Is the era of handwritten letters ending in China?

In April, Zheng Shibo, a doctor in Da Gou village, Shiquan county, receives comic books for her son by post. Zou Hong / For China Daily

Most young Chinese read printed books and handwrote personal letters in the mid-2000s.

But by 2010, even older Chinese－born in the 1950s or 60s－were making efforts to blend in with new technology, while traditional reading and writing were getting marginalized in the public sphere, according to Chang Jiang, assistant professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China.

"Email and instant messaging software gradually replaced the fundamental role of writing and via-a`-vis communication," Chang, who is in his 30s, wrote in an e-mail to the paper, identifying 2000-2005 as milestone years that changed the face of communication in China.

While today, more Chinese in big cities seem to be hailing taxis from the comfort of their living rooms than those waiting out on the streets, thanks to smartphone applications, and children learn Chinese characters on touch-screen devices, there's also a realization in some quarters that the letter-writing tradition must be protected before it vanishes.

The Renmin University of China, for instance, has a museum for Chinese family letters in Beijing, where stone carvings and handwritten letters, dating back to the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), are showcased alongside contemporary samples, giving glimpses of the evolution of post in China since the days of horse-backed mail carriers.

A recent study by the university's Family Letters Cultural Studies Center, which manages the museum, found that only seven percent of some 1,130 individuals surveyed, was still sending or receiving handwritten letters, according to Zhang Ding, the executive director for the center.

In 2000, Yang Jianxin migrated to Beijing from eastern China's Shandong province. He bought a cellphone and stopped writing letters that year.

The 42-year-old taxi driver says: "I miss the ritual of waiting for letters to arrive."

Lu Shanzhi and Lu Hongyan contributed to the story.