Jia Junpeng, your mother is calling you home for dinner.’ It was the catchphrase that became an unexpected trend in July  2009, and it was my first encounter with the power of Chinese social media in a year when China’s online landscape underwent drastic transformations.

I was living in a residential area of Beijing’s Wudaokou district at the time, and the summer had taken over the city. In the sticky heat, my neighbourhood seemed more alive than ever. A student with a love of Italian opera would sing arias in the community yard every evening. Local men would laugh out loud while playing cards in the street. Children chased each other around the compound with little wooden guns. I could sometimes hear them from my bedroom window: ‘Shoot him! He’s a nationalist!’

• Tags: China, Issue 28, Manya Koetse