Blogs

A Chinese blog from a U.S. soldier in Iraq

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn, January 12, 2008 1:39 PM

A U.S. Army soldier posted in Baghdad is writing a blog in Chinese about his experiences. He is ethnically Chinese but identifies himself as Striker (or its phonetic equivalent in Chinese - 斯特瑞克), and hosts his blog on MySpace.cn, the version of the social networking site that is hosted and run out of Beijing.

His blog has become popular in recent weeks in the Mainland, discussed on forum websites like Tianya, and Striker has taken to answering questions from his fans, such as 'How do you join the U.S. Army?' and 'Is any of your military clothing made in China?'.

He recently uploaded to Youtube a video he had shot just before the end of 2007, with Chinese captions explaining what the footage shows.

Uploading to the blog is no simple matter: this is how he describes the process:

After returning the base in Iraq, the connection speed is crap and it can't display Chinese. Whenever we have leave, the soldiers line up to use the Internet to send news to their family. There's not much meat and a lot of wolves so everyone only has ten minutes each. I can't see my Chinese blog, so I can't update regularly or respond to questions from Net friends, I'm sorry about that.

  All I can do is sit in the Iraqi desert, or in the cramped interior of an armored vehicle. If I have time, I record my thoughts into a small MP3 recorder, then I send the recordings to the small Pacific island of Hawaii. Then my family members transcribe the recordings and upload them to the website in China. Every blog post has to go painstakingly like this from the Middle East to America to Asia. 

Links and Sources

Striker's blog (Chinese)
Tianya (Chinese): Striker: documenting the U.S. Army in Iraq in Chinese and with photos

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There are currently 8 Comments for A Chinese blog from a U.S. soldier in Iraq.

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Comments on A Chinese blog from a U.S. soldier in Iraq

I been reading dude's blog for a minute. I never caught that bit about the shit he goes through to update it.

Posted by: GroverC | January 13, 2008 3:20 AM

Many comments on the blog are rather belligerent, don't think being a soldier shooting people with a M4 is cool.

Posted by: One Flew Over Beijing Bird's Nest | January 13, 2008 1:09 PM

"Many comments on the blog are rather belligerent, don't think being a soldier shooting people with a M4 is cool."

Posted by: One Flew Over Beijing Bird's Nest

I know Danwei objects to posts attacking people but this fellow is ignorant and this comment is uncalled for.

This brave gentleman sacrificed his life and freedom to protect his country and your backhanded comment is from the tongue of a weak and cowardly man.

Posted by: FRITZ | January 14, 2008 9:04 AM

Thanks for the introduction! I think his name "Striker" comes from the unit he is in - He is driving the Stryker around right?

He even have a blogpost about kicking some US MP asses while getting a "speeding ticket" in Iraq:
2007年12月5日有没有搞错啊？在巴格达吃罚单！日！

I found it amusing...and you can see those young Chinese responses differs from the usual "US go to hell"/"Blow to piceses" after reading his blog.

He is basically a "post-80" gen in Iraq. That is really crazy shxt...and fascinating one.

Lets home he come home to US in one piece...

Posted by: 暗黑的卡夫卡 | January 14, 2008 1:48 PM

A Chinese fighting for money!
An invador fighting for US nationality!
Fianlly he is human trash!

Posted by: he is human trash | January 14, 2008 8:40 PM

i come ,
i see ,
i ...

chinese ,
american,

world
war
complicated

Posted by: my1510 | January 27, 2008 3:52 PM

"A Chinese fighting for money!
An invador fighting for US nationality!
Fianlly he is human trash!"

Why don't you go back and learn more "Engrish" for popular spelling before you try to say something more intelligent than "I am a dumbass and I know Engrish! Fear me!"

Or, (I am teaching you know, search for this) Why don't you have a warm cup of STFU?

Thank you. Xie Xie Nie!

Posted by: 暗黑的卡夫卡 | January 28, 2008 12:58 AM

Chairsman Mao's gonna pop a clip if he knows a People of the PRC abandon the advantages of socialism and serve in the Imperialist's army

Posted by: Oh-no man | January 31, 2008 4:51 PM