#Hashtagging Along: A Re-Reader into Twitter’s Hashtags

It’s been a somewhat slow May Break here in China, with yesterday (Monday, May 3, 2010) feeling especially slow (ah, freakin’ clouds over the city), but we thought you’d might enjoy this snip from GigaOM about those #Hashtags flying all over the place.

Here’s how your tech blogger fared…

…and he was introduced to this only in late 2008, with @christinelu preaching the #china20 hashtag to him.

Hashtags can be thought of a neat way to create a “virtual convo”, and they’re probably best seen as live “convo folders”. That’s the case with tags such as #chinict, which is all about the up-and-coming CHINICT. And yes, techblog86 will be there.

They’re also behind virtual social movements. About this time a year back, when China started blocking Twitter on the eve of… one heck of a sensitive anniversary, those who could get behind the wall started tweeting out the #fuckGFW hashtag, a hashtag that has stuck since then to show Netizenry angst and resentment against Internet censorship. Earlier this year, a massive flash mob created the #GFW hashtag, which like its obscene brother, managed to climb to No. 2 in rankings on the entire Twitterverse.

(Now that this has been reported, we’re expecting all hashes in the country to get harmonized.)

But the online PRC’s hashtag world is not all gloom and doom. In fact, Om made reference to What the Trend, a site made by Shanghai Metro expert (and pro coder) Matt Mayer. Hashtags can, accordingly, be gamed so that some random topic ends up as No. 1. But they’re also great for discovering what’s hot on Twitter as of late.

The Tweet of the Day: 1984, Brave New World, and China

What do Huxley, Orwell and the Twitter user @baixiaoci have in common?

@baixiaoci started out with a tweet (in Chinese) at 22:00 last night (August 18, 2009), which read (translated):

There’s something unfortunate about the Chinese over the Americans: the predictions of both Orwell and Huxley have become reality in China Switch on television, and you get Brave New World. Surf the Web, and it’s 1984.

Your tech blogger retweeted this in the morning hours today (August 19, 2009). This tweet got retweeted upwards of 20 or even more than 20 times in a single day, probably setting a brand-new record…

@baixiaoci, by the way, is from Shenzhen, but is presently in Shanghai as his tweets have him. He’s a photographer and has a site — 50mm.cn as well as another one at baixiaoci.com.

See, we had to promote this guy. He’s now famous. With just one tweet.

Twremarks: What Chinese Tweeps Are Talking About

Ever wonder why Fanfou was shut down? The site was full of political tweets flying to and fro. Never mind it had a Chinese ICP site — it was nixed, no questions asked. With the PRC’s Big Sixty coming in this close, those at the top are hoping that there’ll be “nothing big” that could get out of control — not even with 300 million virtual beings.

Today was just another day in the Chinese Twittersphere — except for one thing: the Tan Zuoren case started and, as usual, some of the Chinese tweeps started tweeting about the case. We had reports of hushed courts, police brutality and other disturbing tweets coming in this side of the Pacific, whereas the tweets coming in from the US were much closer to home — and were less political.

I tweeted about this some time back. The Chinese Twittersphere seems to have a particular political interest vested amongst the community. Yet in the US, Twitter’s used to describe things that may not be all that political. It’s not that the US and politics don’t mix on Twitter — that’s what put @BarackObama on the map. Yet, the intensity of politics is lesser felt outside the PRC — especially in the USA.

Remember the #080808 Hashtag?

Just a year ago this day, the Beijing Olympics got off to a start. Whether it was a bang or a whimper (as in the massively stepped security procedures and almost-impossible-to-get PRC visas) — that we’ll let you decide. But there’s a hashtag that was part of the day: #080808.

Not just that. Everyone China or even remotely Chinese-related had #080808 on their avatars. @thecarol from Taiwan did that. @isaac did it. Everyone in the region went #080808, thanks to @flypig’s idea.

The irony of this is that, in the name of the Big Sixty coming later this year, the #080808 hashtag — along with everything else Twitter-related — appears to have been harmonized. Oh yeah — and also the Internet censorship. You could access sites you couldn’t access otherwise in China a year ago. YouTube or even BBC Chinese? Yours last year.

#Harminator’s this year.

The skies outside today in Beijing appear just as gloomy as it was a year ago. (Obviously, and we’re going off at a slant here — for the best blue skies, come in winter around January or February. Satisfaction guaranteed.)