Change of parade watching habits signals TV's decline

Instead of watching TV, Liu Dengke in Qinghai province gazed at his WeChat, a popular instant messaging tool in China, to enjoy pictures and stories about the grand parade in Tian'anmen Square on Thursday.

"My friends in Beijing shared photos they took when aircraft flew overhead with me on WeChat, showing to me how blue the sky was and how proud they felt as armed forces passed by the square," said Liu, 28, a military surgeon in Guide, a county of the province.

"Such the interaction online about the parade commemorating the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War reminded me of my soldiering life and past days with my brothers in arms," he said, adding that the Internet shortened the distance between him and the parade.

As well as looking at the photos and talking on WeChat, he also used his micro blog to discover the military knowledge and the war's history, "because I could take part in discussions on some hot issues about the parade at the same time," he said.

Not only on WeChat, information about the parade carried by Chinese mainstream media was also popular on foreign social media platforms.

By 2 pm, 55 reports made by Xinhua News Agency were forwarded 3,588 times on Twitter, while 63 posts provided by China Central Television were also retweeted more than 2,500 times, according to a new media analysis center under China Daily.

Foreign media, including CNN and BBC, also reported on the parade and posted messages on Twitter, the center said, adding that words frequently showing up on Twitter were Chinese, parade and world.

Shao Yixi, 27, who works in Australia, said she watched the parade via YouTube and read several posts relating to the ceremony on Twitter and Facebook.

"I was excited when I saw formations pass by Tian'anmen Square, and when our national flag was raised in the blue sky, I burst into tears," she added.

Of the top 15 hot topics on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like service, 13 related to the parade, and page views of the top topic called the "70th anniversary of the war" reached 880 million by 3 pm, according to the Weibo team of Sina, China's largest technology company, adding the hottest word on its platform was "salute".

Yin Qiming, a new media operator at Shanghai, said clients showed their biggest interest in the parade, following stories about military equipment, the ceremony process and guests at the square on its WeChat platform.

"Social media let people choose what they want to see by themselves, causing everyone to be a reporter who can share stories about the parade, which easily makes us more involved in the big events and enjoy more in it," he added.

Words that netizens searched most during Thursday's parade.

1.V-Day parade

2.Salute with left hand

3.Son of Belarus President

4.Slashing 300,000 soldiers

5.Formations of veterans in vehicles

6.Russian President Vladimir Putin

7.Zhu Rongji, former Chinese Premier

8.US President Barack Obama

9.What a flourishing age

10.South Korea's President Park Geun-hye