:: bridge bloggers, who cross linguistic and cultural divides to further cross-cultural communication, play an important role in the Chinese Internet. There are quite a number of major projects that translate English-language content in Chinese, and countless other individual bloggers doing the same thing on their own. Below, we take a look at the other direction: Chinese bloggers who are writing in English about a wide variety of topics.

Although a number of these bloggers mention improving their English skills as one of their goals in running an English-language blog, that’s not the focus of bridge bloggers (pure English-for-English’s-sake blogging can be found on niche SNS Web sites like Dio English and on isolated blogs that people seem to be keeping just for fun). Bridge blogs are being written for an audience unable to read Chinese, one that’s possibly unfamiliar with Chinese culture, both online and off, with the goal of mutual understanding and information exchange between countries and cultures. Here are five categories of bridge blogs that range from straight-up translation, to original writing, to corporate tie-in blogging.

journalism ::
Some bridge bloggers work in a familiar format reminiscent of the mainstream media. Josie Liu’s China in Transition blog presents well-crafted articles about various contemporary issues in China. Liu has worked as a journalist for a number of news outlets, and brings a journalist’s perspective to the blog format. She’s also guest blogged at China Digital Times. Seagull Reference, a blog run by a “government IT employee working in Beijing” who calls himself Big Brother Chang, also focuses on newsy topics. He often mixes his own viewpoint into his summaries of the news. In a practice widespread across the Chinese-language Internet, Seagull Reference is spotty when it comes to providing source links, so while Big Brother Chang is pretty quick off the mark, readers have to do a little digging to find the original Chinese articles. The author keeps another infrequently updated blog, Rotten Intellectuals in China, which features short profiles of professors caught in academic dishonesty scandals, or who have made public statements that are particularly galling, such as Sun Dongdong’s suggestion that 99% of China’s petitioners are mentally unstable.

filters ::
Many of the most constantly fascinating bridge blogs translate Chinese netizen voices into English. Global Voices Online aggregates and translates blog posts from all over the world, and China is one of their biggest areas of coverage. GVO authors are a mix of nationals and foreign observers of the countries covered; for China, translators are drawn from Hong Kong, the mainland, and other parts of the world. Currently, Bob Chen, whose bio says he’s a Chinese student, posts quite frequently on hot topics of conversation among China’s netizens. Topic selection leans toward social issues and online reactions to corruption. ChinaSMACK is run by Fauna, a resident of Shanghai, with other contributors based in China as well as overseas. The site’s stated mission is to translate daily content from China’s Internet forums. ChinaSMACK pulls and translates a high volume of comments from a variety of different BBS portals (Tianya, KDNet, PCHome, etc), and captures a side of online public opinion that is not as weighty or angrily nationalistic as may be implied in other English-language outlets. The treatment is typically “tabloidy,” even when ChinaSMACK addresses the same themes as GVO and other bridge blogs. There’s an extensive glossary of Chinese web-speak which helps new readers get up to speed quickly. At the Youku BUZZ blog, Steven Lin (a former journalist) and Kaiser Kuo (a Chinese-American writer and musician) distill the most popular videos from one of China’s top video hosts.

life observations ::
Other bloggers present their own ideas directly, without a translator serving as an intermediary. Ifgogo, subtitled “Chinese in English,” is a collaborative blog for ethnic Chinese writing in English, the vast majority of whom live on the mainland, with a few other members in Singapore, Canada, and the US. There’s no grand mission here; the blog’s about page reads “It’s just a blog in English. It’s about everything.” Topic range from discussions of cultural differences, to reports on excursions, to relationships, to tech and Internet topics. Other individual bloggers sometimes start out consciously to be bridge bloggers. Monica Cai, an undergrad studying international trade in Beijing, launched her own bridge blog after hearing a presentation by Rebecca MacKinnon. It’s a fairly new effort, which the author says will focus mainly on the lives of Chinese students. Wang Jianshuo, a Shanghai IT professional who’s been blogging since 2002, also falls into this category. His posts deal with life in Shanghai, travel, his various hobbies, and general China issues. He tends to stay away from sensitive issues, and his posts and comments sections seem designed to foster mutual understanding rather than heated debate.

specialty ::
There are also specialty bridge blogs devoted to a particular topic. China Web2.0 Review covers developments in the world of China-produced and China-oriented new technology Web sites. Current authors are Luyi Chen, an information systems PhD at Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Tangos Chan, VP of China Growth Capital. (Link here for a 56minus1 interview with Tangos Chan.) China Web2.0 Review reports on the latest moves by established Web2.0 sites and the implications those moves may have for the mainland’s Internet. It also introduces new Internet startups. The blog of the Shao Foundation covers the foundation’s various cultural and social events and exhibitions. It features video, slideshows, and summaries in English of Chinese-language content. It’s arty, sometimes cutting-edge, and tastefully laid out.

corporate ::
Bridge blogs may also be useful for companies that are themselves engaged in cross-cultural businesses. China Travel 2.0 the “official blog of www.SinoHotelReservation.com,” is kept by Winser Zhao, who writes of the blog’s motivation on the about page: The debates are interesting. The difference is quite huge. I thought I should tell more about China to Foreigners.” Posts introduce various scenic attractions in China, discuss aspects of Chinese culture, and from time to time touch on current events. Winser is joined by Seasky, who is based in Shanghai, and Katie Yao, a student at Xi’an International Studies University. The “travel 2.0″ concept promoted by the blog and Web site refers to guideless travel, where all arrangements are made through a network of friends, similar to an online social network. The China Youth Watch blog, run by consulting company China Youthology, pulls back the curtain on Chinese youth culture and profiles young creative and trendsetting types. It’s kept by Lisa Li and Zafka Zhang (who are also in a band together), with ethnographers Helen Yu, Summer Xia, and Candy Yang. There’s quite a bit of depth in the posts, if you’re looking for a window on Chinese youth today. Link here for a 56minus1 interview with Zafka Zhang.)

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

:: 56minus1 has been included on CNReviews’ listing of “Ten Eclectic China Blogs You Should Follow.” Very cool of you CNReviews. I’m honored and flattered. Thank you.  // AjS

:: Chinese netizens have a plenty of options when it comes to spending money online, but their choices are more limited when it comes to managing their finances. Similarly, there’s tons of information about investment and the stock market, but not as much about other aspects of financial planning.

Here are a few different types of websites and services that Chinese netizens are using for wealth and personal finance management:

household budget websites ::
A large number of websites have sprung up in the past few years to help Chinese netizens manage their household finances. Zhangke (账客网) is a typical example. Its name is formed from the word zhang, “account,” and ke, a common suffix used in Chinese Web2.0-related terms. Together, the term means something like “accounster.” The URL means “I’ve tallied it!” The clean-and-simple site offers monthly plans for entering data via mobile phone, and it provides functionality for discussing consumer-related topics, posting expenditure diaries, and finding other consumers in your city. Caakee (财客在线) was founded in early 2006 and targets white-collar workers between the ages of 25 and 35. It has a large feature set, including the ability to handle stocks, funds, and credit cards, and to export all data in an Excel file for offline applications. Caakee founder Tian Keshan is a young entrepreneur who recently appeared on an Apprentice-like Shanghai TV show called No Free Lunch. My Money (网上理财记帐) features an extensive list of capabilities that includes rolling stock quote updates and foreign exchange accounting for 26 different currencies. It lists frequent system updates: in May it launched version 3, in September version 4, and in November version 4.5. There are far more of these sites than can easily be summed up here, but you can find twenty of them listed here on Parandroid, a blog devoted to lists of software and web technologies.

financial blog sites ::
Many investment and financial planning experts blog on hosts designed to bring together bloggers on financial topics. CNStock’s blog platform hosts wildly popular stock bloggers who have mirrors across all of the major blog providers as well as other writers who address less exciting financial issues. This is to be expected, according to a recent post by Tang Xuefeng, a financial consultant who blogs on CNStock and writes columns about personal finance for the financial channels of other portals. Tang notes, “China’s financial sector is mainly Investment right now, and Personal Finance is lacking. People chase headlong after profit and are unconcerned with rational, practical planning and management of risk, benefits, resources, and goals.” Caixun (财讯) is a financial portal associated with the Beijing-based Shihua International Financial Information (世华财讯). It’s a large, cleanly-designed site that provides news and analysis, as well as exclusive commentary from experts (mostly on investment and market-relate issues). A large personal finance section offers extensive archives of relevant background information, reports, and reviews of financial products on offer from China’s major banks. Associated BBS discussion forums and blogs fill out the community aspects of the site. As on other financial platforms, specific wealth-management topics are in the minority, but people are blogging about housing purchases, white collar savings, and strategies for managing taxes.

e-Commerce-related communities ::
Websites that facilitate online spending are also home to money-management and personal finance communities. Alipay, an online payment service run by e-Commerce giant Alibaba, has a community subsection that offers general-interest forums. It has two major sub-boards devoted to financial issues: an investment and personal finance board, which hosts discussions about financial planning, stocks, and family finances, and an economization board, devoted to exchanging techniques for saving money. Alipay itself has set up partnerships with other financial websites, including a number of the personal budget services found in #1 above.

online bank communities ::
Most of China’s major banks have websites that are one-way: they provide netizens with information but do not allow for much interaction beyond basic online banking services. Some have minimal forums set up to allow netizens to ask questions online, while a few go all out and host extensive BBS discussion forums that cover a broad range of financial topics. China Merchants Bank offers forums with content ranging from online banking issues, to currency markets and investment, to financial planning and insurance. ICBC has only a limited selection of forums, but it schedules live video chats on the second and fourth Friday of every month. Financial experts are online to discuss currency trends, financial planning, fund dynamics, and other related topics with interested netizens. The China Construction Bank website has a section featuring the products of online merchants, which allows netizens to reserve plane tickets, buy jewelry, and purchase online gaming vouchers through the bank.

widgets / tools ::
Online financial calculators are provided by a number of banks and financial websites. ICBC offers a set of tools for calculating loans, returns on stocks and bonds, and foreign exchange rates, among other data. Financial portal Hexun offers an impressive battery of tools for performing calculations related to credit estimates, period investment returns, insurance, major household purchases, and retirement income, as does Eastmoney. Widget platforms offer a variety of stock widgets that can be embedded into blogs and other web pages. Sohu’s Open Widget platform hosts an Eastmoney-branded stock widget that reports general market information for Shanghai and Shenzhen, as well as allowing blog visitors to look up the activity of specific stocks. Another relatively popular (though unbranded) widget charts detailed stock info on a large graph. Bloggers who embed the widget can select a stock to track, and the widget will automatically update with near-live market activity and rolling averages.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

:: companies, from the CEO down to entry-level employees, are using blogging as a way to openly, honestly, and authentically communicate and engage with their online audiences / stakeholders.

As an interactive platform for the exchange of ideas and discussion, a blog can be a useful tool for meeting the public (and for the public to meet you) on any number of issues or communications (work and not necessarily work related). How this is done depends on the individual blogger’s personality, time commitment, what information they are seeking to convey, and of course any company specific digital ethics or guidelines about public online discourse.

Here are a few approaches that company executives and employees in China have taken with their blogs:

work-related blogs ::
Robin Li (李彦宏), CEO of Baidu, keeps a high-traffic blog on his company’s platform that features his thoughts on his public appearances and various matters concerning Baidu. Soho Chairman Pan Shiyi (潘石屹) practically lives in the media’s eye, and his blog is no exception: he started blogging on his own platform ahead of the huge tide of celebrity / executive bloggers, but later moved to Sina where he sits high in the traffic rankings. He’s even published a book made up of selected blog posts. Vantone chairman Feng Lun (冯仑) is another real-estate mover and shaker who blogs frequently about his company, press interviews, articles from his in-house magazine, and random snippets of videos and other entertaining things from around the Internet. And Jack Ma (马云), head of e-commerce giant Alibaba, blogs Alibaba-related content on his own company’s platform. However, his posts unfortunately are largely drawn from material initially presented elsewhere, such as lectures and press junkets.

crisis / issues management blogs ::
Wang Shi (王石) is the chairman of Vanke, a major Chinese real estate company. He blogs mainly about traveling (he’s a climbing enthusiast), but he also uses his blog as a way to communicate directly with the public by responding to questions from readers and issues currently in the media. This has not always work out for the best for him: after the Wenchuan earthquake in May, 2008, he made a blog post defending his company’s 2 million yuan donation to the rescue effort and explained that he had a policy that limited individual donations by workers at charity fund-raisers to 10 yuan apiece. In the ensuing media storm, public opinion largely saw Wang and Vanke as stingy and selfish. However, Wang’s blog also gave him a platform to feature posts and photos of the work Vanke was doing in ongoing rescue and rebuilding efforts. Other executives haven’t been so adept at taking advantage of their blogs: Mengniu founder and CEO Niu Gensheng (牛根生) used to keep a blog on Sina, but the final update came in September (of 2008) during the melamine milk scandal: an assistant (not recommended!) posted the remarks he presented to the Mengniu board promising that he and the company would strive to act responsibly in light of the scandal. To date, that post has received 2 million page-views, so there’s certainly an audience for what Niu has to say.

exposure / thought-leadership blogs ::
A number of executives seem to blog as a way to “show off” their expertise, establish thought leadership in a certain field, and keep their names in circulation online. Wang Ran (王冉), CEO of China E-Capital, blogs about business topics, as do other consulting heads such as branding expert Jacke Lee (李志起), head of China Brand Consultant Team, who mixes business and branding topics with lighter fare. Kai-fu Lee (李开复) heads Google China, but his online presence has more to do with cultivating young talent than specific corporate strategy. His Sina blog mostly follows a Q&A format in which Lee answers questions from young tech workers about education, job placement, and career goals. He also runs “I Learn” (我学网), a portal site devoted to education. The furthest extent this “exposure” has been taken is probably the blog of Dong Siyang (董思阳), controversial chairman of the Fengbohk Group, which runs a chain of restaurants. Dong became company president and CEO at the age of 21 and markets her image and accomplishments in motivational lectures and management training sessions she delivers around the country. Her blog functions as effective extension of her personal branding objectives.

personal CEO blogs ::
An executive is also just another ordinary person and may want to keep a personal blog not directly connected to their company. Tudou co-founder and CEO Gary Wang (王微) keeps one which he started in in 2005. Although there’s a category for Tudou-related posts that has over 100 entries, he doesn’t seem to write much about the company anymore. Hung Huang (洪晃), CEO of China Interactive Media, a publisher of popular magazines, posts extensive personal musings on her travels and other subjects she’s interested in. She does make one concession to company-related material in the form of covers of the latest issue of iLook, her flagship magazine title. Hung also has an English-language blog at the New York Times. Smaller-scale executives blog as well: Li Ying (李莹), head of the Beijing Yingzhibao BMW Agency, keeps a Sina blog where she posts stories about her travels, golfing, and her children.

chinese translations of foreign executive blogs ::
With China as such an important market for multinational corporations, overseas executives who blog in another language might think about translating their posts for Chinese readers. Automatic translation, which both English- and Chinese-language bloggers have experimented with, is not yet up to the task. However, Jonathan Schwartz, President and CEO of Sun Microsystems, has his posts translated into many languages, including Chinese. Schwartz is well-known in English-language IT circles as one of the few Fortune 500 CEOs who blogs, and he posts engagingly on IT trends and Internet-related topics. Note that these translations show signs of human involvement; they’re not simply his English-language posts run through a translator. Oddly, the Sun China homepage has links to Schwartz’s *English* blog posts, not the translations.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

:: public relations, marketing, and advertising blogs form a closely-linked community online in China. See below for a few noteworthy examples. The first four items are well-known in their respective fields and show up in each other’s blogrolls with heavy interlinking. The fifth item is a ringer that serves to show how traditional PR in China is taking advantage of blogs and online communities.

1. Flyu
Flyu (飞扬新锐) says it “focuses on social media marketing and community word of mouth.” It’s a blog written by Yang Lei, former marketing director for the Yupoo photo site and founder of a number of online ventures including Weyii.com. Topics covered on Flyu include branding, social networking site (SNS)-related marketing, and Internet word of mouth (IWOM). Recent posts have followed the repositioning of Weyii.com from a cosmetics rating portal to a vertical SNS for women.

2. New Marketing Observer
Written by (孙志峰), this blog on digital marketing in the context of the Internet and SNS communities shows up on a lot of blogrolls. The author, a marketing professional in Shanghai, presents case studies of online marketing efforts and analyzes their performance, such as Starbucks’ experiment with SNS and Mengniu’s search engine optimization / marketing efforts.

3. General Web2.0 topics
IT Focus is kept by Liu Huafang (柳华芳), a well-known IT columnist. Liu analyzes a wide variety of Web2.0-related topics including marketing and serves up IT job placements on another section of his site. The Moonlight Blog is kept by William Long. Its articles, which cover topics ranging from hosting issues and software, are widely-cited by other tech blogs. The author closely follows developments in the search industry and also reports on new trends in Web2.0 technologies. A large proportion of the posts on both of these blogs is directly applicable to digital marketing and IWOM-related topics.

4. Corporate Sites
CIC, an Internet word-of-mouth research and consulting firm, keeps a Chinese-language blog which comments on memes, developments in Internet word-of-mouth marketing, and other online trends relevant to the communications industries. From time to time it also publishes research results (in English). The blog is closely followed by people in the Web2.0 / digital marketing business and is on the blogroll of a lot of other IWOM bloggers. China Focus Interactive is a company engaged in Web2.0-oriented marketing and has a blog, Sonia’s Buzz, that discusses IWOM and Web2.0-related topics.

5. Aggregators and portals
China PR Blog is an aggregator of blogs written about the PR industry and by PR industry professionals. It’s run under the authorization of the China International Public Relations Association, which also publishes the industry trade, PR Magazine. 17 PR, founded in 2004, is China’s earliest PR portal. It aggregates news, educational materials, expert articles, and other information as part of a Web1.0-style website (yuck!), and it also features blogging and forums as web2.0-style tools (yay!) for information exchange. It’s currently home to the widely-read PR blogger Gao Peng. iResearch.cn has a Web2.0 section that features in-house columnists as well as other news and analysis concerning blogs, SNS, online communities, and e-magazines.

// AjS