China Blogs
In the past week or so I’ve found myself drawn into a community of China bloggers (or “chloggers,” as Frank Yu of BrandRecon.com puts it). It’s sort of a strange community, “communication” often taking place in the form of blog posts or in e-mails that other members of the community are not aware of. Anyway, this community is becoming self-aware and interlinked. It was kind of cool that as soon as I put up my China Blog page, I started getting e-mails almost immediately, and my site started appearing immediately in other China blogs where it never had before. An attempt at selfless promotion of “the cause” turned out to be self-serving after all.
It’s great to see all the outsider viewpoints on China coming from within China. It’s also quite humbling to see the great logs other people are producing. You’ve got logs embroiled in politics, economics, and world affairs (China weblog and micah sittig, for example), logs chock full of great social insights (Black Man in China seems to be a community favorite), and even one in my own backyard (Hangzhou T-Salon)…. Makes me wonder why people would take the time to read mine! Apparently a few are, though. I never bothered with a counter for this site because that’s kinda beside the point. However, I’ve noted from my webhost’s stats that the visits are going up. I’ll be happy if just my friends and family are regularly checking to see what’s going on with me, but sometimes I wonder… [hint, hint, guys! The clock is now ticking. Let’s see how long it takes you to react to that statement.]
I am a US citizen who lives in the Midwest. I have recently become very interested in learning more about China and Chinese culture. I just started taking Mandarin lessons a few weeks ago and look forward to traveling to China soon.
I have written a 14-page white paper on American culture titled “On Being American”. This paper addresses 10 key areas of a “typical” American’s life and provides perspectives that I believe can only be given by someone like me who has lived in the US for 40 years. The 10 areas are:
1) Friendship
2) Family
3) Love
4) Religion
5) Morals
6) Habits
7) Living Accommodations
8) Interests & Hobbies
9) Politics
10) Biases
My goal in writing this paper was to distribute it for a nominal fee ($1.00 USD per copy) to people in China who are interested in learning more about our culture in America. I would like not only to reach urban citizens, but those who live in rural areas. I am trying to gage interest in this paper before I spend the money to translate it into Simplified Chinese and/or Mandarin. I am also trying to understand the best way to distribute this paper.
Can anyone help?
I think you’re being unrealistic. If it’s FREE, maybe a few Chinese would read it. But no Chinese is going to pay $1 for 14 pages when they can get the same info from the net or TV; this is NOT North Korea, you know. Maybe if you wrote 300 pages–i.e., go in-depth about America–it might work, but even then, the proposition is iffy.
No offense, but before you start trying to market to Chinese try learning a little more about the country (i.e., “before I spend the money to translate it into Simplified Chinese and/or Mandarin”–Mandarin is the common Western name of 普通话, the official dialect on the mainland and Taiwan, whereas as “Simplified Chinese” is simply the character set used on the mainland).
Seeing as I could go to a bookstore and buy a 200-page book on the topic written by an American and translated professionally into Chinese for just about 2-to-3 times your $1 asking price (or almost exactly your asking price if its a pirate version I buy on the street), I doubt your idea has much chance of success.
No offense taken. This is just the type of candid input I was looking for. I do look forward to learning more about China and Chinese culture. Thank you.
I think your idea of giving Chinese a brief about American culture is good. Because China is reforming, they could really benefit of it. Not only rural Chinese, but big cities Chinese, too.
Problem is, as above commented, that you really can’t expect any farmer to pay for information a sum which can be size of their 4 months elecricity usage.
Develop your idea further and get on!
Wow… This post is very old… I suppose you start blogging about the Olympics as it gets closer… Or are you even still in China? 😀