PandaPassport.com – China Blog

For anyone who’s not aware, Facebook is a new (well, relatively new…) social media site that allows you to create and expand a network of friends. If you have a hotmail or yahoo email account, you can search for your contacts automatically, and reconnect with tons of people you haven’t seen in ages.

I’m really surprised by the amount of people who are using facebook. Friends who you would never expect to be anywhere near a computer if their life depended on it, it seems they too love facebook. It’s a really neato tool, and I recommend it highly – even though I just made my account yesterday.

Facebook can also serve the purpose of building small communities here in China. Ryan has already put together the Lost Laowai Facebook Group, which is a group for expats all over China. You can visit the group, or sign up (for free) here:

Lost Laowai China Expat Facebook Group

Lost Laowai is a site for expats in China, and I occasionally contribute when I’m not too busy. Click here to see my latest article, where I go toe-to-toe with a Yale Professor on the subject of China. I swear ta gawd, these guys gotta get out from behind their desks once in a while.

For those of you who keep blogs, Facebook’s Notes function can be integrated via RSS so that your blog posts are brought into Facebook, and posted to My Notes.

For anyone who wants to check out the Chinese equivalent of facebook, you might want to have a look at Xiaonei.com, in case you missed it before.

China Stolen-Media-of-the-Day: 24, Seasons 1 & 2

I know I’m a little late jumping on the 24 bandwagon, but hey, I’m in China – and well – that’s how the media is here.

But in any case, for anyone who wants to take a look back, or for any of you guys who may have missed it the first time around, here is the full first season of 24, and the second season as well. Careful! It’s addictive…

Here’s an event that is sure to fill up faster than even the smallest of Chinese buses:

“Google is holding a day for developers to meet and learn from Google staff at its various worldwide offices . . . Locations that Developer Day will be held at are: Beijing, Hamburg, London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Tokyo and of course at Google HQ in Mountain View.” Source: slashdot

If you’re lucky enough to successfully register (Register here, in Chinese), here’s a sneak peek at what google has planned for the day:

8:30 – 9:00 Registration
9:00 – 10:15 Keynote Speech
10:15 – 10:30 Break
10:30 – 11:30 Google GeoAPI
11:30 – 12:30 Lunch Break
12:30 – 1:30 Panel discussion
1:30 – 1:45 Coffee Break
1:45 – 2:45 Google Gadgets API
2:45 – 3:45 Google Web Toolkit
3:45 – 4:45 Guice
5:00 – 7:00 Wrap-up reception cocktail party

Google hails this one as “an opportunity for all developers to gather together and learn from each other.” No word yet on who exactly will be speaking, or in how many languages.

This event will be held at the Hotel Nikko New Century Beijing, 6 ShouTi South Road, Haidian district. Call 86-10-6849 2001.

Seats will likely be in short supply, so get ‘em while they’re hot!
?Also posted on my Chinese Blog Experiment in ??? Google ??????

China Stolen-Media-of-the-Day: Casino Royale, and more 007

For those of you who liked the last James Bond flick I linked to (Dr. No), here’s Casino Royale, followed by about 5 other Bond flicks. All will play end to end, if you really have that much time on your hands…

For better or worse, there is an interesting discussion happening on a few China-related blogs these days. A discussion turned into an argument turned into something else altogether. I really enjoy the sites of all parties involved, and I hope everybody manages to keep a level head and not get too carried away.

In a nutshell, the debate is over SEO. Should we adjust our writing, our keywords, our urls — should we make our content more “googlable” so that we might draw in more traffic?

Mark of Toshuo thinks no. While I’ve only just recenty started reading his blog, I guarantee you that Mark will get traffic even if he pays no attention to SEO. He does some really cool work, such as the pinyin tone tool which I use quite often, which would draw traffic even if there was no other content onsite.

Putting the SEO Cart before the Horse

Though I have tried my best to optimize my site for SEO, I do think that putting disproportionate focus on SEO instead of content will most certainly get you in trouble. Your content is everything. What is the point of marketing something that essentially isn’t even worth marketing? Write first. Great content will market itself.

Does your Voice have Value?

If your blog is an online journal, than obviously you don’t care about marketing because these are just your personal writings. In that case, SEO is likely something you don’t need. However, if you are trying to get a message across to readers – if you have a message of some value, which you hope to give to others – then yes, you might want to pay some attention to SEO.

I use only one tool for SEO

That tool is the Wordpress Ultimate Tag Warrior Plugin. There. Go get it, and use it. However, I think there are many things far more valuable than SEO, most notably (as I’ve said) good content. But once you have that covered, then focus on the marketing aspect, if your goal is indeed reaching a wider audience.

Build a readership base

You can get as many google hits as you want, but if a reader doesn’t like what he sees, he’s not coming back to your page. But assuming he does like what you’ve written, you should provide a path for him to return. Using a Feedburner RSS feed you can set up a email subcription box as I have in the top right of my site. I have a modest readership, but it has been steadily climbing since I re-launched back in February. I don’t credit that to any SEO miracles. It’s simply because of more frequent, and more deliberate, thought-out posting.

At least, I like to think so.

Oh yeah, and for those of you who came for the headline, here is that AMAZING YOUNG ASIAN KITTY, as promised.

UPDATE: Typo Report
Uh oh. Looks like I made a typo in the headline, and actually typed “Amazing Young Asian Titty” instead of “Amazing Young Asian Kitty”.
Sorry about that. How embarrassing…
Please accept my most sincere apology:

China Stolen-Media-of-the-Day: Leon / The Professional

And continuing the now two-month old tradition of posting pirated media at the end of every post, here’s Leon / The Professional.

Luc Besson and Jean Reno are always a good combination. Courtesy of tudou.

I was just reading Rebecca MacKinnon’s article about Web innovation, and why Hong Kong lags behind China. I like Rebecca’s site, but – as one of her readers did – I gotta disagree with her on this one. Here’s why:

Slightly Outnumbered…

To compare the web development happening in China (population 1.3 billion) with Hong Kong (6.9 million) is would be similar to making a comparison between India (1.1 billion) and Dalian China (6 or 7 million, depending on who you ask). On a per capita basis, I wouldn’t be surprised if web development isn’t actually a little better in Hong Kong.

The Copy-Cat Syndrome

We all know that China likes to copy stuff. If you’ve been reading this blog lately, you’re especially aware of that (see China Stolen-Media-of-the-Day below). If you ever need two of anything, you might want to consider giving it to a Chinaman, and it most likely it’ll come back in duplicate. NOTE: Have him CC it to another Chinaman if you need three. This phenomenon seems to be prevalent on the internet as well.

Want Proof?

Here examples of some so-called Chinese web 2.0 innovation, and the corresponding site that was ripped off:
Youku.com is a video site very much like youtube.com.
Xiaonei.com is a blatant rip-off of Facebook.com.
Fotolog.com.cn is a Chinese Flickr copy.
Hipihi.com is the Chinese Second Life.
Dingr.com is a clone of Digg.com.
** For the ultimate copy cat story, see how Digg.cn used the exact same layout as digg.com. I can’t seem to access Digg.cn right now though.

Basically, if you can think of a innovative/pioneering web 2.0 app, chances are it’s been copied in China. They may even be so bold as to slap a “.cn” on the end to replace the “.com” domain.

Web 2.0 is about innovation, and if it’s not original — well then, you’s disqualified in my book. Now granted, I’m glad that these clones are making it to China. Even if they are copies, they do make the Chinese internet a much better place.

But I wouldn’t call it innovation. I can’t think of many web innovations that were made in China.

Can anyone prove me wrong?
I hope so…

And appropriately…

China Stolen-Media-of-the-Day: Star Wars Attack of the Clones

Well, actually it’s not just attack of the clones. Some guy went and uploaded a bunch of Star Wars movies to his tudou account. You can watch 5 Star Wars Episodes streamed back-to-back here. And they’re fast too.

By the way, 25 days left and I still can’t speak Japanese.

My Weekly China Links

Usually I post a bunch of links from various China related sites all over the net. But seeing as how Dezza (a good friend, and fellow Canadian) over at Mask of China is about to finish up a long and illustrious run as one of China’s best blogs, I thought I’d go down through some of his older posts, and pass some link-love his way. I had the pleasure of working with him when he was here in Dalian, and he’s a quality guy who just happens to also have a fucking quality website. While he likely wouldn’t admit it, there are few that can speak about China (or Hong Kong) with the same knowledge and authority that he can. Even before I knew what a blog was, Dezza was pumping out articles like these, hand over fist:

Dezza on Teaching

A Day in the Life of a Foreign Teacher
Face of a Foreign Teacher
How Foreign Teachers want to be Treated (according to some Chinese writer)

Dezza on Travel

Dezza goes to Taishan
Dezza goes to Xi’an
Dezza goes to Yangshou
Dezza on the Great Wall
Dezza Does Dandong

Dezza on Food

Improving Pizza Xinjiang Style
Hong Kong Style Barbecuing fun

Dezza on Politics

China’s Holocost
Tiger Leaping Gorge: Nearing the End?

Dezza on Business

Doing Business in China? Do it Somewhere else!
Are the Beijing Olympics Really that Important?
A dilettante’s foray into the Hong Kong stock exchange

So what’s Dezza gonna do now that the blog will be retired? Well, he’s developed some pretty kick-ass photography skills over the years, as you can see by checking out his flickr page. If you want to pay your respects to one of the best/original China Bloggers, drop Dezza a line here, or drop some comments on his flickr account.

China Stolen-Media-of-the-Day: Malcolm in the Middle

A friend of mine once compared this dysfuntional family to mine (I also have 3 brothers).

Here’s the first season of Malcolm in the Middle, for those of you who may not have seen it in a while. Pirated by youku/yoqoo.

And here’s why:

Now that we’re into April, those of us here in China are looking ahead to the upcoming May holiday. While I did not have any particular plans on going anywhere, my significant other wants to head back to her hometown – Tokyo, Japan.

Now, I’ve never been to Japan. We met here in Dalian. And since Chinese study has been a priority for me here (and playing around building this website), I’ve been putting Japanese study on the backburner for the past little while.

Why is learning Japanese in 30 days so urgent, you ask? Why can’t I just have my girlfriend translate for me when we arrive?

Well, one of the purposes of this trip is to Meet the Parents. And the last thing I want is a Japanese version of Robert DeNiro staring down at me saying “I got nipples, could ya milk me?” Personally I think it’s a little disrespectful if I show up at my girlfriend’s home 30 days from now, not being able to speak a few sentence of semi-respectable nihon go to her parents.

So basically, I’m gonna learn using Pimsleur mp3s, not only because they’re good, but also because I can’t seem to find anything else. They have Japanese I, II and III – each level consisting of about 30 mp3s. I’m hoping to speed through each level in about 10 days. Thus finishing all 3 levels by May 1, which is 30 days from today. Of course, having studied Chinese puts me at a bit of an advantage, since Japanese does use Chinese characters also.

Can I stick to this somewhat lofty target?

Well, anyone who knows me will likely say “fuck no.” But now that I’ve stated it publicly for everyone to hear/read – maybe I’ll be a little more motivated to stick with it.

By the way, if anyone knows of any useful study tools for Japanese, please let me know as soon as you can. The clock is ticking!

Stay tuned…

And fittingly,

China Stolen-Media-of-the-Day: Meet the Parents 2

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a continuous playlist, like most of the other movies/shows that I’ve found on the Chinese net. But I did find this one in 6 parts:

Meet the Parents 2 – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.