The latest Sinica podcast is now live. In this edition, Kaiser Kuo, Danwei editor Jeremy Goldkorn and I discuss the state of English language China blogging. The title and blurb are actually a bit alarmist. Our conclusion is that the sense of community around the China blogs has changed as the main discussions have moved from blogs to Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, but there is still excellent English language blogging about China to be found. The podcast might better be called, “The China blog is dead. Long live the China blog.”
The blurb (which wasn’t written by me!):
The China blog is officially dead, moribund, cadaverous, extinct, buried, bereft of life, defunct and totally-and-utterly-inert. It could even be said to be resting in peace, save for the fact that Will Moss drove a silver stake through its heart before recording this podcast. “We single-handledly made the China blog obsolete,” he joked in our studio after further sawing off its head. But he has a point. Because who reads blogs these days?
Does anyone even remember the China blogs of days past? Back then there were greats like Peking Duck, Imagethief, Sinosplice and Danwei, and you could even indulge in a little China-bashing at Talk Talk China. Then came Sinocism and EastSouthWestNorth, and then the mainstream media blogs from magazines like Time and journalists like Malcolm Moore, Peter Foster and Tom Lasseter. And then the explosion of blogs like the Shanghaiist, China Geeks, China Hearsay, ChinaSmack, ChinaHush and CNReviews, not to mention the more eclectic and academic writings of China Youren, Jottings from the Granite Studio, In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock and The China Beat?
Well… we’re sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but all of these blogs are dead. Or that’s the opinion of the curmugeons in our studio this week: Kaiser Kuo, Will Moss and Jeremy Goldkorn, veteran bloggers in China who’ve seen the ups and downs of social media and are prepared to tell it like it is. So join us this week on Sinica for a dissection of the Chinese blog scene. And then get the hell off our lawn. What is it with kids these days anyway?
Download the podcast from the Sinica site, hosted by Popup Chinese. It will also be available on the Popup Chinese page on iTunes, but it’s not there yet.
Two follow-up notes to the podcast. First, it was impossible for us to name all the blogs we like and read, so if you find yourself left out please don’t take it personally. I am happy to take other mentions or suggestions in the comments, below. Also, there is one blog we agree we should have mentioned when we were discussing China business blogs, but somehow neglected to include: David Wolf’s Silicon Hutong. Well worth your time.
Flashback: Imagethief.com circa 2004, before it was on a blogging engine. It's a long story.
“Because who reads blogs these days?”
People who are (and remain) interested in China. With all due respect, it is somewhat arrogant to claim that these blogs are “dead”. But to be honest, I find many of China’s English heavy-weight bloggers tend to have an inflated sense of importance and impact within the greater global blog community…certainly more so than their counterparts in other countries I’ve lived in (kind of like an old boys club, in some ways). Like I said, people who are interested in China read said blogs…so sure, maybe some traffic has been diverted to other mediums and things are no longer as lush as they once were…but come on, put it into perspective. They are blogs…not rock and roll.
Ryan, you did actually listen to the podcast, right? And therefore caught that the “China blogging is dead” thing was a joke, and noted that we not only named many blogs we thought were great (including the ones above), but also conceded that although the sense of community has changed, the overall blogging scene remains positive and lively?
As for the “old boys club” and the inflated sense of importance, most definitely. But, hey, we’re in China.
[...] Sinica podcast: The death of the China blog [...]
@ryan – You really should listen to the podcast…
@Will – I really enjoyed the podcast and have just now looked at a couple of the blogs mentioned. This was the first Sinica I’ve managed to listen to and will now go back for the rest.
Ryan, you clearly didn’t listen to the podcast.
“people who are interested in China read said blogs”
Well, of course. I tend not to read blogs on subjects I’m not at all interested in!
Thanks for the mention, Jeremy!