Real challenge is beyond ice buckets

The Ice Bucket Challenge has taken China's entertainment and executive worlds by storm after making its debut more than a week ago, with public reading of the news on Sina weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform, crossing 2.9 billion hits in just a few days.

The campaign has drawn the attention of wide spectrum of people and even raised donations for research into a degenerative disease. But there is something more important than money and short-lived attention that such campaigns demand.

Since it was first launched in the United States a couple of months ago, the charity promotion campaign has drawn in many prominent figures, from former US president George W. Bush and Facebook founder Mack Zuckerberg to former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Lady Gaga. From the US the campaign spread to Australia and New Zealand and then to the rest of the world.