Major events on Chinese social media in 2014

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Lei Jun, founder of smartphone maker Xiaomi, who was the first celebrity in China to accept the challenge.

The Ice Bucket Challenge -- a carnival of charity and social media

Trends that originate in the United States cannot usually cause the same effect in China, but the Ice Bucket Challenge is an exception. The popularity of the social event owes much to Lei Jun, founder of smartphone maker Xiaomi, who was the first celebrity in China to accept the challenge, while influential social media also helped it go viral.

On August 18, almost all celebrities in the country were busy accepting the challenge and nominating others to do the same thing. On this day alone, "Ice Bucket Challenge" received a total of 140 million page views and 145 thousand comments in China.

The virally spreading game showed how much influence social media is capable of exerting on a charity. Between late July and middle August, the foundation for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), to which the donations were meant to go, received up to US$10 million worldwide, almost seven times as much it received the year earlier.

The Ice Bucket Challenge, which combined charity and social media measures, turned philanthropy into more than just a party for the rich and famous, but a game for all.