China
Jeremy Goldkorn and Danwei exposed
Roland Soong translates Southern Weekend’s story detailing Jeremy Goldkorn’s travails in running Danwei.org, one of the most popular English-language blogs in China. (Disclosure: I occasionally blog on Danwei.)
Why Danwei?
When he chose ‘Danwei” as the name of the blog, he though that ‘Danwei” was a term with unique Chinese characteristics: The Danwei is a unit that can provide wages, benefits and other guarantees under socialism. This is a utopian society that provides an identity for the people.
Guiding principle:
“I don’t care who is right or wrong. The key is that people are able to debate about moral issues. Five year ago, I don’t think that there is such room for this kind of discussion. His story is significant with respect to the change in Chinese society. I like this kind of topic.”
Cigarettes:
Jeremy Goldkorn took a deep drag on his Zhongnanhai cigarette. Beijingers like this brand of cigarettes, and he has been smoking them for ten years. 6.50 yuan per pack. The cigarette lighter that he carries with is the one yuan kind.
Social life:
He seldom goes out for entertainment. Like many foreigners coming to China, there was a time when he liked to be in Sanlitun and Houhai. But now he is tired of them. His only unbreakable hobby is to climb the Great Wall: “Roaming around the Great Wall is like an addiction.”
Stats:
Since publishing the first blog post in November 2003, Danwei.org has been in existence for almost five years. At first, the daily hit rate was in the dozens. Today, it has grown to between 10,000 to 15,000 hits per day, of which 80% come from outside China. At first, Danwei.org was a personal blog. Today, Jeremy Goldkorn has three editors and Danwei.org is a group blog. Looking at Danwei.org. it is more like a small website. Jeremy Goldkorn claims to be be “an individual media.” He likes that status. “An individual media comes from the grassroots and its voice is more authentic.”
Discussion
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Link up:
My newspaper articles:
Random Faceroll
Inspiring!
finally, someone profiles JG. how long before a western publication does? and would JG be amenable to this?
also, i leave the comment here because the originating site, eswn, has no functionality for comments.