chinese journalist bloggers ::
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
:: one of the driving forces behind the initial growth of blogging in China was mainstream Chinese journalists / reporters. Before the Chinese blogosphere had movie stars, athletes, and legions of ordinary people, reporters discussed current events and swapped stories that had been kept out of the mainstream Chinese papers, magazines, etc.
Today, China’s much more diverse blogging world has quite a few influential journalists bloggers, and, in fact, they are often some of the better bloggers out there. Why? Because 1) they have some degree of professional writing training / experience and thus can actually write well; 2) they have access to resources, people / contacts, and information from their day jobs, and, 3) they are often frustrated by restrictions over what they can not publish at their respective mainstream media outlets, and thus crave a platform to express themselves freely.
Below is an introduction to just a few well-known journalist bloggers.
Li Chengpeng (李承鹏) | sports 
Li Chengpeng is perhaps the most well-known sports journalist in the country. He is the features director at Soccer News and his blog is consistently ranked among the top 10 blogs on Sina (currently at #5). Soccer (football) fans are passionate about the game, which explains some of Li’s popularity, but he applies his forthright style to other sports (most recently the Olympics), as well as subjects further afield. Dong Lu is another widely-read reporter/blogger whose got an even bigger reputation for telling it like it is, which has resulted in various media outlets freezing him out.
Sha Minnong (沙黾农) | stocks 
Sha is the deputy general editor of Modern Express (现代快报), a popular Xinhua-affiliated newspaper based in Nanjing, and he is a well-know stock market blogger. His blog is currently ranked #1 on Sohu’s platform and is also fairly high up on Sina. His market analysis appeals to Chinese stock market players eager for the latest trends and predictions, and his experience as the founder of four successive securities newspapers lends significant weight to his opinions.
Rose Luqiu (闾丘露薇) | current affairs 
This well-known Phoenix TV reporter and popular columnist is also a prolific blogger who addresses current hot topics using rational arguments and level-headed language. She’s also the founder of the liberal-leaning blog portal My1510, and maintains a mirror blog there.
Wang Xiaofeng (王小峰) | popular culture
A lead writer for Sanlian Life Week magazine, Wang has a reputation for ironic social commentary and an anti-establishment sensibility, whether that establishment comes in the form of media regulators like SARFT or their toadying lackies like Sina Blogs. His antics touched a nerve in 2006 when he shut down his blog unannounced in an attempt to prove a point about knee-jerk anti-censorship journalism, a prank that lost him a little bit of credibility. He still wields considerable influence in propagating online memes and often posts tantalizing clues about upcoming Sanlian interviews and features. Wang is a respected music critic, so albums both foreign and domestic make frequent appearances on his blog.
He Dong (何东) | entertainment 
He Dong is an entertainment journalist who hosts an interview show on Phoenix TV. His contacts within the entertainment industry make him privy to information that has yet to hit the papers, and industry figures will sometimes speak to him when they refuse to talk to the rest of the mainstream media. Mainstream journalists source stories to his blog (not always by name), so he is more influential than his traffic (around 10% of Li Chengpeng) implies.
// AjS
