List of blogs written in Chinese by foreigners

[getpowers]

Here is a list of blogs written in Chinese by foreigners including some of the people from the Hanyuqiao (ChinaBridge Contest)

外国人用中文写的博客列表:

http://www.littlechinaworld.com

If you are a non-native speaker of Chinese and write a blog Chinese, and would like to be added to the list, you can do so on the website. Click on (Submit your blog).

[getpowers]

A few years back I remember meeting a Chinese girl who I was interested in. She was interested in a blog I wrote about my life in China so gave her the site address. She later said she didn't read much of it because it was all in English and it was tiresome to try and read more than a few paragraphs.

That gave me an idea, I thought if I write a blog in Chinese, that would be a way of communicating with lots of Chinese people sharing my expereinces as a foreigner in their country and helping them to better understand me as well as helping myself to improve my Chinese language skills.

Has anyone else had similar thoughts?

[skylee]

Good idea. I recall there is a member here who keeps a Chinese blog (which is not bad at all) -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/2-favourite-chinese-musician7122

[Meng Lelan]

That one is a really good one, yes. I've wanted to start a Chinese blog like that one for a long time but I don't even know what sort of software or program or whatever would get me started, me being a techno-idiot, it's hopeless I think.

[chrix]

You could just get one started on wordpress.com (or any other blogging platform). It's quite intuitive to use. Usually you enter stuff in WYSIWYG format, so you don't need to know any code, it's more akin to using Word.

If you do try wordpress.com, feel free to ask me if you have problems since I have quite a number of blogs on that platform

[imron]

Be aware though that wordpress is blocked in China. You could also try sites like http://www.lang-8.com which you could use basically as a blog but that would allow you to get plenty of feedback on your writing.

[chrix]

Again, sorry about not providing links here, but I just read on this forum that they unblocked wordpress? I don't know what the actual situation is...

EDIT: found it: http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=211426&postcount=23

[Meng Lelan]

But mandarina's blog seems to be written with google's e-blogger. Right? I don't know anything about google e-blogger until I saw mandarina's blog. It looks nice. I've thought about using google's e-blogger and it doesn't seem to be blocked in China, correct? But why was wordpress blocked in China? Really I've always wanted to start up a nice Chinese language blog, you know, put my thoughts and pictures in it, stuff like that, so lang-8 isn't really where I want to go. Lang-8's lay out is so 难看 by the way.

What is WYSIWYG? I'm sorry, but I'm a real techno-idiot. I know a lot about teaching but nothing about technology...

[skylee]

But mandarina's blog seems to be written with google's e-blogger. Right?

Not sure if it is the same thing but I call it blogger.com or blogspot. It is easy to use. My blog1 is on blogger. Sometimes people say that it is not accessible on the mainland so I keep the same blog on spaces.live.com which is accessible on the mainland. I like blogger.com better.

[chrix]

yep, I would second what skylee says. Blogger is often blocked as well. On some other thread people were discussing a Chinese blogging platform, I forget the name. But of course the less known a company is the more do you run the risk of losing your blog due to sudden closure of the site.

As far as the layout goes, if it's a blogging platform, they usually do allow you to choose between templates, or even use your own, so that should be independent of which one you choose (I don't know about msn.com)

WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get. Like in Word, if you want to bold something, it is shown as bold, not in code as here on the forum.

[Meng Lelan]

I am going to try skylee's recommendation. I don't know anything about blogs so this is my first time trying this. So blogger is a free site, right? But how do you keep the blog also on spaceslivecom? Do you just copy and paste into it? Sorry so many questions, but like I said I've never done it. Is it permissible in the forums to add the blog weblink to my signature so that others can find it?

[chrix]

I am going to try skylee's recommendation. I don't know anything about blogs so this is my first time trying this.

do you mean spaces.msn.com?

So blogger is a free site, right?

yes, as is wordpress.com, and typepad.com and so on. They're all quite similar in what they do.

But how do you keep the blog also on spaceslivecom? Do you just copy and paste into it?

that's the low-tech solution

Sorry so many questions, but like I said I've never done it.

Most of the blogging platforms also come with lively community forums where they love to help newcomers out (I only know this from wordpress.com, but I suppose the other platforms are the same)

Is it permissible in the forums to add the blog weblink to my signature so that others can find it?

just turn on signatures in your options and you'll see everybody is doing this You can also put it on your profile...

[skylee]

Copy and paste is of course an option. But I use a software called windows live writer to upload my blog. I think after you have started you can explore these softwares / options.

I think it is ok to add blog links in your signature.

[imron]

Yes, links in signatures is the preferred way to link to your own content. See T&C's here.

[doraemon]

Wow! The German guy's (德国小子的中文笔记) Chinese is absolutely amazing! I read the first few lines and was dumbfounded already! Seriously, it's really really good!

[Meng Lelan]

Thanks to skylee and chrix, I just started up my new blog. I tried to put the link in the signature but the signature's not showing up here and I don't know why.

[chrix]

What did you do? Did you click on "edit signature" and save it?

[abcdefg]

@Meng Lelan -- Blogger, the Google product, is often blocked in mainland China. I had a lot of difficulty posting to mine while in China. Plus when I posted to it from the US, my freinds in China often could not view it.

It might be better to at least check out one of the other blogging products as suggested above before investing too much time and energy.

QQ even has one, though I have not used it. http://blog.qq.com/ or here: http://www.qqblogs.com/main.php I would guess QQ might fare better with the firewall authorities, but I don't know that for a fact.

[imron]

Signatures only appear once per poster per page. If you look at your first post on this page you'll see your signature there.

[Meng Lelan]

Signatures only appear once per poster per page. If you look at your first post on this page you'll see your signature there.

Oh I see it now, that's so weird, I wonder why that is.

It might be better to at least check out one of the other blogging products as suggested above before investing too much time and energy.

That's what skylee does, run two similar blogs at once, you know, one gets blocked but the other isn't blocked. I'm going to set up the similar and simultaneous blog as soon as I got my Blogger up and running and if no one hates my new Blogger then I'll start setting one up on what skylee recommended - spaceslivecom, something like that, never heard of it, gotta go google that one and set it up. But wait a minute, is Blogger blocked on the mainland right now?