The Rise Of Hong Kong Bloggers

Next Magazine features ESWN, blog awards, and more

I grabbed the latest issue of the Next Magazine, Hong Kong's best-selling magazine and a must-read for "Central Men" (中环人; pinyin: zhong huan ren; Central is Hong Kong's capital).

Anson Chan, an influential retired official who dramatically turned up for the December 4 March, is on the cover page. Apparently she was reading the Apple Daily which said 250,000 Hong Kongers took to the street. The headline reads "Exclusive interview: talk about democracy; talk about joining election". Everything is very Jimmy Lai: to the point, stimulating.

But I rushed to p.90.

Song Yilang: Sky outside sky, Next Magazine

The gentleman in front of a TV set (showing, I suppose, Cable TV news), a LCD monitor, and a notebook is Roland Soong, the soul of the Hong Kong-based East South West North blog. Besides being biased in one way or another, journalists of China Daily / New York Times / 98.76% greater China bloggers have one thing in common - they all read, and more precisely, rely on, ESWN.

The four page spread feature on Mr Soong and ESWN is quite a milestone for Hong Kong bloggers. In ESWN Brief Comments:

Personally, this was an affirmation by a major mainstream media publication that this blogger has some importance and impact ... Socially, this may be the first time that a major Chinese-language mainstream media publication in Hong Kong has presented a real blogger as someone other than a Xanga teenage diarist. In fact, the blogger is said to have some impact and influence on international media coverage of China.

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Quotations from Mr Soong's interview which may reflect his philosophy of blogging (after reading my "translation" (so to speak), you will sorely miss ESWN):

"I do not make comment. I put everything on the internet. Who is right and who is wrong, you decide." (我不下评论，全放上网让你看，对对错错，由你判断。)

"Countries in the world are divided into the South and the North. The South is developing countries. The North is developed countries. I came from the West to the East. So [the blog] is titled East South West North." (世界上的国家，分南、北。南是发展中国家，北是已发展国家。我由西方来到东方，所以叫东南西北。)

"If I think English media coverage is sufficient, I don't translate it. Lots of people talked about Bush's visit to China. You could guess the way the New York Times reported the visit. And it is even more pointless to translate the People's Daily. (如果我认为英文已经足够，就不理它。像布殊访问中国，大把人讲。《纽约时报》的报导形式，你猜到。《人民日报》，更加无谓翻译。)

"Perhaps one would not know [a 78-year-old Hong Kong citizen placed advertisement in newspapers questioning when would there be universal suffrage] by reading the New York Times." (看《纽约时报》大概不会知道有这种事。)

"I particularly want media people to read [my blog] so that they dare not distort the fact. For instance, when Chinese fleet visited Hong Kong, New York Times put it like that the mainland scared Hong Kong democracy. And that article was even published on the annual report of American congress. How can you say that? I showed you. Was your fleet visit an attempt to scare China?" (我特别在乎传媒人看，等他们别乱来 ...... 像中国海军舰队来香港，《纽约时报》说成是大陆恐吓香港民主，那文章还在美国国会年报刊登。...... 你咁都讲得出？我让你看，你们舰队来，算不算恐吓中国？)

"Reporters are constrained by limited media space and the newspaper's stance. In the Senior Superintendent of Police Sin Kam-wah sex services case. The South China Morning Post only covered what was said in the courtroom. Apple Daily detailed the process of prostitution. Next Magazine suspected he took Viagra. I don't narrate. I don't explain. [I face] no constraints of space and stance. I translate all related reports and put them on the internet. It is for you to comment." (记者有篇幅限制，受报馆立场掣肘。像警司冼锦华召妓，《南华早报》只说法庭上的话。《苹果日报》详细描述他的召妓过程。《壹周刊》怀疑他吃伟哥。我不述，不解释，没篇幅、立场限制，把相关报导全译成英文放上网，由你下评论。)

"Once one charges, others will suspect you write for money. Unfair, unjust." (一收费，别人便怀疑你为钱而写，不公平、公正。)

"So you think reading Washington Post or New York Times and you know the whole world? What the South and North argue is all about money. So you believe one single report can really achieve fairness and justice?" (你以为你看《华盛顿日报》、《纽约时报》，就认识了全世界？南北拗的，通通关于财富，你相信单一报导真的做到公平公正？)

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At least five Hong Kong-based bloggers have made the finalists of Best Asian Blog - The Weblog Awards 2005. ESWN, Hemlock's Diary and Simon World have my vote (one can vote every 24 hours until December 15). Hongkie Town and Shaky Kaiser are rather new to me.

I have nominated Sun Bin with one foot in Hong Kong and the other in Los Angeles. He started the blog on China and strategy in mid-2005. Definitely my rookie of the year.

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Last and the least, yesterday Letters from China recorded the 20,000th page views since August. I am grateful for your visits, links, comments and emails.

Comments

[eswn]

i'll tell you that it was a strange experience. the interview took place in two parts. a former Next Magazine worker told me that they always do thorough research, but i was a mystery apart from the blogger.

so in the first part, the reporter asked some straight questions: who is your dad? who is your mom? where did you go to school? were you a good student? etc. every question led to a completely different line of inquiry that would be of interest.

after about four hours, the reporter had to stop and she asked for an appointment to come back.

when she came back, she had done the research based upon the additional information. she started to ask me things that i had never blogged about, like "What is your relationship with Josepine Shiao?"

It was fun. The article contains some factual errors, but i expected that. This was a profile, unlike one of those hatchet jobs in the current affairs/politics section.

[Letters from China]

Thanks for the behind-the-zine, ESWN.

For readers who have no idea who's Josephine Siao - (蕭芳芳; Siao Fong-fong; Pinyin: Xiao Fangfang)
- an actress whom both LfC and his 50-year old mum like (which is quite amazing);
- who won several film awards;
- like ESWN, the lady was born in Shanghai in the late 1940s.
- and again like ESWN, Fong-fong moved to Hong Kong thanks, I suppose, to Chairman Mao;
- According to the Next Magazine, she was a neighbour of ESWN's family and a close friend of Elim Soong, ESWN's sister.
(... 鄰居都是名人，像傅雷、蕭芳芳 ... 蕭芳芳和我姐姐差不多年紀，她去New Jersey的Seton Hall留學，也找我姐姐。)

"What is your relationship with Siao Fong-fong?"

Of course I don't have any insider news, but I bet next time when we see ESWN on the Next Magazine, it would be book B - entertainment.

[Order Tadalafil]

king kong rules!!!!