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March 05, 2005

Article about China Blogs

(Published January 13, 2005 in Beijing's City Weekend)

Blog On
by Lydia Holden

China is home to hundreds of Web logs -- the online diaries referred to as "blogs" -- from both expats living here and Chinese nationals wishing to connect to the foreign community. After trolling through blog after blog, City Weekend chose a select few that are smart, funny and work to serve expats living in China. Highlighted below are two, with more to follow in the coming months.

Sinosplice
Blog: www.sinosplice.com
Background: Originally from Florida, John T. Pasden, has been blogging about China life since 2002. The 26-year-old is currently teaching in Shanghai while increasing his fluency in Mandarin. With John, expats can share the frustrations of teaching, "I’m really tired of teaching kids and doing all these holiday themed activities," and learn from his experiences with Mandarin, "I found an impressive flashcard database site called Flashcard Exchange," complete with a link to the site. His comments are insightful and often humorous, with great extras like the John and Wilson Chinese Junk Food Review ("I don’t know why I like [the dried squid]. I think part of me doesn’t, but I still finished the bag after the review."). Sinosplice is a well-executed and informative site that is useful for new comers and old China hands alike.
Excerpt: I had barely gotten past the ‘greeting’ part of the class when four kids spontaneously jumped out of their seats and started busting out kung fu moves. They were followed by four more. I was suddenly surrounded by eight little martial arts munchkins, and my protests were completely useless.

Leylop
Blog: www.leylop.com
Background: Leylop, a Chinese college student, logged on in December 2002 using her impressive English skills to introduce foreigners to her Chinese life and muses on everything from opening her own Mandarin language school to traveling to movies. While Leylop is probably a fortunate one (a handful of entries are posted from Europe), her insights are charming and she seems just like one of the girls, "I spent all night sitting at the computer, it was already 9 in the morning, I still couldn't stop-- Ok, I was watching this Korean TV series, and I was totally hooked." Chinese chic meets Western modernism.
Excerpt: Hello Mrs. Mariah Carey, please do not go nuts before considering my suggestion: China is a potential market for you... because you're still popular here. How about moving to China and singing in Chinese? You could be our pop queen! But you have to learn Chinese well first. Don’t worry, I'm thinking about opening a Chinese learning school you could be my first student, for free, but there is one rule you have to follow: get rid of your terrible dresses.

Posted by chan at March 5, 2005 08:13 PM