Just like on some virtual playground, bullies emerge from the murk of online communities.
Readers of this column know that I am unabashedly excited about social media. Far from destroying the very fabric of human interaction as many Luddites feared, Web 2.0 did for socializing what photography did for ... Read More
Want to network with Tiger Woods, Quentin Tarantino and Paris Hilton? Get invited to ASmallWorld.
The first time someone told me about the social networking site, ASmallWorld, I thought “what an incredible douche.” The friend in question takes pride in being a socialite, the type who would go to the ... Read More
Bloggers lament the end of utopia as Facebook prepares its Chinese language entry into the marketplace of Babel.
One story caught the attention of the ever-vigilant and has been creating a stir throughout the blogosphere. Last month, an “industry insider” was cited as saying that Facebook would launch a Chinese ... Read More
The tables turn as Chinese women take to the Net outing the boorish behavior of expat men.
There are certain observations which are profound no matter how many times they have been made before. Back home, there are the ubiquitous queries about why women go to the bathroom in groups ... Read More
It’s been a sluggish couple of weeks on the Chinese Internet. Don’t get me wrong, I love absolutely everything about the CPC National Congress, but why do our Internet connections have to slow to a soul-crushing crawl? Thankfully these sad days without Youtube catharsis and high-speed social networking ... Read More
It’s been over a year since crotchety Alaska Senator, Ted Stevens, famously explained that the Internet was not a truck, but rather a series of tubes. Few others have defined the Internet so eloquently, but last month several of China’s own leading Internet heads met in Beijing last ... Read More
The past week I have been locked away in Beijing’s Random House offices putting the finishing touches on the heartbreaking work of staggering genius known as the Fodor’s Beijing Olympics Guidebook. Rich and fulfilling as that process has been, it led me to ponder whether traditional city guides ... Read More
Back when I was a fresh-off-the-boat expat still ogling Beijing's smoggy skyline, I mistakenly assumed my newfound Chinese friends would be ignorant of the pretentious, indie-label heroes populating my MP3 player.
Arrogant Expat Hipster (me): “I listen to some Chinese music like Hopscotch or Cui Jian, but I mainly ... Read More
Please excuse the use of the strike-through gag, but there is a strong argument that the drama and humanity of the looming Beijing Olympic Games will spread by the airwaves, print and maybe, just maybe, from Olympian bloggers as well.
The potential of blogging did scare some Olympic bodies in ... Read More
Hunched over a keyboard, the writer diligently transcribes their day of wonder. The colors, struggles, noise and underhand dealings. Everything was not as it should be. How could a place like this function? Everything was foreign to this foreigner.
The typical China expat blogger has stereotypically been a young, explorative ... Read More
Everyone loves a competition. Bloggers
included. But when the topic turns to
who has the best blog in China, the
question must be asked: Do we have a
competition that cuts the mustard?
The global blogosphere is awash with blog
competitions. Some are dodgy exercises in selfpromotion
while others
are ... Read More
B loggers, in general, could be described as narcissistic self-promoters. Given that I could be accused of resembling that statement, I would also like to point out that there are some others in the China blogosphere who have been using their profiles to aim high in the name of altruism ... Read More
To say that food is an integral part of culture in China is a massive understatement. When I first arrived here, I joked that half the arguments I witnessed on Shanghai's streets were about food. I later learned that this isn't far from the truth. When it comes ... Read More
There are a lot of sites out in the Chinese blogosphere that try and bridge the gulf between cultures. Probably the most obvious include language and cultural blogs like Sinosplice and ChinesePod.com. Sites like these are great resources for China newbies trying to graduate from the training wheels of ... Read More
The Virginia Tech shootings in the United States caused waves in the blogosphere of the Chinese diaspora, particularly when one of the first reports on the massacre alleged that the perpetrator of 32 murders was a Chinese national studying in the U.S. on a student visa. Right away, the ... Read More
A whole CW dedicated to music?! Suddenly the whole blogging for “Tha' Man” experience came into perspective. My fear is one brought on by perhaps the most significant change in my life since landing in China: a complete disconnect for my passion of chords, beats, loops and kicks. Somehow my ... Read More
A common experience that has shaped many expats view of life in China is the inevitable occasion when you are forced to go to the hospital or clinic for some ailment. For many foreigners in China it can be a hit or miss affair, but definitely one that produces some ... Read More
It's about time we took a look at Chinabloglist.com. Kudos to those that set it up. It's a helpful and fun catalogue of over 500 English language blogs regarding China. And where better to start than the CBL Top 10. We wanted to see who is at ... Read More
Expat women in China are having a hard time trying to find decent bachelors. In order to relieve their emotional burden, these women are filtering their rage into the blogosphere's newest trend: rant blogs. This modern day cyber therapy features women who rant about the sexpats they meet in ... Read More
Is it me, or do the days leading up to the Spring Festival seem like a particularly stressful time of year? One could get that impression from reading group blog Bullog.cn these last couple of weeks.
Run for the most part by just one man—Luo Yonghao, once a ... Read More
Could you ever have imagined Jiang Zemin getting frisky with a Youth League assistant? Or Hu Jintao choking on a dumpling? Not in a million years, right? Maybe that explains the lack of interest in politics in China; politicians appear so perfect to the point of being boring. And maybe ... Read More
Last column I touted diversity as the next big thing, then Time magazine chose "you," or actually anyone with a blog, as their 2006 person of the year and blew that out of the water. Sounds good, though, and about time, considering Chinese bloggers have been doing 2.0 since ... Read More
How was your Christmas in China? Did you exchange gifts? Drink eggnog? Celebrate with friends and family? And did you hear about the 10 PhD students from several of China's top universities who late last month put out a joint letter calling for all Chinese to wake up from ... Read More
Long before London's blogging call girl Belle de Jour got a book deal, Mu Zimei, a young journalist in Guangzhou, slept her way to the top of the city's cultural scene and blogged about it every bed of the way, shocking the nation and making headlines worldwide.
Yes ... Read More
Collin Crowell's pick##
Shanghaiist
For me, blogging is 80 percent writing and 20 percent the subject. Good bloggers, like any writer, can take a non-starter subject like a commute home and turn it into a what's-it-all-about-Alfie analysis of life. Like when I came across this blog posting by ... Read More
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Middle 8th: The New Sanlitun Village Location Has Creative Zest
By JPDM
I tried the new Middle 8 location last night. We tried to make a reservation... >>