The patterns of social greetings in China have changed a lot through the time. But generally speaking, the greeting patterns have in some aspect reflected the life condition of that time period in question. For example, since the ancient time, there has been a common greeting "吃了么" (Have you eaten?) This was frequently used especially before the era of reform and opening-up. However, as the time goes by, the problem of food and clothing which concerns the whole Chinese society has been gradually resolved, so the use of this greeting was much less than before. Replacing it were other patterns of greetings which were related to common people's aspects of life. For example, in the 1970s, greetings like "最近买卖还可以吧?" (Does you business go well recently?) and "现在在哪发财啊?" (Where are you making your fortune at present?), were quite popular.
   Nowadays, as the western culture has been absorbed into China, some new patterns of greeting have been added to; such as "你好"(Hello), "早上好", and even some English greetings "Hello", "Hi", "Good morning". These have been accepted as the common pattern of greeting nowadays.
   As we step into the 21st century, because of popularity of the internet, there occur some novel greetings like "上网了吗?" (Did you enter the internet?).
   Therefore, it is clear to see that as the society develops through the time, the social situation will change, and in turn will cause the content of greeting and the pattern of greeting to change.