China spends a significant amount of its online time gaming: each and every of the many internet cafes around the country are filled around the clock with gamers desperately clicking their mice at fantastical MMORPG opponents, or mashing their keyboards in an attempt to master the latest Dance Dance Revolution spin off. But some games are more popular than others, especially the ones that have spawned from social media sites: pretty much everyone in China either plays Happy Farm (or has a Happy Farm in reality), or knows about it. But what other games have become popular over the past year? more ›

If you've ever seen someone playing kaixin's Happy Farm (快乐农场), you've probably wondered to yourself how it got so preposterously named. From the intense clicking, sweating and furrowed brows of habitual "farmers," it would seem that playing happy farm is about as happy as a heroin addict searching for a fix. Besides the usual bouts of anxiety and paranoia over e-crops being stolen or malnourished, it seems that happy farm can also lead to losing your job, breaking up with your significant other, or even aborting your baby. Head over to chinaSMACK for a great translation of many, many more problems wrought from e-farming. Maybe people should get out more, but we'd recommend starting slow: perhaps Happy Farm in Reality? more ›

It seems to be a recurrent theme in Chinese history that farming and happiness are linked. The ancient Poet Tao Qian wrote of the idyllic beauty of picking chrysanthemums and gazing towards the southern hills; everyone from politicians to students were "sent down" to the countryside to promote re-education in the ways of the land; and these days, you can even farm on Kaixin to ease the pain of your technology-ridden soul. more ›