人人网：A Leap In Becoming a True Chinese

I’ve been in China since late August. Needless to say, I’ve come a long ways in terms of adjusting to Chinese daily life and social norms. Nowadays, I get asked for directions, I drink bubble tea on an almost daily basis, I am spoken to solely in Chinese by everyone around me that isn’t foreign… the list goes on, but essentially, I’m feeling more and more Chinese as the days go by.

Today, I took a major leap in becoming a true Chinese.

I made a 人人网 account.

人人网 (Renren Wang, or just Renren), is China’s version of Facebook. And just like how practically everyone in the US has a Facebook, practically everyone in China has a Renren. It was only a matter of time before I signed up for one.

(Sidenote: My signing up for Renren may or may not have been motivated by an experiment to see if I would be granted “star status.” From what I understand, “star status” is given to active users of Renren. One of my [American] friends uses Renren regularly and has been rejected for this status on the grounds that he has a fake account; that is, his profile picture is not really of him. So I may or may not want to see if I am more successful than he is at becoming a star user… ahem.)

It’s been a struggle trying to navigate the site, as I can’t fully understand how it works. It’s a lot like Facebook in terms of set up and function, but it’s different enough that, combined with the fact that the site is not in English, it has me wondering whether or not I’m ever going to be able to use the site properly. Still, it’s been fun trying to figure it out. Right now, I only have one friend on Renren – but hopefully that number will grow…

Now, all I gotta do is sign up for a QQ account and then I’ll really be able to get new 关系 going!

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.