.
And then it was even funnier because my mom and my dad used the same instant messenger account.
Right. Because my dad just doesn't care at all.
But I could always tell who I was talking to because I was chatting with mom, you know, I'd type.
Hi. How are you doing?
And the answer would come very quickly.
Yeah. Pretty good. Thanks.
Yeah. Today I'm going to the store.
OK, but if I'm talking to dad, hey, how are you doing?
Wait, wait, wait. Good.
Because he's searching for the G, the O, the O and the D.
I remember that little funny story from the TV series Modern Family where Jay couldn't do the double click.
Yeah. Right. Because you need to do it fastly.
But whenever you do double click, it's not double.
Yeah, it's not fast enough.
But anyway, we talk a lot about these how smart these smartphones could be and what are these rain tones of these smartphones.
But I feel like nowadays, you know, the sound that can truly represent smartphones now is the vibration sound because, you know, at least for me, these things are work and our personal lives are so closely tied to our phones.
Many people tend to keep their phones on silent mode.
That's true. And then now, you know, the I think most iconic sound of smartphones now are just that sounds like my Morse code name.
That sound actually bothers me a little bit.
The buzzing sound. Yeah.
The buzzing sound. I would keep it at silent mode.
Like just silent. Yeah.
But how annoying is it when you hear somebody's phone ring?
Yeah, that's the worst.
It almost feels rude or something, which it's totally not.
It's totally not. But it feels like it is because we're just we don't use our we don't use our telephone rings anymore.
No, because we are on our phone all the time.
We check our phone every several minutes.
We are we do not miss any messages.
So we do not need something to remind us to check out to the phone anymore.
That's why that excuse, it's the number one excuse, isn't it?
When people don't pick up your call when you call them or ignore your message, they always say, oh, sorry, I missed it.
I didn't see it. Yes, you did.
You absolutely did.
Humans check their phone every five minutes or something.
Every five minutes.
Yeah. Which is why now if you think back that all almost all of the instant messaging apps started to slowly or really fastly evolve into social media platforms, social media apps on top of QQ here in China.
We also have Weibo.
That's also a very one of the most popular social media platforms and people would talk about their lives and posting them on Weibo.
It's a little bit like Twitter, I would argue.
But one of the most distinct feature of Weibo is that they have this search rank.
The mostly searched lines or hashtags showcases how important or famous or popular this instant is.
And on top of that, you have Douban.
It's sort of China's MySpace or a little bit something related to book reveals and movie reveals and you also have Xiao Hongshu read.
It's like sharing your lifestyle.
So all these different types of social media platforms started to merge and almost dominate our lives today.
And when it comes to social media platforms, yes, a lot of people actually absorb knowledge or read news on social media.
Makes me wonder or think a little bit about communication in the way of one -way communication back then.
I feel like, for example, newspaper, the main way of sending huge news stories or message to the people would be newspaper and radio and TV.
So that was another form of communication, I think.
Yeah, you know, I actually had some of the research on these, you know, information, dissemination ways or methods.
And fun fact is that television is still the most preferred source for information.
So according to Nielsen, a globally renowned market research and data analysis company, a survey of over 30 ,000 Internet users across 60 countries found that 53 percent of respondents considered television as one of their preferred sources of for information.
Yeah, it's just that the television is so different now than what it used to be.
There was a time when you well, there was a time when it was black and white.
Right. And then all of a sudden became color.
You imagine how big a deal that was when TV went from black and white to color.
Oh, yeah. Gosh, that must have been mind blowing.
Then came the remote control where you could actually change the channels without moving across the room to touch the TV yourself.
Remote control wasn't a default option.
No. That was not available at a particular point in time.
And now TVs are basically computers, right?
Smart televisions. You can download apps onto your smart television and you can surf the Internet and shop.
And it's just totally different now.
And of course, you know, the screen quality is just a whole, whole different world than the way it used to be.
And also the size of the TVs as well.
Yeah. So from the 17th century, the time of newspapers and then to the early 20th, the time for a radio broadcasting and then to the mid 20th, we have television and from the late 20th to the early 21st century, the rise of Internet.
And these are the revolution that we've experienced that we've seen, not with our own eyes.
Definitely not with Ushun's very own eyes.
He's so young. But these are the journey that we've been through and with the emerging of Internet and also with the faster speed of Internet.
A lot of other things are happening because of that.
For example, with 3G, 5G and like Steve said, 6G in the future, perhaps we have other options.
On top of what we talk about all the time, on top of, for example, low altitude economy or on top of connected or Internet of Things, actually the way of communicating could have been changed.
I can think of something if I am allowed to think of for those who are in a, for example, long distance relationship.
Now they can already call each other, FaceTime each other.
We chat video each other all the time.
They can even watch a movie together with this online movie room thing that you can watch the same movie together and you can talk to each other via a video chat or something.
I use that app once, I think.
Do you like that? No, I don't.
I didn't like it. It's because we are old fashioned.
I don't want to be texting the whole time.
There's like a little chat room for you and whoever you're watching the movie with and then they'll type something.
You don't want to respond when you kind of have to.
I don't know. I didn't like it.
But at least that is the way that you can share a movie with your loved ones if you're, you know, if you're just thousands of miles away.
Yep. Yep. You're absolutely right.
The reason I am mentioning that example is because if I have to imagine a more advanced way of communicating with each other with the development of technology that I can think of, besides getting a chip in my head and sharing my thoughts with someone all the time, which horrifies me.
What I can think of is having a holograph of your loved ones right beside you and like they're there and you can do things together.
That's the next generation of communication I can think of.
How about you guys?
I have to say it's not next generation.
It's this generation?
Yeah, it has already been done by a lot of tech companies, actually.
And what I can think of is Apple's Vision Pro.
Now they have the function of scanning your face and create a virtual you next to the people that you are talking to.
So basically, if you're wearing that goggle, you're talking to somebody in a virtual space with him face to face, face to face, even body to body.
What do you think about that?
Brain chips, please.
I'm curious to know.
I don't know what's going to be next, but I think I have an idea about what's going to disappear and what's going to end up in a museum someday.
We talked earlier in the show about the dial telephones, even a landline phone now.
There's one in our office that I think has been there since 1982.
Nobody uses it. Nobody even looks at it.
I feel sorry for it.
Well, actually, landline phones are still used for different companies and different entities.
It's kind of like it's fixed.
And as long as there are people in the room, you can call the number and get in touch with whoever's working there instead of having a cell phone number, which is associated with individuals.
And I have to say one thing for my grandparents' generation.
They still kind of need a landline phone.
It's easier for them to use that.
But that wasn't going to be my answer.
I think the next thing to disappear, keyboards, computer keyboards, I think they're going to be gone at some point.
Because we experience the disappearance of keyboards on phones.
Keyboards on phones and keyboards in front of us in the office.
Because I think there's going to come a time when we don't need to.
That seems to me very archaic in these modern times.
It already feels old to me.
So I'm thinking chip in brain.
You type with the chip.
You open up apps with your brain on your computer screen.
I think that's what's coming next.
Let's see whose brain chip comes first.
Yours or mine? As we wrap up our journey through China's modern communication history, we're reminded of just how quickly things change.
From the first beep of a pager to the swipe of a smartphone screen, these technologies have brought us closer in ways our ancestors could never have imagined.
Today, we can send a message across the globe in seconds, but the story doesn't end here with 6G artificial intelligence and more innovations on the horizon.
The next chapter of communication in China promises to be just as transformative.
And Roundtable will be here to see what's next and how it will shape our future.
Do you want it one more time before we wrap up?
mm. That dial up sound brings us to the end of today's Roundtable.
Thanks to Yi Shen and Steve.
And of course those of you who are still listening.
Until next time, keep the conversations going and the ideas flowing.
I'm Yauhong Woon. Bye bye.
