05.16.08
In Search of New China Blogs
I can’t tell if it’s that I no longer live in China, or if the amount of intelligent discourse on China in the blogosphere is actually dwindling, but it seems like less and less well-written sino-dribble has been coming out in the past few months. Lately, I find myself desperately looking for new perspectives on China, and not finding much. Not that there’s anything wrong with teaching English for a year in China and blogging about people eating fish heads and spitting on the streets, but a truly poignant blog will provide insight on a deeper level. With that being said, here are some of my own current favorites. If anybody has any others to recommend, please leave a comment with a hyperlink, and a brief description for all to see.
Sinosplice – I’m sure most of you have seen it before, but John Pasden arguably puts together the most consistently thought-provoking China blog out there. His focus is on language, but also covers many of the other nuances of Chinese culture that you start to notice when you have been living in China for 7.7 years. His entries are typically only a few paragraphs long, but rarely do I read them without learning something new, or getting a quick laugh. John also currently works for Praxis Language, which puts out Chinese Pod (and Spanish Pod) which are both provide excellent language learning material for those on the go.
Opposite End of China – Michael recently announced he is leaving Xinjiang for Beijing, but fortunately plans to continue focusing his blog on his home for the past 3 years. Xinjiang is a fascinating place, an entirely different world from Eastern China, and Michael provides some excellent press, for this under-represented region.
China Law Blog – There are many people in this world who are well-versed in the world of law. There are also many people who are well-versed on China. What there aren’t many of, are those who fit both criteria. This is where China Law Blog comes in. It’s one of the few places online where you can read about China from a legal and business perspective, from someone who actually knows what they are talking about.
Hao Hao Report – It’s not a blog per se, but this aggregate site, managed by Ryan McLaughlin (aka The Humanaught) compiles some of the best stories from around the China blogosphere and beyond.
T.
said,
May 16, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I can’t imagine having a China blog list and not having danwei.org and eastsouthnorthwest (zonaeuropa) on it – those are my first two stops. Imagethief and Kaiser Kuo’s are also excellent. Shanghaiist is one of my daily reads. Wongjianshuo provides a Chinese perspective (in English) – and on the more fun side of things there’s ispyshanghai and woaizhongguo. Iheartbeijing is also good stuff – Elyse blogs bilingually!
toomanytribbles
said,
May 16, 2008 at 8:06 pm
i’ve been living in china for a little over a year and i found your blog to be one of the best for insights into this society. your placed yourself in a situation where you could participate in a daily life similar to many local residents. it’s also interesting to see your thoughts after leaving.
there are a lot of blogs about the upcoming olympics or politics, etc., but blogs like this are harder to come by.
Mark
said,
May 16, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I’ve been a long-time fan of Sinocidal but they’ve been quiet for awhile. IMO Shanghaiist is the quintessential China blog. I think perhaps a reason for lack of unique perspectives is that it’s mostly been said already, and we have to wait for substantial new developments in China for new facets to be revealed and discussed. The protests and Olympics and earthquake have been the hot tickets lately but these are more news items than characteristics of China, and it’s more fun to analyze the characteristics. I think once the Olympics get rolling and then wrap up is when we’ll see new elements that will feed the blogomonster.
ZL
said,
May 17, 2008 at 2:26 am
I second the danwei recommendation, one of, if not the best in my opinion.
ouyang
said,
May 17, 2008 at 1:44 pm
It looks like
Sinocidal is down, maybe just temporarily. I hope the blog where Ben appears as a culturally sensitive barbershop assistant hasn’t been lost forever.
Benjamin Ross
said,
May 17, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Thanks for some of the suggestions so far. I guess I probably should have made clear (especially due to some of the e-mails I have received), it’s not that I don’t think the China blogs out there are not of high quality, it’s just that not too many of them have found my way. Plus, I also figured this would be a nice way to spread some link love for good blogs out there that deserve it.
五毛当
said,
May 17, 2008 at 8:35 pm
http://chinacamera.blogspot.com
Missed.
Hank Browne
said,
May 18, 2008 at 7:52 am
It is doubtful that you will find anything terribly insightful, erudite or unique in my blog. You will find my simple reactions to my trip in April 2008.
From time to time I will add bits and pieces. For example, Olympic fever is producing tons of articles and observations–I’ll leave the insight to the pros, like James Fallows of Atlantic Magazine.
National Geographic has an entire issue (May, 2008) with an enormous amout of fascinating statistics. And, of course, the 7.9 earthquake is bringing all the more attention.
King of Men
said,
May 18, 2008 at 8:34 am
I think Sinocidal’s a racist piece of crap and its social satire has veered from parody into puerile vitriol. Maybe the punters behind it need to pick up a year’s worth of Naitonal Lampoons published between 1975-1988 for a refresher course on being able to pull fo parody without sounding like dummies hired by the CCP to foster anti-foreigner sentiment. Sinosplice has become boring and predictable. Pasden would rather sell shirts. His archives up until 2006 are worth perusing for China-bound newbies. There does appear to be a drop in the number of China-based expat blogs compared to the “golden age” of 2003-2006. Most of the regular bloggers left China and for those that continued blogging it was as if China ceased to be discussed once they settled back in to their homes.
Right now, Roland Song’s East South West North and Danwei.org are the only blogs to run at the same level they started with.
Benjamin Ross
said,
May 18, 2008 at 4:58 pm
@Ouyang
The barbershop posts are all still up and can be accessed here.
@Toomanytribbles
Props for giving me 面子 on my own blog.
@Everybody
It appears as if Sinocidal is gone for good. Their domain seems to now belong to another party.
ouyang
said,
May 19, 2008 at 12:03 pm
@Ben, I was referring to the Sinocidal blog in which they poked fun at you. Fortunately, I found it on a web archive.
“Scene 2:
[In Jeff’s apartment. Jeff and his friends Mike and Paul are singing a rendition of My Grandfather’s Clock when there is a knock at the door.]
Jeff: (Shouts) Just a minute!
(immediately there is another knock.)
Jeff: Coming!
(another knock, this time louder)
Jeff: Bloody hell, hang on!
(He opens the door to find a strange looking creature in front of him. A young western man, probably mid-twenties, with spiky, blonde-highlighted black hair and goatee beard.)
Jeff: Hi, you must be Ben. Come on in.
Ben: Hi John! I have come to Beijing to seek my fortune! (He raises one leg and slaps his thigh) Very happy to meet you! I give you this (he presents Jeff with a plastic carrier bag containing a grapefruit.) Round fruit bring you good fortune!
Jeff: Wow…..that’s ahh…..great, thanks.
Ben: Mei guanxi. That means it’s no big thing in this case, but gaunxi has many meanings.
Jeff: I know what guanxi mean…
Ben: (interrupting) What a big apartment! Twelve Chinese families could live here, but Americans are so selfish, I suppose you live in it all by yourself. Oh look, a picture of Mt. Qumolangmafengr. I notice it says Mt Everest though, (tuts) very disrespectful to the great Chinese Nation.
Jeff: (Mutters) I can see this is going to be a bigger challenge than that idiot Mark Eastman. (Having composed himself he takes Ben into the living room.) Ben, this is Mike and Paul, the other members of the group. Guys, this is Ben Ross, he’s going to audition for us.
Mike: Hey Ben, didn’t I read about you? You’re the guy who worked a month in a Chinese barber shop right?
Ben: Yes! It is me! I experience real China, and now I am zhongguotong which means….
Paul: We know what it means. Look we’re pushed for time here guys, shall we get on? Ben, you can sing tenor right? Do you know Amazing Grace?
Ben: I’m not sure, I think I remember something…..
(The three others begin to sing) Ahhhh-maaaaazing Graaaace, how sweeeet the sound…
(With this first line a change comes over Ben, a look of bewildered recognition on his face. He starts to sing with the others, his voice a beautiful falsetto, and by the end of the song tears are streaming down his face.)
Jeff: God that really was amazing! Ben, you’re in!
(But Ben isn’t listening, he has caught sight of himself in the mirror.)
Ben: Nooooooooo!! What have I become??? (He grabs a pair of scissors which are sitting on a table and starts to hack at his hair, but quickly he changes back again to his former self and stands, staring at the scissors in his hand.)
Ben: Scissors were invented in China you know, during the Warring States period. The bigger boys at the barbers wouldn’t let me touch the scissors, but I watched them and I learned. I can give massages too, would you like one?
Mike: Good God man! You’re an American for Christ’s sake. Snap out of it!
Ben: (Whimpering) Help me…
Paul: We gotta sort this guy out, he’s gone pinko!
Jeff: I’ll call my friends at the Pentagon!”
… more at A Barberous Tale
Anqi Dai
said,
May 19, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I also read Pekingduck.org and its links to the other blogs. I think I found Ben Ross blog from that site almost two years ago.I used to read Shawn Matthew’s blog before he commited suicide in Beijing. I belive his girlfriend was from Mianyang which just had earthquick last week.
ln
said,
May 21, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Sir, as a man once lived in China, have u heard the earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan province. You are trying to keep connected with China, but obvious u lost the contact.
Nick Dobson
said,
May 22, 2008 at 8:18 am
Three words: Cup of Cha
That said, there are so many out there now who seem to really get China, yourself included, and so many that share my views of China exactly so I tend to avoid dabbling in areas of politics and cultural examination.. I think Josh at http://www.cupofcha.com does this brilliantly.
There are a lot of “gap-year OMG OMG blogs” out there, while i’m sure we’ve all been there, I agree that we need a little more reading than the next “worst toilet i’ve ever seen” story
Fortunately we have quality not so much as quantity.
If you want well-written sino-dribble visit josh, if you want to make your new Chinese girlfriend dribble (with your new found Chinese culinary skills) maybe thats more my department (better still visit Appetite for China)
Kevin
said,
May 23, 2008 at 4:55 am
I’d like to second EastSouthNorthWest and point out Violet Eclipse/Simpson’s Paradox http://www.simpsonsparadox.com, one of the few (only?) women in the China blogosphere.
T.
said,
May 23, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Two more:
China Vortex chinavortex.com – a great blog on the digital state of China’
China Game chinagame.com – very insightful China business blog
justrecently
said,
May 25, 2008 at 11:37 am
There are some blogs about China that I read regularly, and I think the c1ashes about +ibet, the way the Olympic Torch Relay was handled etc. have taken its toll on the aggregated sino-dribble. It’s hard to write good stuff when anger blinds you – that goes for Chinese and Western blogs alike. But then, conflict brings out aspects that would stay under the carpet at other times.
More than a personal blog list, bookmark subscriptions like the one at del.icio look like a good source of realtime information about China to me – and you can go by your own list of buzzwords/tags there.
Gabrielle
said,
May 26, 2008 at 11:35 am
Hey there. I’ve commented on a few other blogs about this, but I figured I come here too, just in case. I have a favor to ask of someone. I recently received a postcard from Hong Kong, completely written in Chinese. Could someone with the awesome ability to read and understand Chinese hop on over to my blog and translate it for me? Thanks in advance. I really appreciate it.
Yeah, I agree with Kevin about http://www.simpsonsparadox.com. I enjoy reading Meg’s blog a lot. I’ve been living vicariously through her words a lot since I got back.
Another one that I’ve visited lately is http://www.aroseninchina.blogspot.com. She’s got an interesting perspective on China.
I found http://projectjanel.org/china/index.html randomly one day, but I do believe it’s dead – in that she hasn’t added anything to it in a very long time.
Tora
said,
June 3, 2008 at 2:28 am
How’s your Spanish? A blog I rather enjoy reading is chino chano
http://chinochano.zoomblog.com/
Benjamin Ross
said,
June 3, 2008 at 5:55 am
@Tora
Unfortunately, my Spanish is just about good enough to order lunch at the Taqueria down the street, and that’s about it…not quite at blog reading level yet. I’ve been making an effort to learn, especially since my neighborhood is about half Mexican, but am finding learning Spanish in the US to be considerably more challenging than learning Chinese in China.