Chinese music finally strikes the blogosphere in the Latin alphabet.

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 listen to underground stuff that you probably haven't heard of.”

Chinese Hipster: “Yeah. Those Chinese musicians are okay. I'll make you a disc of Chinese indie stuff, and you make me a disc of American underground music. If you have any Matmos or the new Joanna Newsom, put it on there. I like those.”

Frequenting rock shows in Beijing, I quickly learned the humbling truth: A few young Chinese music fans, especially among the music-savvy Beijing counterculture, are as well versed in contemporary Western music trends as a 20-something Brooklynite with a Pitchfork RSS feed on his iPhone. Like last week's episode of “Prison Break,” the digital flood of Western indie rock, pop and electronica has already burst through the cracks in the Great Firewall.

“I learn a lot about bands I like online,” says Shanghai-based blogger Zhang Sisi. “I read RockSelf.com, RockYear.com and especially BeHereNow.cn, which is a Britpop forum. If I am interested in something I can download it at Verycd.com.”

Mandarin-speaking Web surfers have numerous options for exploring both Western and Chinese music. Douban.com reviews everything from emerging math rock acts like Battles to syrupy Mandopop crooners like Jay Chou. Mushroom Needle and the Music Dust Community are popular MP3 blogs that feature Chinese and overseas indie acts. Musicians like Tian Yuan of Hopscotch and Su Lingsheng of SuperVC regularly update personal blogs that have vastly expanded their fan bases.

Though Chinese-language sites trafficking in Western and Chinese music are manifold, English-language sites focused on Chinese music are as scarce as un-pirated CDs. Yes, college kids can impress the karaoke clique by memorizing Stefanie Sun lyrics at ChinaMusicBlog.com, but what online resources are there for those curious about what's really going on in China's music scenes?

One of the most comprehensive sites dedicated to rock in China is the appropriately URL-ed RockinChina.com. Beijing-based Yu Yang and Max-Leonhard von Schaper first launched a version of Rock in China in 2004 to document Beijing's frenzied metal scene. Today, Rock in China features a Chinese music Wiki, a Flickr set with nearly 100 users and 1,500 photos and the stellar Rock in China blog.

Those hungry for the latest online Dou Wei gossip and the viral video of the local punk band's expletive-fueled diatribe against the Olympics can set their mouse pointers on Chinalyst.net, a site that keeps its ear to the ground for online English-language bloggings about Chinese music and culture. Its feed of music-centric posts, aggregated from sites like Shanghaiist.com and Danwei.org, can be found here.

LastFM also incorporates a number of superb resources for the music-obsessed Sinonaut. Of the many China-oriented communities at Last FM, the most popular is the Chinese Indie Group, which hosts 492 members, as well as regularly updated articles and discussions. Perhaps most valuable, however, is the group's list of 150 Chinese indie acts with names in both Chinese and English. Unsurprisingly, many of these indie acts are signed to Beijing indie alchemists Modern Sky and Tag Team Records.

Both Modern Sky and Tag Team are already exploiting the Web to market their roster of rockers to English-speaking communities in and out of China. “For Tag Team, the importance of the Web is massive,” says label helmsman Matthew Kagler. “We hired Jelly NYC in Brooklyn to do viral marketing campaigns and inundate blogs. About 25 percent of total sales now come from online sales.”

The push to market China's indie bands in the West appears to be working. With the success of viral marketing and Tag Team acts Lonely China Day and Re-TROS's American tours, 70 percent of Tag Team's English-language site traffic now comes from North America.

Five years ago, the Mandarin-challenged had almost nowhere to turn to for news about China's innovative musical stalwarts or burgeoning underground groups. Today, a dutiful expat audiophile with broadband can easily become consumed by the ins and outs of China's myriad music scenes. And, maybe the next time that plugged-in expat meets a cool local with multiple piercings, horn-rimmed spectacles and a carefully groomed moptop, Mr. Expat will be able to prove he knows as much about his new local music scene as the Chinese hipster knows about the scene back home. Rocking China's Web.