Taiwan : connecting between English and Chinese bloggers

The Taiwan based English language bloggers and the Taiwanese Chinese language bloggers are attempting to bridge between their two blogospheres, and that’s something I’m very excited about. Following the top English language blogs about the Taiwan for over a year now I’ve rarely ventured into the unknown Chinese blogosphere, mostly because I had no idea where to begin. It’s hard enough to read a Chinese blog when you know where to read, but it’s impossible to try and find one yourself.

I’ve first came across Schee through Michael Turton’s report on the NCKU bloggers round-table. If you’ve missed out then you might also want to check the Scott Summers’ blog and Schee’s Chinese summary. Schee’s blog is somewhat technology oriented, but it was my first taste of Taiwanese A-list bloggers.

[...] He (Schee) also said that the Chinese-language blogsphere was overwhelmingly pro-Green. In answer to a question, Schee said that he stays away from political topics on his blog — which is about motorcycling, and has a pic of him driving a cycle in Europe — so that it can be read on the other side of the Great Firewall. He also confirmed to me that if it weren’t for the ping server problem — the Chinese-language and English-language blog servers don’t talk to each other — the most popular blogs in the world would probably be mostly or entirely Chinese. [...] (Quoted from Michael’s post)

Taipei Times also covered this topic by talking to Michael Turton and David on Formosa on the English Taiwan blogosphere with the "‘Laowai’ blog on" article saying "Despite riling some readers, foreign bloggers are shining a new light on Taiwan" :

Most foreign-run Web sites, even the larger ones, remain labors of love. Some, like Taiwanho and Forumosa, earn money, but this is used for site maintenance and group activities like monthly happy hours. People contribute their time and energy because they want to help foreign residents and tourists find useful information, express their opinions, and meet like-minded people online.

The same is true for many personal blogs. David Reid, a 33-year-old English teacher, runs David on Formosa (blog.taiwan-guide.org), where he posts useful information on Taiwan, photography and accounts of his travels. [...] Turton also says he’s not in it for the money, though maintaining his kind of Web presence is hard work. [...]

Still, blogging has been "a very positive experience. I’ve met a lot of great people," he said. "If you start a blog and the content is halfway good, you become a sort of minor expert on Taiwan affairs because the rest of the world is, relatively speaking, so ignorant." "My goal is to get Taiwan out there," he said. "Taiwan is so low on the US radar right now, but it’s so important."

This morning, I noticed some incoming traffic from another Taiwanese blog written by Mr6. Seems like Mr6 has been talking with David on Formosa about connecting between the two Taiwan blogspheres, and so David summarized and translates :

I had an interesting conversation with Mr 6 and one of the topics we talked about was how to create more links between the Chinese-language and English-language blogospheres in Taiwan. We also discussed English teaching and Web 2.0. [...]

There are a number of foreigners like David in Taiwan who have their own English blogs, but how many are there? [...]

This is a problem, or perhaps it is also an opportunity, for creative people to consider. In Taiwan, Hong Kong and China there is a large group of English-language bloggers like David. Government figures say there are about 10,000 English speaking foreigners living in Taiwan, although the number is perhaps more like 20-30,000. These people all have their own lives; they are large in number. They diligently write about their experiences and create a window to the outside world. But, at present they are still limited to their own small group. 

Mr6 mentions some of the spots to check out if you’re starting out on the English Taiwan blogsphere. The last part was a bit odd, though, and David was nice enough to translate it for me:

David and fiLi, a tech expert from Israel are cooperating on a new website to be launched in March. They will let me know as soon as the website is launched. FiLi has lived in Taiwan and China and also has a blog about Chinese culture. He is currently back in Israel. These two people’s enterprise will arouse interest and is  keenly anticipated.

And an even more interesting description of myself came from "Portnoy in Between" with :

Also, David told Mr.6 that a new startup produced by David and his Israeli geek friend will soon be on the table.

Oh, whaoo, now it’s up to us to really build something good enough to match those big titles (and up to me to work on further developing my tech expert geek skills). I’m hoping our little project will be ready on the beginning of next March.

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So - way to go David, what you and Mr6 are trying to do is very important. I do wish the Chinese and English blogspheres in Taiwan will share more and communicate more, and this is a great step forward. From where I am right now, I’ll try and bridge between you all and the Hebrew Taiwan blogosphere

 
tags: Taiwan