"My feelings are sort of mixed," said Qu, in a message on her Wechat Moments which went on to explain, "You see, I run into this old man today who’s bent over a bowl of leftover Malatang, so I buy him a bag of bread and a few sausages," then continues, "And it’s getting darker and darker out on the street, and it’s bloody cold, minus 24, and I’m a bit worried about his being alone here, so I get him into an ATM area and hope for the best."

And to her surprise, the Wechat message got a quick response from her many friends who tweeted and re-tweeted to even more friends to share their concerns about the old tramp on that freezing cold Changchun evening, Jan 26.

One 20-something guy, Zhao, on seeing Qu’s post, hurried over to that ATM area at the intersection of Huanghe Rd and Dongsi and saw a tramp huddled down in a corner, and, "He looks like he’s 70 or 80 years old, but with a brand new yellow overcoat. So I go get him two packs of cigarettes and he’s really happy."

The old man who run out of his nursing home staying at an ATM room. [Photo by Wuting/newculturenewspaper]

Zhao adds that he helped the old man light a cigarette and he took a long drag on it. Then, recalled, "I mean it was really freezing outside and I was worried he’d be in trouble." The old tramp, apparently, came to Changchun to look for a nephew several days before, and was a bachelor, without a wife or kids and was living in a nursing home in Dongshan county not far from Changchun, so he headed here by bus.

"I couldn’t find my nephews," he told an interviewer, "but the people of Changchun were really good to me and gave me a lot of stuff to eat."

?Meanwhile, when other people saw Qu’s Wechat post on the Moments function on Monday night, they began taking some basic things to the old fellow, like food, and blankets, with some others giving Qu some money for him. In other words, all of a sudden there was a Wechat charity made up of Qu’s friends, and her friends’ friends?- for a total stranger - all sharing their care and love by making their messages seen and heard.

In discussing the positive effect of social media, such as the one above, two American experts in their book - Networked – The new social operating system, where they say, "Content creation gives networked individuals a chance to reach wider audiences, and positively affect their social standings." They also describe content creation as a voluntary and participatory act.

?Wechat is a form of social media commonly used by Chinese that could possibly be used to convey the power of like-minded people where benevolent behavior could influence other network individuals to pass on concerns.

Staffs from a nursing home picking him back. [Photo by Wuting/newculturenewspaper]

And, thanks to this method, Qu, along with so many kind-hearted people’s help, got the old guy back to the nursing home where he was re-admitted and where a manager, Liu, explained, "We really did try very hard to find him. He got mad with one of the staff here for not letting him put some old stuff in the room."

In conclusion, Qu says that her Wechat friends and she plan to go visit the old man in a couple of days – and take some donations.