Blogger matters: On 'All Chinese Are Blogging'
(CRI)
Updated: 2005-11-16 16:55

"Blogger Matters" focuses on one Chinese blogger per feature, putting his/her posts in English for you and aiming to give you a heads up on what's going on in the Chinese blog-sphere.

Like many other literary men, Leizi (see sidenote 1) likes to read Sanlian Life Week (see sidenote 2). The reason is simple: he "believes those writers out there".

But the cover story of the last issue of Sanlian Life Week seems to annoy him. The article, titled "All Chinese Are Blogging" ("Quan Min Bo Ke"), states that most Chinese write blogs because of their loneliness and the strong desire to be recognized by others. It blames the currently very hot blog competitions, "targeting directly to commercial websites like Sina", according to Leizi.

Sina launched its blog awards months ago, and also has a section where various Chinese celebrities have opened their blogs. Leizi argues in his latest blog entry that it's not Sina's business strategy to increase hits, and hosting the competitions is not against the rules or the spirit of blogging.

All rants come to one point as Leizi asks, "who doesn't want to see his website have proud page views? That's what those blog competitions, like the Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards, are all about."

"Just as the news website replaced traditional media, blogs will definitely replace news websites...[because] everybody can be a Xinhua; everybody can talk and argue."

Sidenote:

1. Leizi runs a column on sina.com.cn, writing excellent reviews on rock music in China. His blog here. (Chinese)

2. Sanlian Life Week is a weekly magazine covering a wide range of topics in China. It features in-depth reports and is a favorite among many literary men.