People used to visit one another or make a phone call to send a
greeting for the Spring Festival, Chinese lunar New Year. However,
this year, a greeting through SMS (Short Message Service) has
become a vogue.
By
statistics of Jiangsu Mobile, the Spring Festival greetings through
SMS reached 44.6 million on the Eve. From January 31 through the
morning of February 7, the messages sent through Jiangsu Mobile
were as many as 200 million pieces, while the amount nation-wide
exceeded 5 billion.
A
random survey was conducted on streets by the Yangtze Evening
News. People interviewed said greetings through SMS were
convenient and inexpensive. People might be reluctant to pay a
personal visit due to an increased consideration of space and
privacy on the other side. What's more, some words might be easier
written than spoken. Thus, SMS gained much room to develop for
holiday greetings through mobile phones.
Miss Lu usually delivered New Year Greetings to her boss and
colleagues by phone calls, she said. However, due to a tremendous
telephone volume midnight on the New Year Eve, the line was very
busy. Even if you were able to get through, people on the other
side might have gone to bed. Some people even silence the ring in
case of a "phone bombarding." With SMS, people could send their
messages without disturbing other's sleep, or a festival
dinner.
It
is reported that China
Mobile opened the international SMS before the Spring Festival.
It makes an international communication between family members
convenient and cheaper. A subsidiary form for New Year greetings in
the past, SMS has gained a new horizon for holiday greetings,
thanks to the mobile phone popularization.
Ms. Peng Yang from Nanjing Institute of Post and Telecommunications
said she spent most of her time on making greeting cards for her
students already graduated or yet to be. Currently, greeting cards
available at a post office or E-cards on websites are not
customer-tailored, hard to show a personality. She is now working
on campus greeting-card ideas for students to adopt for novelty.
She said celebrating the New Year online reflected the idea of
advancing with the times, a happy surprise and a holiday greeting
in one.
(China.org.cn by Wang Qian, February 9, 2003)