BEIJING (AP) \u2014 In China, the names of things are often either ornately poetic or jarringly direct. A new, wildly popular app among young Chinese people is definitively the latter.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s called, simply, \u201cAre You Dead?\u201d<\/p>\n
In a vast country whose young people are increasingly on the move, the new, one-button app \u2014 which has taken the country by digital storm this month \u2014 is essentially exactly what it says it is. People who live alone in far-off cities and may be at risk \u2014 or just perceived as such by friends or relatives \u2014 can push an outsized green circle on their phone screens and send proof of life over the network to a friend or loved one. The cost: 8 yuan (about $1.10).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s simple and straightforward \u2014 essentially a 21st-century Chinese digital version of those American pendants with an alert button on them for senior citizens that gave birth to the famed TV commercial: \u201cI\u2019ve fallen, and I can\u2019t get up!\u201d<\/p>\n
Developed by three young people in their 20s, \u201cAre You Dead?\u201d became the most downloaded paid app on the Apple App Store in China last week, according to local media reports. It is also becoming a top download in places as diverse as Singapore and the Netherlands, Britain and India and the United States \u2014 in line with the developers\u2019 attitude that loneliness and safety aren\u2019t just Chinese issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery country has young people who move to big cities to chase their dreams,\u201d Ian L\u00fc, 29, one of the app\u2019s developers, said Thursday. <\/p>\n
L\u00fc, who worked and lived alone in the southern city of Shenzhen for five years, experienced such loneliness himself. He said the need for a frictionless check-in is especially strong among introverts. \u201cIt\u2019s unrealistic,\u201d he said, \u201cto message people every day just to tell them you\u2019re still alive.\u201d <\/p>\n
A reflection of life in modern China<\/p>\n
Against the backdrop of modern and increasingly frenetic Chinese life, the market for the app is understandable. <\/p>\n
Traditionally, Chinese families have tended to live together or at least in close proximity across generations \u2014 something embedded deep in the nation\u2019s culture until recent years. That has changed in the last few decades with urbanization and rapid economic growth that have sent many Chinese to join what is effectively a diaspora within their own nation \u2014 and taken hundreds of millions far from parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.<\/p>\n
Today, the country has more than 100 million households with only one person, according to an annual report from the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2024. <\/p>\n
Consider Chen Xingyu, 32, who has lived on her own for years in Kunming, the capital of southern China\u2019s Yunnan province. \u201cIt is new and funny. The name \u2019Are You Dead?\u2019 is very interesting,\u201d Chen said.<\/p>\n