Blog credibility thread: Chinablogs

Written by Julen Madariaga on March 5th, 2009

Ever since I opened this blog the problem of credibility has been in the back of my mind. These days, the comments of a tenacious part-time troll, as well as some recent events that shook the Chinosphere have brought back the subject to the top of my agenda.

It is well known that Chinablogs* (defined as blogs about China in English) are only a tiny part of the Chinese internet, and their readership is insignificant compared to their Chinese counterparts. But it would be a mistake to dismiss them as irrelevant. For some time already, especially after last year’s  events - Tibet revolts and the Olympic torch saga were a turning point -  readers from all sides have questioned the media’s impartiality regarding Chinese politics. Just or not, the fact is that these accusations have cast a doubt, and many have turned to blogs to try to find an independent point of view.

Some things make me suspect that the influence of Chinablogs in shaping the World opinion about China is more significant than their size might suggest. The famous #cde affair, where a well known entrepreneur and blogger in China caused the RMB/dollar exchange to move after a post on his blog, forcing the Chinese government to issue an official notice, confirmed this idea. Also, the world media are sending some of their best writers to China, not to become correspondents as used to be the case, but to open a blog and speak about what they  see outside their window - among other things.  Blog sceptics might want to look at this Boston Globe article to see just how influential blogs can become.

And here is where my question comes in: what legitimates  Chinabloggers to give opinions about this country, its politics, economy and other fields that affect the well being of billions of people?  Where does our credibility lie? Are we misrepresenting ourselves as experts in China without any serious basis?

My take: Intelligent bloggers or intelligent readers?

Although there are exceptions, the majority of blogs commenting on Chinese economy and politics are not written by specialists with credentials in the field. In the same way as the majority of newspaper articles commenting on a wide array of subjects are written by journalists, not by experts.

It is precisely one of the missions of a journalist - and, I suppose, of a blogger too- to collect complex information, digest it and come up with a product that the general public cares to read and understand. Most of the news worth commenting cover many different fields of knowledge so, even if they wanted to,  specialists in one single field would be ill-prepared to write a good opinion article on current affairs.

There is a difference, however, between newspaper editorials and blog posts. The former are supported by an author and a company’s reputation, built over many years, and they have to follow certain rules of the trade. Bloggers are not subject to these restrictions, and, understandably, some readers are expressing doubts about their credibility.

Especially in China, where there’s a permanent imbalance in the market of experts - demand  growing faster than supply- and  it is enough to be a vocal writer to grab a slice of the cake and position oneself as a pontifying guru. Perhaps the best example is this recent fashion of predicting where and when the crisis is going, and how it will affect the Chinese political system. Forgetting to specify that it is just a guess or, in the best of cases, an educated “feeling”.

So it makes sense for an outside observer to maintain some healthy skepticism when looking into the multiple English-speaking sources coming out of China, and to avoid taking credentials at face value in a field where they are all too easily earned.  And it makes sense to keep an eye on the ongoing discussion on the internet, where nothing is taken for granted and every idea has to hold its own.

I am convinced that a reader with common sense can get a more accurate picture of the current events in China reading blogs than by any other means. Here is why:

  • Precisely because there are no other credentials, a blog post has to stand on its own. It has to offer solid arguments and links to support itself.
  • Links can be immediately checked; arguments immediately overturned.  A post is subject to the scrutiny of thousands of readers who have a special interest in the field. Errors rarely go unnoticed.
  • China is too big a country to include in one discipline, and there is no such a thing as “China studies” that can cover the full range of  cultural, political, historical, and other intelligence necessary to understand the country. Only the discussion among diverse sources with experience in the country cancome close to reflecting the real situation.
  • Chinablogs are the only place where people  with diverse professional backgrounds, with different experiences on the ground and sometimes with radically opposed political views discuss China affairs openly and (most of the times) peacefully.
  • The blog has freed us of the tyranny of lifelong experts. No diplomas, contacts or years of experience can help you if you publish nonsense. On the internet, nobody knows you are a dog, but you are quick to become one if you write like one.
  • A reader of blogs typically switches among more different sources and is able to compare far more different points of view more than a reader of any other medium.

That’s all for the moment, sorry for the longish post. Feel free to discuss here -and not in other posts- all aspects regarding credibility. Trolls are welcome as long as they stay on topic. The objective is to speak in general of Chinablogs, not necessarily about ULN (but feel free as well if you wish to discuss this passionating subject)

UPDATE: *Re “Chinablog”.  A commentator pointed out- rightly- that the definition of this term is ambiguous. I am afraid it cannot be otherwise, the term “blog” itself not having a clearly defined meaning. I want to clarify that, for the purpose of this post, I am counting as “Chinablogs” all the websites that participate in the online discussion about China using blogging methods (pingbacks, comments, links) to interact with each other. Some are based in China and some are not, see my blogroll for examples. Note that not all of them would necessarily agree to call themselves “blogs”.

And if you are still not tired of reading, some boring info after the fold.

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Comments so far ↓

  1. Mar
    5
    5:18
    AM
    FOARP

    To be honest I am surprised that you wrote this post. You have nothing to prove, especially not to people who would criticise whatever your qualifications. Arguments must stand on their own feet and accepted on face value.

    [Reply to this comment]

  2. Mar
    5
    7:22
    AM
    Tom

    I’ll echo FOARP about you having nothing to prove and probably little to gain with the likes of some commenters. I’ll only add that for me, credibility is far less important than the enjoyment derived from the material/writing. If there were janitors in the US writing a group blog about China, and writing about it in an engaging way, I’d drop it in my news feeder.

    [Reply to this comment]

  3. Mar
    5
    8:29
    AM
    totochi

    Well, for whatever it’s worth, I chose to ignore SXF’s rude comments in the previous thread and bought the book from Amazon anyway. Thanks for taking the time to write the review.

    [Reply to this comment]

  4. Mar
    5
    9:18
    AM
    alou

    Are you trying to justify to your self about keeping a blog for persons to read. Dont let SuoXiaoFan make you think that it is a conceit. Your blog is OK. I like reading it.

    [Reply to this comment]

  5. Mar
    5
    9:23
    AM
    Tom

    Keep going the way you did until now and do not give away more information about yourself. Don’t make yourself vulnerable, write whatever you want to write - it’s your blog!

    [Reply to this comment]

  6. Mar
    5
    12:16
    PM
    Dan

    I hereby incorporate FOARP’s comment one as though fully set forth herein.

    I wrote a post on a somewhat similar theme here: http://www.chinalawblog.com/2007/12/looking_out_airplane_windows_i.html
    The more views/perspectives expressed online the better. And yes, someone teaching English has every bit as much right to write a blog as someone with a Ph.d. I judge post by post, not on credentials.

    [Reply to this comment]

  7. Mar
    5
    1:25
    PM
    zhwj

    You’re not really anonymous. Sure, your online identity may not be tied to your offline name and occupation, but for regular readers of your blog, uln stands for a personality built upon the foundation of your blog archives. The first time I visit a blog, I’ll evaluate the post based solely on the evidence presented, the links, and commenter responses, but every time afterward I have a general impression of the blogger that, for better or for worse, is gradually built up in my mind. Of course, because new readers are (hopefully) continually discovering any given blog, bloggers themselves can’t really rely on that reputation, so maybe it all works out the same in the end.

    And maybe it doesn’t matter. When I first started blogging (about Chinese SF), I had only just discovered it, but I had found something I thought was interesting and exciting and I wanted to share it with people. The same with Chinese media. That’s what I see as the fundamental motivation for blogging - there’s an idea that you want to share with other people. We don’t ask for peer review when we’re talking over current events or books or theories with friends around the dinner table, and this platform seems to me to be an extension of that largely informal conversation. Specialists who blog are engaging in a discussion with other specialists some of the time - people they’d talk to at lunch - but I’m always appreciative when that conversation is opened to me as a non-specialist by pointing me to interesting arguments and data.

    Thanks for putting the time into this post (and all those other posts, too).

    [Reply to this comment]

  8. Mar
    5
    3:13
    PM
    潇潇

    Please don’t let SuoXiaoFan ruin it. There’s a kind of logic fallacy called “ad hominem argument”, meaning “argument against the person”. An ad hominem argument consists of “replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the source making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim. The process of proving or disproving the claim is thereby subverted, and the argumentum ad hominem works to change the subject.” (from Wikipedia)

    And that’s exactly what SuoXiaoFan had done.

    [Reply to this comment]

  9. Mar
    5
    8:26
    PM
    uln

    Hi, thanks all for commenting and for the support.

    As you can imagine, that guy SXF has not really “hurt my feelings”. It is just that by chance he happened to comment on an idea that I had already in my mind. Also, this kind of questioning is one that I have encountered before not only on the net, but also in real life: “nong dong sha?”. Writing this post has helped me answer a question that I was asking myself.

    My post above tries perhaps to generalize too much. Like zhwj says, for every thing there is a place and a time: some blogs are for specialists, some translate news, some just do jokes or speak of their cat. Obviously not all of them are looking for peer review, and even less for personal attacks.

    But it is also true that critical comments make for a richer content, and precisely the slogan of this blog is: “without the freedom to blame there can be no flattering praise”. So please, quit “praising” and start “blaming”! :)

    I just checked Dan’s link above, and I really liked this line, which I have stolen and adapted for my purpose:

    “By SXF’s standards, de Toqueville should not have written about the United States, Hemingway should not have written on Spain, and Henry James should not have written on Europe.”

    [Reply to this comment]

  10. Mar
    6
    2:53
    AM
    jaime de la esperanza

    Cheverisimo! Good and thoughtful post. I don’t mind your “proving yourself” at all, it adds a nice touch of humility that can be lacking in the blogosphere.

    About the following statement:

    “A reader of blogs typically switches among more different sources and is able to compare far more different points of view more than a reader of any other medium.”

    Concerning English blogs, I will guess that readers of most blogs probably take different flight paths but inhabit the same orbit. There is variance, but not past a certain, comfortable level, and there is certainly (online) cameraderie between like-minded bloggers too, which eventually might limit the level of critique when things (need to) get contentious. And those on the fringes stock their blog rolls with like minded people as well.

    I really wish there were more Chinese people, residing in China, involved in what has become the mainstream “On China” English language blogging process. I don’t mean wives/gfs of the (mostly male, mostly middle-ageish and up) bloggers, nor do I mean the occasional commenter on someone else’s blog, and I don’t mean Chinese people whose university education has solely been in the west. What do you think about this? It sometimes strikes me as odd, that other than a few choice blogs (ESWN, Fools Mountain come to mind) the English language China-blogosphere is mainly college educated white guys from half a dozen nations at most. That is a very very limited group, and then when you consider that many of them don’t have anything more than a moderate grasp of spoken Chinese… with that said, I should commend you on reaching level 7 on the HSK.

    This isn’t a criticism of your blog, which I enjoy, its just one reader addressing some of the things you are touching on.

    Then too, I wonder about the comments sections of blogs. If a blogger made a huge gaffe, or was caught out in a lie, being an X industry shill (not totally improbable given that so many blogs are written by specialists in certain fields) or some such, other than someone somehow getting in a comment on another persons blog, is there much consequence to be had. Based on that scenario, what do you think about the future of accountability for the blogging media?

    ciao for now,

    Jaime

    [Reply to this comment]

  11. Mar
    6
    6:41
    AM
    badakizu nor naizen

    Hi,

    As a longtime chinayouren reader I had always suspected ULN was a nerd. In this sense, ‘something about ULN’ has been pretty reassuring!

    Anyway, keep on blogging, you’re doing a great job!

    ciao

    [Reply to this comment]

  12. Mar
    6
    9:38
    AM
    mike

    so, a china blogger telling other china bloggers just how influential china bloggers are becoming, supported by comments from, yes you guessed it, other china bloggers. you couldn’t make this circle jerk stuff up if you tried.

    and CDE is not an entrepreneur and blogger. he is a businessman who runs a company that printed inaccurate information on its website (yes, he blogs on the side, but that is not relevant to what happened). This created a stir, just as it would had it been in print. I am not denying the importance of online news but all this china blog backslapping is silly.

    probably the only influential china blog (ie. read by non-bloggers) is ESWN. And that is because he translates stories from the real influential bloggers/journalist - Chinese bloggers/journalists! Tania Branigan in the Guardian steals half her stories from there anyway.

    (cue lots of disagreement from China bloggers)

    [Reply to this comment]

  13. Mar
    6
    11:26
    AM
    Bill

    Mike- Perhaps one way you could look at it, from a very cynical point of view, is that the Chinese blogging world has made the circle jerk much larger. Compared to just five years ago, most people in the “interpreting China business” now visit a dozen or few dozen Chinablogs per day, instead of just a few limited amount of major newspapers. Many of the Chinabloggers have a lot of personal experience in different fields, or are fluent in Chinese and know what is happening in the Chinese blogosphere.

    From my point of view (also, would like to keep myself semi-anonymous) I’m involved in the labor field, and reading the business blogs about current trends is useful in confirming whether or not their experiences match what we’ve been hearing and reading on the ground.

    So, in general, I think the Chinablogging phenomenon is great because a few hundred or thousand people intelligently analyzing and commenting on what’s going on is much more likely to decrease the amount of major stories missed. Also, even though major paper publications often produce great reports, their audience almost always has a more narrow interest that will limit the types of stories chosen. Of course, there are limits to the usefulness of the Chinablogging phenomenon, mainly, as stated by uln, there are perhaps not a lot of hardcore experts in certain fields, and the geographical locations and positions of Chinabloggers means that they know a lot about how the educated and well-off in Beijing and Shanghai are viewing events, but less so about how things are going in, say, Anyang, Henan, in rural areas, or in areas populated by ethnic minorities.

    [Reply to this comment]

  14. Mar
    6
    1:00
    PM
    G.E. Anderson

    Whenever I read a blog, I tend to be drawn in by the content. If I find it interesting or unique, only then do I look at the blogger’s credentials. And even then, it’s only to satisfy my curiosity. Your anonymity doesn’t bother me. I often find your analysis to be interesting; therefore, I follow your blog.

    I don’t think there is a requisite set of skills or experiences for someone to keep a blog. And I have yet to find a blogger, with the possible exception of Mike Pettis, whose every entry is interesting, unique and profound.

    Still, I follow a lot of blogs because almost every China blogger comes up with something interesting, unique or profound once in awhile.

    We are all richer for it.

    [Reply to this comment]

  15. Mar
    6
    2:21
    PM
    Cat

    Keep up the good work Chinayouren! Don’t get discouraged by people who are too petty and immature to appreciate different view points.

    What’s great about the blogging world is we can see people from different walks of life, from different corners of the world, expressing their views on the same issue. Through the process, we learn the weaknesses in our own arguments and improve our understanding of the issues. Democracy at its best!

    I think it’s neat that you reveal your background a little. Sometimes anonymity is good, but other times, I’d like to know what shaped a person’s world view. I bet if we have a blogging conference, we’d be shocked to see the faces behind the blogs or the comments.

    Thanks for sharing you thoughts on China!

    [Reply to this comment]

  16. Mar
    6
    3:14
    PM
    Magnus

    A white guy says, “Hey you live in China right?”
    Another white guy says, “yeah.”
    The first guy asks, “You have a computer right?”
    The other guys repeats, “yeah.”
    Then the first guy says, “Perfect, you can write a blog about China.”
    你现在住在中国,对不对?
    对啊!
    你有没有电脑?
    有!
    太好了! 你可以写一个关于中国的博客!
    Comic can be found here.
    http://www.mandmx.com/2008/10/18/blogging-in-china/

    [Reply to this comment]

  17. Mar
    6
    3:17
    PM
    mike

    Bill - don’t get me wrong. I enjoy looking at China blogs, but then I am in the country so there is some relevance (although, a dozen different blogs a day? Thankfully, i have far less interesting things to do)

    In my reply, though, I was actually specifically referring to the rather outrageous statement from above:
    “Some things make me suspect that the influence of Chinablogs in shaping the World opinion about China is significant, and rapidly growing.”

    [Reply to this comment]

  18. Mar
    6
    4:10
    PM
    FOARP

    @Magnus - Reminds me of something NME published during the Punk Rock revolution of the seventies: “Do you have a guitar? Here’s one chord (diagram of how to play a C on a guitar), here’s another (diagram of A) - now go and form a band”.

    All the same, I find mainstream media on China lacking in depth, stereotyped (but not in the Anti-CNN sense), and very cliched. This doesn’t mean I don’t read it, this just means I check it against what people who actually work/live in those areas (as opposed to flying in from Beijing or Shanghai) say.

    [Reply to this comment]

  19. Mar
    6
    4:40
    PM
    Bill

    Mike-I see what you mean, but on the other hand, I don’t think that the comment is all to far from the truth. If you have time to browse a lot of blogs, and if it fits in with your job description (ie, being a journalist), then it is quite possible that the stories or analysis that is picked up on the blogs would influence your reporting, which in turn becomes the picture of China painted in the mind of the guy in Golden, CO who is reading Time magazine or whatever.

    Nicholas Kristof wrote in “China Wakes” (from the early 1990′s) about how shoddy the press core in Beijing often was, unintentionally of course. He mentioned how he found out one year that the authorities had massively ramped up enforcement of the One Child Policy, which directly influenced hundreds of millions, and yet not one foreign reporter noticed. (Part of that was due to travel restrictions, part was due to being located solely in Beijing, but part was the difficulty in covering a continental-sized country with a lot of regional, economic and cultural diversity).

    So, my point is that, whether one is talking about business, social trends, pop culture…etc, good blogs can help fill that gap, and make the analysis on the web richer. With that said, I think jaime de la esperanza’s comments about the demographic limitations of China blogging ring true.

    [Reply to this comment]

  20. Mar
    6
    10:45
    PM
    Magnus

    @FOARP - That’s funny about PUNK ROCK but it’s probably true. I’m not a big fan of Punk…I’d rather talented musicians.
    It’s sad to say that nowadays NO MATTER where you live in this world you have to SEARCH for the truth in the media. I like to point at the Chinese Gov’t but American media is just as bad. Hence the growing popularity of BLOGs and alternative media. But we still need labels…

    [Reply to this comment]

  21. Mar
    6
    11:29
    PM
    jaime de la esperanza

    Mike, I like your cynicism - from such grows standards and an outline for critique, right? - although I think it’s a bit off to put ULN in this group of “circle jerkers” because ULN at least offers posts in Spanish. English, Chinese and Spanish are all in the top 4 languages spoken round the globe, yet just a few years ago there was very little good non-mainstream media information about China on the web in Spanish. This is definitely a step towards diversifying the voices and perspectives on China.

    Also, I don’t think anyone here would disagree with ESWN being influential. Haha, not even Roland himself.

    [Reply to this comment]

  22. Mar
    7
    12:01
    AM
    uln

    @Mike - “the influence of China blogs in shaping the World opinion about China is significant, and rapidly growing.”

    Yes, this line is a bit optimistic, I’ll give you that. The truth is I have no real measure of the influence of chinablogs. But I am quite sure it is to some extent “significant”, and growing.

    It is difficult to measure influence, really. There are many thinktanks, magazines, etc. out there that use blogs to get information about China, but don’t quote directly or refer to them. You find pieces in the media sometimes that look very familiar.

    In some field, like economy or business, there are so many sources already that I don’t think anyone would need to look at the China blogs. But think of aspects like politics, Human Rights, internet, media, censorship, opinion on the ground, etc. There are really not so many sources to choose from, and I am pretty confident that some blogs are being read by more people than we imagine.

    I was really surprised, for example, when I wrote the article on Chrter 08, that Yahoo News put me for a few hours on their Asia frontpage, when I had only just begun blogging and had almost 0 contacts. I am sure this kind of thing can only happen in China, because of the unbalance I mentioned above.

    ESWN is perhaps the most influent, but I think you are missing out a lot if you think he is the only one. Bear in mind also that when I say “bloggers” I am including many kinds of bloggers, from professionals like M.Pettis or V. Shih, to unis like the excellent Berkeley’s Digital Tims or China Media project. Even some journalist working for mainstream media who call themselves bloggers.

    So yes, it is a very broad definition. But again, some things happen in China blogs that don’t happen elsewhere.

    [Reply to this comment]

  23. Mar
    7
    12:17
    AM
    uln

    One more thing. About the blogger backslapping: Yes, there is a bit of that in this article, once in a while it doesn’t hurt.

    But you would be wrong to think that China blogs are some sort of closed circle that only stand for each other. I have only been writing for 4 months and from the beggining I was amazed how everyone, including the most famous ones were answering my emails and comments, and 2 of the big ones linked to me from the very first post.

    My point is : the circle is completely open and constantly looking for new sources. So with a little bit of pacience it is really easy to make your voice heard, if you have something to say.

    [Reply to this comment]

  24. Mar
    7
    3:35
    AM
    Matthew A. Sawtell

    Given the nature of the Internet - and unchecked “monsters of the ID” that are running around - I find your observation very much on the mark. Throw in the quasi-cloak and dagger nature of the subject matter, P.R. China - and the questions just bubble forth about who’s who, what’s what, and where the payola is coming from.

    It is in times like this I hum a few bars of “Float” by Flogging Molly and keep on typing.

    “Never explain - your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.” - Elbert Hubbard

    [Reply to this comment]

  25. Mar
    8
    11:35
    AM
    uln

    One more thougth: re #cde.

    Like Mark said above, cde was a businessman, yes, and he might not call himself a blogger. But if you think of it, his China briefing newsletter was nothing more than a Chinablog which he used to build a (fake) reputation. The guy had been active in blogs and forums here for years, doing comments and posts like every one of us.

    Perhaps the Dow Jones journalist who sent the cable to HQ wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for this internet reputation. Otherwise, would a small consultancy company justify DJ publishing these news? It is all part of the China blogs/news phenomenon: demand of info exceeds supply.

    And of course, the other part of the #cde affair (the fall of cde) could never have happened without the chinablogs.

    [Reply to this comment]

  26. Mar
    8
    3:42
    PM
    xu

    uln

    Could you please make the text size of the comments a little bit bigger? It’s really difficult for me.

    [Reply to this comment]

  27. Mar
    8
    10:04
    PM
    uln

    I was thinking of that too. I might look into it when i get some time, I also wanted to install the “reply to comment” option.

    In the meantime, I suggest you go to “view” and then “zoom in” in firefox, or equivalent option in other browsers. Normally they all have the possibility to increase or reduce zoom. I do it all the time in Chinese blogs because I find it really difficult to read the characters in small tyoe.

    [Reply to this comment]

  28. Mar
    9
    5:44
    PM
    mike

    Hi ULN

    Again, have to disagree on the CDE matter. There is still a difference between websites and blogs. China Briefing has a website, very different from what you like to call “chinablogs’.

    also, the fall of CDE came at the hands of the relevant government bodies and had nothing to do with blogs. CDE has proven in the past he cares little about bloggers (aside from an obsessive desire to shut them up). You and all the other ‘chinabloggers’ could have blogged until your fingertips fell off and it would have had no effect. I am afraid it was the government that did it!

    [Reply to this comment]

  29. Mar
    9
    11:16
    PM
    uln

    Hi Mike,

    You made some good points in your previous comments, but re #cde, I think you are at least partly wrong. The guy actually had a blog at http://www.china-briefing.com/blog/ (it is down now, but you can still see lots of evidence by googling this URL) and for years he networked in the way bloggers do, through pingbacks, comments, syndication and all that. See for example how he himself sent posts to haohao: http://tinyurl.com/cjhfor, and pingbacked/commented many of the main “chinablogs”

    CDE was a businessman, so what. I am an engineer, others are lawyers, consultants or researchers. Of course, blogging is normally not a full-time activity, and many use it to support their business. Re CDE’s fall: He could have been able to get away with it, as he did always in the past, if it weren’t for the intenet attacks originating from bloggers and twitterers, which showed the worst part of the story to all his clients. And it is not unreasonable to think that he resigned to avoid his presence hurting the reputation of C-Briefing. (but this point is unclear)

    Anyway, it is silly to discuss what is and what is not a “chinablog”. I see you don’t like the term, and that is up to you. Possibly many of the blogs I refer to don’t like it either, I never asked them for permission to use it. For that matter, you could also try to define what IS actually a blog, and you might find out that many of them are just,like you say, “websites”. Look at the biggest of all, the Huffington Post, and tell me what is the difference with an online newspaper.

    I defined the term chinablog in my article as “blogs about China in English”. A definition that is in itself vague, because blog is a vague term. Some of them don’t even define themselves as blogs, but rather as “university projects” or “news sites”. Whatever, by this term I was trying to refer to “the online community that interacts constantly about China using methods typical of blogs”, I hope now it is a bit more clear.

    [Reply to this comment]

  30. Mar
    10
    12:19
    AM
    perspectivehere

    I find the Chinablogs interesting as opinion pieces, and sometimes pick up some new facts, links and perspectives on things. But like the bargain bin at the export overrun outlet, you may have to pick through many many versions of the same crappy items to find the one or two pieces that was worth visiting for. And there’s no accounting for taste because one man’s treasure is another’s junk. Chacun ses goûts.

    I agree with those who mention ESWN as the greatest contributor to Chinablogs, a kind of Grand Central Station for taking you to interesting places, if you will. I would never have found this page if not for the fact that ESWN had it on its “Recommended Photos/Videos/Readings” board.

    While I’m at it, I want to say that I am appreciative of FOARP’s blog for its dogged persistence in pointing out, shall we say, perceived inconsistencies in promotional statements made by certain website(s). Whether FOARP is correct or not I don’t know, but the fact that FOARP bothered to fact-check something (and in effect, put him/herself on the line since visitors to his/her blog can fact-check his/her fact-checking to the extent those websites are checkable) has highlighted once again that “caveat lector” is the best approach for anything one reads on the web or anywhere else, no matter what the source.

    This made reading the SCMP article “Slight detour in mainland’s consistent foreign exchange policy” by Jane Cai and Martin Zhou in Beijing Mar 02, 2009 very interesting, as I was expecting it to lead up to a more dramatic conclusion than the rather anticlimactic one that appeared:

    “Mainland officials have been highly consistent on foreign exchange policy - keeping the yuan stable. But a deviation has occurred recently. China Briefing, an English-language magazine owned by consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates, reported on February 17 that Zhang Xiaoqiang, the deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), had commented that the yuan might drop as low as seven against the US dollar because of a weaker mainland economy….A China Briefing source told the South China Morning Post that the contentious part of the quote was indeed Mr Zhang’s original words, yet were “meant to be off the record”. “But apparently the translator didn’t get the message across to the [author],” he said. The author of the article, Chris Devonshire-Ellis, could not be reached for comment.”

    Perhaps the SCMP journalists need to read more Chinablogs….

    [Reply to this comment]

  31. Mar
    10
    12:43
    AM
    uln

    You are in a circular argument. Most commentators in this thread seem to say that ESWN is the most influential because most of them are readers of ESWN, as they came through its link (I can see that in the stats). Inversely in a post linked by Danwei I might get people saying Danwei is the most influential.

    Don’t get me wrong, I like both blogs and I don’t want to turn this into a silly competition. But I just wanted to say that there are also many other blogs that contribute to the discussion and there is, to a certain extent, a sense of teamwork.

    And yes, if you are short of time it is not a bad idea to stick to the big ones, they will (almost) always bring the interesting items to you before you can find them yourself browsing 100 blogs.

    [Reply to this comment]

  32. Apr
    2
    6:26
    AM
    TonyB

    Hi Everyone,
    I have a carpet cleaning business in Houston,TX that was doing pretty good until the economy went bad, and with it my clientele. I have a website for the business but I dont
    know what I have to do the get it to show up in a search. Right now it’s somewhere in the yahoo/google netherworld (LOL).

    Is there someone on here that can give me some insight or know of anyone that coud give me insight on how I can get my local website on the front
    page of a Yahoo or Google search to increase my business without it costing me 5 or 10k $$$? If so please share with me.

    I thank you and my hungry over-eating children thank you.

    thanks,

    [Reply to this comment]

  33. May
    20
    2:56
    AM
    Gedicht

    Hello from Germany! May i quote a post a translated part of your blog with a link to you? I’ve tried to contact you for the topic Blog credibility thread: Chinablogs | CHINAYOUREN, but i got no answer, please reply when you have a moment, thanks, Gedicht

    [Reply to this comment]

  34. May
    20
    2:00
    PM
    Julen

    I tried to write you an email but it bounced back. Then I realized you are probably just automatic spam.

    If you are a real person, please answer to this comment here within a week (or I will spam the whole thing).

    Oh, and you can use the post, sure.

    [Reply to this comment]

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