Celebrities and famous personalities in foreign countries have been taking up the Ice Bucket Challenge, social media's latest craze these days. Participants douse themselves with a bucket of ice-cold water and post the video to social media, challenging three others to either do the same within 24 hours or make a donation to the ALS Association.

The feel-good campaign is aimed at raising both money and awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

The viral Ice Bucket Challenge arrived in China on August 17, with tech giants such as Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi being among the first to dump cold water over their heads. This is the first time that doing charity has become so funny in China.

So far, a number of US top names including Bill Gates, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg have responded actively and taken the icy plunge. The ALS Association said on Monday that it had received $15.6 million in donations over the past two weeks. US President Barack Obama declined the challenge but directly donated $100 to the ALS Association.

Many Chinese netizens posted their soaking pictures on social media. It is impossible that the Ice Bucket Challenge will transform Chinese philanthropy overnight. As modern charity is comprehensive, we need to enact charity laws, improve preferential tax policies, and further advocate doing charitable work in the community. Nevertheless, the ice bucket campaign offers us new horizons.

The viral trend, which carries out charity by playing games, will help alter the approach Chinese take to charitable work.

Philanthropy in China used to be solemn and rigid. But the latest craze on social media in which everybody participates happily will break the Chinese charity tradition and make philanthropy interesting and funny.

Chinese young people, especially those born after 1980, will come up with more creative ideas to help those in need, further enriching the country's philanthropy.

Some Chinese charitable organizations in the past also collected donations by playing games.

The Shanghai United Foundation initiated the "One Egg Project" in 2010, in which participants take a 50-kilometer hike in order to stimulate their friends and families to donate. The money collected was used to provide malnourished children in rural areas with an egg in their daily diet.

The rule of the "One Egg Project" is "I hike, you donate," while the Ice Bucket Challenge emphasizes either dousing yourself with cold water or making a donation.

One evident difference is that hiking is less exciting than pouring cold water.

There are some netizens worrying that such philanthropy risks turning into a flaunting PR show.

Since some company bosses are willing to take part in it, we shouldn't be too critical of them. Let philanthropy be carried out with wide popular appeal. This is what the Ice Bucket Challenge tells us.

The author is director of China Philanthropy Research Institute at the Beijing Normal University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn