THREAD My memory of #socialmedia: #Facebook emerged when I was still a univ student, and we were able to access it in China then, along w/ #Youtube and #Google. I remember connecting to ppl from diff parts of the world on FB, watching documentaries abt #linzhao & 64 on Youtube

But FB was a young trend & was quickly banned after I went abroad. My only way of connecting to family back home was email. Sometimes when I didn't know what to write but wanted to assure parents that I was doing ok, I'd simply put tons of "!" to show genki 元氣. We rarely called

Then #Weibo came to be. At first I didn't know what to do w/ it, as most of my social relations were thru FB, so I began by sharing films, charity shops, food, social events. Gradually I found frds on Weibo too, many of them outspoken, and fun. Some of us stayed frds in real life

My Weibo account was deleted after I actively shared posts abt #LiuXiaobo's death in 2017. But long before that #Wechat had become part of daily life for many incl me. Weibo had also experienced several heavy censorship since 2013 - it was harder to speak up, and less fun

My father had a heart attack last yr. Since then, and since the COVID, I began talking to them more often than I did in the past 12 yrs I've been abroad, via Wechat video call. Wechat feels claustrophobic, bc it's a closed system, not to mention the watching eyes & the censorship

But I know many families like mine and many individuals like myself have been living this in-between life, vulnerable to state powers and could be easily torn apart. FIN