Earlier this week, ESWN put up a translation of an article in the Shanghai Evening News that talks about high-schoolers blogging. An excerpt:

In Little Jiang's class, about one-third of them are bloggers. Although they usually talk about their daily trivia, their friends, their studies and their love lives, about 30% of the content is about their families. Little Li said: "I often hear my classmates write about their problems in coping with their parents. Most of them say that their parents are very annoying. I feel that many parents do not understand what we think and need!"

How is that we can get along so readily with total strangers, and yet we cannot get along with the people that we know best? Little Jiang went over this problem repeatedly during the interview. She said that she wanted to tell her parents about her blog, but she was afraid that she might upset her parents. So she would rather express her discontent and complaints on the blog to share with others.

In today's The Economic Observer there's a rather superficial article that still manages to give a nice overall picture of the mainland blogging scene, or at least the scene as represented by bloggers on DoNews. Titled Those Bloggers, the article thankfully takes no position on the controversy over the translation of "Blog"; in fact, in the translation below, the words "Blog", "blogger", "keso" (pictured), "keepwalking", and various acronyms were written in English in the original.

If the references to June and July are not misprints (and this possibility cannot be ruled out, since for a rather short piece this article has quite a few mistaken or doubled characters in the printed edition), then this article has been held for several months, with no update before printing. The date of keso's posting, A world without thieves, thieves in my house, on 3 March, would seem to support this view. On the other hand, the author Wang Le keeps a column on DoNews, and there are no objections in the comments for this entry.

Those Bloggers

"In the 3am darkness, I stared at him for 4 seconds, and then shouted loudly. 'Who? What are you doing?' He flew out the door. I leaped off the sofa, my feet slipped, and I landed on the floor..." This is not from a novel - instead it is Hong Bo (writing under the name keso) narrating on his Blog (Internet diary) his experience being robbed. This account, titled "A world without thieves, thieves at my house," attracted more than one hundred comments on the Blog. And in addition to the heated discussion it attracted in Blog circles, the entertainment media also reported on it.

keso's Blog on www.Donews.net reportedly receives around 10,000 PV (page-views) daily, and it has one thousand subscribers. This Internet star has long-hair, has shot movies, has written IT criticism, leads a mysterious life, and reportedly eats 40 yuan worth of pizza for every meal. But the Bloggers keso associates with have touched off the rise of Blogs on the Internet.

What do they Blog for?

Grassroots culture and free spirits have come to be recognized as the standard form of Blogs. But the goal of each person's Blog is different.

One morning in December of 2004, Wang Jianshuo, who was in New York doing work for eBay, bought a New York Times from a newsstand. When his eyes unconsciously alighted on his name, it "gave him a scare". As he was trying to figure out if he made a mistake, the mobile phone in his pocket started ringing. It was one of his good friends calling to tell him, "Wang Jianshuo, what you wrote about Muzi Mei in your Blog (online diary) is in the New York Times."

Wang Jianshuo started writing his Blog in 2002, and he was one of few who used both English and Chinese to blog. Currently his Blog has tens of thousands of subscribers from over 100 countries, and his traffic is around 1.6 million hits per month.

Unlike Wang Jianshuo, many people Blog because of the community. "Blogs are getting more of a media flavor." ComputerWorld reporter Wang Yi no longer puts his photo on the main page of his Blog, because from that posted photo he has been recognized many times in real life, including once in a bathroom where someone called out his name.

Some people Blog because of technology. Wang Bingwei's enthusiasm for Blogs is slanted in a technical direction. His blog has lots of articles about technology. "Everyone should set up their own Blog, just like everyone learns how to ride a bike when they're small. It's a special feeling." Wang Bingwei works at a software company in information processing. As he was arranging items, Wang Bingwei told this reporter I ought try out the fun of setting up my own Blog.

Some people Blog for fun. "I Blog primarily for something to do in my spare time," says keepwalking, who looked quite relaxed talking about his Blog. "Anyway I surf the web every day, and recently writing my own Blog is just a different kind of interesting. To Blog is not normal for me; maybe after a few days I won't write anymore."

keepwalking says he likes to read others' postings. Reading keso and other bloggers he can find new things to excite his thinking. Blogs are a system for study and opinions. "Sometimes writing things out into words can organize your thinking while you express your opinions. What you express is something you hope will influence other people, and naturally you also want to gain more inspiration." keepwalking says, "I can see now that some people, although there aren't many of them, pay attention. This at the very least says that my writing is coherent. If people can continue to read then I am satisfied."

Blogs are also love diaries. Feng Lan, an administrator at a Nanjing company, writes her blog every day. "What I write is all related to love." She says her blog is private, written only for her boyfriend to see.

Each person has a different reason for writing a Blog. The above is just a small part of the millions of Blogs out there.

Can Blogs be commercialized?

"I no longer write a Blog. I'm thinking about how to commercialize." Meng Xiaoshe, whose Blog became famous after being named "Best Blog" by Voice of Germany, is contemplating making the move from Blogger to businessman. "Individual Blogs can take inspiration from the success of personal websites. But I'm still considering whether to invest in a format change to BSP (blog services provider). As a personal portal, do I need to provide avatars, email, and Blogs?" Meng Xiaoshe's uncertainty is what several large-scale BSPs are facing today, and their views on the subject are far from uniform.

Hu Zhiguang of BlogCN believes that media and popular opinion has been misguided by BlogChina. Blogs are not portals. The Blog ideal is the antithesis of a portal. A Blog's task is to circulate opinions; it's function is not to issue information. A Blog addresses a relatively small group of people, while a portal goes after the masses. If a portal were to set up a Blog channel, calling it a Blog portal, then the future winner would have to be Sina. Hu Zhiguang believes that Blogs' direction is absolutely not the advertising model put forth by BlogChina;rather, they will become providers of professionalized services employing SMS and other techniques. He says that BSPs will face problems over issues like IP rights as they turn into portals, so BSPs are headed in a professionalized direction. Both BlogCN and BlogBus plan to release some new products at the end of June or the beginning of July, but they declined to reveal any specifics.

keso feels that the commercialization of Blogs does not necessarily have to affect the writing of Blogs, because no BSP charges the average person any money to write a blog. Blog commercialization has many layers of meaning, and the commercialization of commercial services offered by Blogs does not mean that the Blogs themselves have been commercialized. Some companies have tried to use Blogs as media transmission methods, and Blog design is another value-added service.

Wang Jianshuo believes that the world lacks a commercialized model for Blogs, and although advertisements and other models can be employed, there still are too few Blogs. The future of commercialization is not yet assured.

Image from keso's blog, "对牛乱弹琴 | Playin' with IT".