Calling all Bloggers: Lets hear from the Missus

17 May

There are a few websites that I read, where the primary blogger (usually a male for some reason) will refer to a behind-the-scenes Ms. Blogger every once in a while. For example, Ryan has a very personal style of writing, and he mentions his significant other quite often. Imagethief has referred to Ms. Imagethief on numerous occasions, and Jeremiah quite often mentions YJ.

I was thinking it would be interesting to actually give our significant others a chance to speak for once.

I thought I’d start, and let my girlfriend express her thoughts on Pandapassport.com as well as my other online activities. She said she didn’t want to write anything, but she did give me 3 sentences.

Ms. Pandapassport says:

In fact, I don’t have any interest in your site.

It’s your hobby. If you enjoy it, that’s ok.

But please clean up the house before you start.

No interest?!! That’s harsh…

Anyone else willing to give a few words to their significant other?
An essay, a few sentences, whatever.

So…

What does your girl/boyfriend think of your site, and how much time you put into it?

And while you’re thinking about that, I’m gonna go wash some clothes and clean the floor.

And maybe fry an Apology-egg or two.

Popularity: 4% [?]

15 Responses

China Law Blog

May 17th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
1

Why is it that the China blogosphere is so overwhelmingly male?
admin

May 17th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
2

I’d go a step further actually —
it seems that the entire blogosphere (not just China) is overwhelmingly mail.
…at least that’s certainly the case for blogs I read.

A lot of China expats are male, I figure, because male are a little more bold in their travel. I’ve met a lot of guys who just uproot and come here alone, but not a lot of females — for some reason.

Who knows…
The Humanaught

May 17th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
3

I was actually just talking to Maggie the other day about starting up a blog… don’t know if she’d be able to fill it with much as she’s not much of a writer, but a guest post might be an idea… I’ll have to see if she’s into it Neat idea.

If I just get her to write a couple sentences, I have a feeling they’ll be remarkably similar to Ms. PP.
Josh

May 18th, 2007 at 12:20 am
4

Emily (my wife) was the one who wanted peer-see. I turned her on to Ryan’s site and Wrong Side of the Wall (http://www.lawrence.com/blogs/jroper/) as a way of edumacating her about expat life in Liaoning, and she decided she wanted to do something like that when we got here last year. The setup was my responsibility.

That said, she thinks I spend waaaayy too much time reading through the sites listed in your sidebar (thanks for the include, by the way. I’m honored to be in such rich company.)

I think one of the reasons people don’t know about more women’s blogs in China is that there aren’t as many extrapohaters among them as among the men. I’ve met plenty of women with gripes, but not to the level of TTC. That’s not to say they aren’t out there - like the ladies of Sinocidal. There are plenty of women in China who are blogging, but there blogs don’t reach the public because they aren’t saying the incredibly angry stuff that some of the men are.

There’s even a budding, English-language romance novelist with a blog about the great shoes she can buy here. That’s about as stereotypically feminine as one can get (and incredibly well-written, if I remember.) I’m sure if she started whining about the GPCR and the sexual inadequacy of Chinese men, she’d get more attention. Thankfully, she hasn’t (as far as I know.)
Josh

May 18th, 2007 at 12:22 am
5

…their blogs…
admin

May 18th, 2007 at 10:48 am
6

Ryan, I think Maggie should do a yoga youtube instructional video site. Slap the web address in the video, then throw the videos on youtube (and the chinese equivalents).

—Just a random thought that popped into my head.

I really like Peer See — thanks goes to Ryan for introducing me to it. Really enjoyed that extrapohating post. Made me look inside myself, in an “introspective-as-opposed-to-anal-exam” sort of way.

If you have any links to any of those Fem-Blogs, I’d love to see ‘em.
Maybe it deserves it’s own post on Peer see?
The Humanaught

May 18th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
7

(I’m still amazed at how many times it takes me to get that “hot” or “cold” answer right).

I do think Josh has a pretty good point, though I’ve absolutely no desire to read about “stereotypically feminine” issues. As I mentioned in my recent post on this, I think Emily’s virtually owning the market on smart reads penned by women in the China blogsphere.

Though, (and total plug here), we do seem to have a bright new female writer over at Lost Laowai as well.

I’m not stupid enough to make any assumptions as to why there aren’t more women blogging about more recondite topics, especially when I rarely do so myself… however, as far as bitching goes… there’s always China Dirt.

@Rick: A yoga instructional thing may be in the works
Chris (Eyes East)

May 18th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
8

I actually tried to do the opposite here: Maintaining my girlfriend’s blog while she’s off on the other side of the world. I managed to get two whole posts up before laziness and lack of content got the better of me. Not many computers where she is now, so the emails are few and far between.

In the meantime, I’m doing my darndest to drag another female voice into the China blogosphere. Should have more details on that next week.
admin

May 18th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
9

My girlfriend is talking about making a small travelling group/society here in Dalian. Well actually, the group is made - but I think an accompanying (Japanese language) website might be in the works.

We’ll see if she keeps to her intentions though.

She’s not quite as driven as I am.
admin

May 18th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
10

Google ads are funny.

I can see since this discussion started, that there are ads now showing for:
China Law
Girl Blog
Travel Blog

Whatever technology they’re using to check the text
– looks like it’s working…
Josh

May 20th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
11

The romance writer’s blog was A Bell Awakened

I’ll look through my bookmarks to find some others. Maybe someone would like to do some interviews.
Jamieson

May 23rd, 2007 at 5:38 pm
12

Dude, I brought the Australian Chinese Times back to home in Suzhou 3 weeks ago. Yuki sneered at it. “I don’t even read Chinese Newspapers, why would I read that ?” (In a very gentle manner).

Ah, well, I tried.

Unless it’s a Korean or Japanese DVD, forget it. Interest in ‘the Luck’, my blog ? Diddly.

Guess white Western males are significantly enthusiastic about writing on-line. The China experience is SO much different from life in other countries that the temptation to write is engrossing.

Mrs. Jamieson doesn’t even watch Chinese TV, let alone the news. Mei-Mei is equally unconcerned about Iraq or a Chinese high-level delegation currently in Washington to discuss trade imbalances.

What ?

I’d say 99% of my adult students :

a: Don’t care
b: Don’t care

After all, there is only one country in the world. I’m not concerned about this, I have pretty much given up lecturing about the rest of the world. The West is a mere curiosity.

So, you invented:

Electricity
Aircraft
Internet
Automobiles
Antibiotics
Plastics
Gasoline
TV

Surprising, the disinterest in the world outside China, and the the sense of superiority that I face day-to-day. OK, Humble is as Humble does. She is so sweet, an English Major - scarily fluent, but interest in our/my blogs ?

Forget it. In the nicest way.

Jamieson
admin

May 23rd, 2007 at 10:44 pm
13

Gotcha.
My girlfriend is pretty much of the same mind.

I have a sneaking suspicion that most girlfriends of bloggers wouldn’t be any different.
The Humanaught

May 23rd, 2007 at 11:48 pm
14

Hehe, agreed. Maggie feints interest. She’ll come over and do the “whatcha doin’?” thing… and I’ll show her four pages of code and say “trying to make this text a different colour”… she then goes and does something else.
Jamieson

May 27th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
15

Guys,

Further to my previous comment, I taught a Salon class today. Topic : TV News. I started the gig by asking the attendees “How much TV do you watch every day, and do you watch news on TV ?”

Got responses varying from none to 2 hours, and few watched the news. I wrote
$100,000,000,000 on the board and asked them if they knew anything about this amount, and why is it in the News ?

Righto. I have 8 students, one seemed a bit confused about the amount, suggested 50 billion and the reason. Just one, mind you. I assured him that Dubbya had signed up to shell out the 100 billion to support the thing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ahhh, guys, let us all toddle out and have a look at the world map. Let’s see, where is ‘Ilakah’ ?

Then we down-shifted to simulated TV presenters doing live updates of fires, floods and aircraft wrecks for the rest of the hour.

How could you NOT KNOW about the jaw-dropping, profligrancy of the ‘Administration’ ?

My colleague teacher, an MD in the States opined that Malaria could be eradicated world-wide in 2 months with a tenth of that money (Graduate of some tropical medicine school in Belgium, with significant experience in Africa).

Point is, spousal / significant other - caring about our blogs ?

Hah !

I only get scolded when I talk about Mrs. Jamieson or her family when she has some spare time to review the blog. Trust me, I get a good whipping behind the wood shed. That is why it is blocked until I carefully remove any references, tomorrow (day off).

However, we read other blogs cranked up in China and hide away sometimes to learn or laugh as we read. Keep it up GUYS.

Jamieson.