Summary
Have you ever noticed that most English-language China blogs are written by men? While the universe of women English China blogs may be smaller, these blogs add voices that may hint at the differences in experience between foreign men and women in China. As a start, we compiled a directory of 48 72 women who blog about China primarily in English. Most of these bloggers are currently in China but some are not. The list also includes group blogs and anonymous blogs.
Preface, questions, and thanks
Last week, after my post about Eclectic China Blogs–offering an antidote to the “standard business and current affairs white-dude-in-China blogs”– an interesting blog and email conversation emerged between Adam Minter, Laurence Sheed, Fiona Lee, and myself about why there seem to be fewer women writing English-language blogs about China. UPDATE 5/8: Edna Zhou has volunteered to help categorize the blogs on this post! Thanks!
Do women bring a different and distinct voice to the English-language China blogosphere? Why do expatriate men in China blog? Do expatriate women blog for different reasons? What do women choose to express that men do not? And other way around?
I started to organize a list of English-language blogs about China written by women. So first, thanks: this directory was compiled with the help of numerous people, including contributions from: James of iSpyShanghai, The Gal at Global Gal, Diana Kuan of Appetite for China, Fiona Lee of quirkyBeijing, Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap, and Rebekah Pothaar of ChinaTravel.net and Shanghaiist. 5/5 Update: added a few from Joel Martinsen of Danwei.org and Chris Horton. I wish I could wikify this post and allow the community to add to it. Please drop a comment and I will add, change and correct the post as needed.
When I shared my preliminary list with Adam Minter, he shared some insightful observations:
First, the news and translation oriented bloggers – Sky Canaves, Rebecca MacKinnon, Alice Xin Liu, for example – are indistinguishable from their male counterparts. And that is how it should be. So, in that sense, we don’t need this list.
Second … but if you take a look at the personal narrative blogs, the travel blogs, we need this list quite badly. Taken as a whole, they offer a very different account of what it is to be a foreigner in China than what we find in the average ‘foreign white guy’ blog. And that is how it should be: the lives of foreign women in China are often quite different than those lived by foreign men…Now, just to be clear: I’m not succumbing to a kind of Mars/Venus analysis here. But I think a reader would have to be willfully dumb not to notice the thematic and topical differences that exist between (many) male and female authored blogs, and that – in the China blog world – the male perspective (often, the prototypical culturally sensitive white man in a strange, irrational, authoritarian land perspective) is favored.
I’m still going through the process of reading, reviewing, and categorizing all the blogs so I don’t think I have much more insight to add than Adam’s reflections. But I know there are differences and will step out on a limb and share my opinion in a future post.
Directory of Women English-language China Bloggers – 72
news and translation
Sophie Beach – http://chinadigitaltimes.net/
Sky Canaves / Juliet Ye – http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/
Ying Chan (陈婉莹), head of China Media Project (but infrequent blogger) - http://cmp.hku.hk/
Elaine Chow – http://shanghaiist.com/
Fauna – http://www.chinasmack.com/
Alice Xin Liu – http://www.danwei.org
Alice Poon – http://www.asiasentinel.com/
Maggie Rauch – http://www.chinasportstoday.com/en/
Joyce Lau (of IHT) – http://joycelau1.spaces.live.com/
Erica Schlaikjer, CC Huang, Carla Fernandez, and Sophia Mendelsohn at http://responsiblechina.com/
Adrienne Mong, Bo Gu at MSNBC World Blog – Beijing – http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/category/1109.aspx
business
Jocelyn Eikenburg – http://www.thewuway.net/blog
travel and food
Diana Kuan – http://appetiteforchina.com/
Fiona Lee - http://www.quirkybeijing.com/
Sara Naumann http://gochina.about.com/
Rebekah Pothaar – http://chinatravel.net/
Jane Voodikon – http://gochengdoo.com/en/
Pepper - http://eatdrinkchengdu.blogspot.com
politics, history, society
Aimee Barnes – http://www.aimeebarnes.com/blog/
Xujun Eberlein – http://www.insideoutchina.com/
Rebecca MacKinnon – http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/
Luisetta Mudie / Sarah Jackson-Han - http://rfaunplugged.wordpress.com/
Various Authors including Angilee Shah, Susan Brownell, Nicole Barnes, Susan Jakes, Leslie T. Chang, Miri Kim, Kate Merkel-Hess -http://thechinabeat.blogspot.com/
arts and culture
Lee Ambrosy – http://www.sinopop.org/
Katherine Don – http://review.redboxstudio.cn/
Elyse Ribbons – http://www.iheartbeijing.com/blog/
education (learning Chinese/teaching/etc.)
Ana Campos – http://hanzillion.com/
Jenny Zhu – http://jennyzhu.com/
miscellaneous
Anonymous – http://chinadirt.blogspot.com/
mom/family blogging
Gina - http://ginainchina.blogspot.com/
Mrs. Johnson - http://thejohnsonsinchina.blogspot.com/
Donna Gorman - http://emailfromtheembassy.blogspot.com/
Anna Greenspan - http://www.wakinggiants.net/blog/
Jen Ambrose - http://jenambrose.blogspot.com/
Kristin Bair O’Keefe - http://kristinbairokeeffe.typepad.com/
personal journal and not yet classified
Ana Campos – http://meiadeleite.com/
Susanne Crosetto – http://beijingnotebook.blogspot.com/ She’s no longer in Beijing but she keeps blogging on Beijing and China-related things.
Flying Fish – http://flyingfish-windcaughtinanet.blogspot.com/
Lisa Fredsti – http://papertigertail.blogspot.com/
Gina.anne - http://www.ginaanneinshanghai.blogspot.com/ – is a Fulbright scholar in Shanghai, and she uses her blog to write research notes. Really fascinating stuff.
Global Gal – http://global-gal.com/
Iris Jumbe – http://www.artonym.com/
Jessica – http://thelocaldialect.wordpress.com
Anne Kokas – http://shotinshanghai.blogspot.com
Josie Liu – http://josieliu.blogspot.com/
Marjorie M. Liu – http://marjoriemliu.com/index.php?/blog/
Panthea Lee – http://panthealee.com/
Toffler Niemuth – http://tofflerann.com/
Mary Ann O’Donnell – http://maryannodonnell.wordpress.com/
Rebekah Pothaar – http://whoreoftheorient.blogspot.com/
Suzie - http://beijingnotebook.blogspot.com/
Jonna Wibelius – http://sheinchina.blogspot.com/
Iris Yee – http://effedinbeijing.blogspot.com/
Siyan Yu – http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/index.jsp?article=19.4551593
Edna Zhou – http://ednainchina.blogspot.com/
Elizabeth Dilts – http://americanfairasia.blogspot.com/ [young journalist in Nanjing]
“Jimmie” of One Child Policy Homeschool – http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Jimmie
Anonymous - http://exhausteddiligence.blogspot.com/
Aventurina King – http://blog.sina.com.cn/jinxiaoyuer (mostly in Chinese, sometimes in English)
Sarah Grace Smith – http://sarahgracesmith.blogspot.com/
Squarefaced – http://www.squarefaced.com/
Daisann McLane – http://www.daisann.com/
MGD – http://www.beijingcalling.blogspot.com/
AF – http://thinkchina.wordpress.com/
Amy Chang – http://quelquefois.net/toujours
Amy Gibson – http://thisismynoise.blogspot.com/
Law professor Flora Sapio – http://florasapio.blogspot.com/
Novelist Catherine Sampson – http://www.catherinesampson.com/pages/blog/index.asp
Teacher KimmieG in Yunnan – http://kimginchina.blogspot.com/
Mollie Kirk – http://chinasociety.blogspot.com/
Charlene Chi: http://madeinchinaandamerica.blogspot.com/
Alex Stevenson: http://beijingbriefs.com/
Laura Barnhart: http://eastversusmidwest.blogspot.com
Astrid Beck – http://guiworld.wordpress.com/ or http://guiworld.de
next steps and your turn!
OK, this is just a start. I’ll be updating, adding links and modifying this post to classify. I’ve also invited Fiona Lee to edit and make changes to the post. (On a personal note, my wife is expecting our baby any day now (YIKES), so that’s why I had to put out this post in the current rough format!)
- Have we missed anyone that should be included? Does anyone we included NOT belong?
- Did we misclassify anyone? Do you have a better way to classify these blogs?
- Are there obvious differences between male and female English-language China bloggers that you want to share?
Wonderful list. Beats searching around and ending up in the middle of whiningblogsville, when quality blogs are consolidated in this list. Thanks for this!
One to add: Jane Voodikon is editor/head blogger at GoChengdoo.com, an English blog focused on Chengdu/Sichuan… it’s only a few weeks old but is finding its own style and is filling the void of English info about one of the most happening cities in the country.
5/5: added. Thanks!
Can I submit my blog to the list under travel and food? Guaranteed 100% female authored : )
http://eatdrinkchengdu.blogspot.com
5/5 added. Thanks!
Nice roundup. Some additions:
News
Joyce Lau of the IHT: joycelau1 on Live Spaces.
Erica Schlaikjer, CC Huang, Carla Fernandez, and Sophia Mendelsohn at Responsible China
Business
Jocelyn at The Wu Way (dot net)
Personal
Aventurina King blogs about pursuing a career as a singer/dancer/TV host in China. Mostly in Chinese, but occasionally in English: jinxiaoyuer on Sina’s blog host
And the Studio of Exhausted Diligence looked like a promising cultural issues blog (done by someone in the States, apparently), but hasn’t updated for a month or so: exhausteddiligence on blogspot
5/5: added. Thanks Joel!
Lots of exploring and reading to keep me busy.
Thank you, Elliott
I am a new blogger in China. I teach in Beijing and my blog is about my experiences living in Beijing and traveling from here.
5/5 added! thanks.
in news section, xiao qiang is the husband of sophie beach.
if you are not listing men here, he should not be listed.
Thanks Roland. I removed Xiao Qiang from the list.
wonder if my blog fits the bill?
occasional insights into life in shanghai
5/5: Added.
I don’t make a big deal about my female-ness on my blog about politics, food, and travel in Hong Kong, “Learning Cantonese” (www.daisann.com), because I don’t write about women’s issues. But I do have two XX chromosomes, so I guess I am a potential candidate for your list.
5/5 Added
Wow, you’re a super woman, what with having 4 X chromosomes and all! ;)
Beijing Calling (www.beijingcalling.blogspot.com) is a great daily life blog run by an ex-pat woman. She writes on a variety of topics, sharing interesting stories from her own life here and commenting on relevant China news. I particularly like her posts on the restaurants she visits. Definitely a daily read.
5/5 Added
Hi, thanks for putting the list together. I am submitting my blog… if it qualifies. Oh, I’m a woman, of course…
5/5 Added. Now I’m wondering if I can tell which anonymous blogs are written by women vs. men.
Flattered to be on here! Already discovering some new favorite blogs through this list. If you wanted another classification, I’d consider my site a photoblog rather than a personal journal. =)
Elliott,
Thanks for the shout-out! I’m in good company :)
Also, since starting ResponsibleChina, I’ve started working for EMBARQ – The World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport, and I’m one of the editors of TheCityFix.com. If anyone knows about sustainable transport and urban planning in China (or anywhere else), please do get in touch with me!
How about the expat mom perspective? These are in the personal journal category with emphasis on kids:
Donna Gorman blogs from Beijing and often includes links to freelance articles she writes about Beijing & family life http://emailfromtheembassy.blogspot.com
Mrs. Johnson blogs from Qingdao about travel & life in China with 3 daughters http://thejohnsonsinchina.blogspot.com/
Thanks Global-Gal. 5/5 Added.
Thanks, Elliot & Global Gal… its an honor to be in such great company in blogland!
This is a great list – thanks for including CDT. I also recommend Chinese Lessons, by Anna Greenspan, which focuses on Chinese education generally and on her experiences with two young children attending Chinese schools in Shanghai:
http://www.wakinggiants.net/blog/
thanks.
Already on the list. Thanks so much for dropping by. CDT is an incredible resource.
Hey Global Gal. I’m up there on the list and I am a hard-core Mommyblogger. I self-describe as the only Catholic Expat Steelersfan Mommyblogger in China.
Thanks for the link to Donna’s blog. I used to read it but then my Google Reader went crazy and I had to purge the whole thing. I’ve been looking for that blog ever since I moved to Beijing.
Hi Jen, “Catholic Expat Steelersfan Mommyblogger” LOL, You’re definitely the only one I’ve come across! I will be checking out your blog as I may be joining the mommyblogger ranks in the near future. Yikes! I’m gonna need all the expat mom advice I can get!
Great list. Would love to be added, too!
Thanks Amy. 5/5 Added.
While I do not think of my blog as a China blog, I do still write about China from time to time.
I am a Filipino of Chinese descent and actually started blogging when I was in China so most of my earlier entries were about my life there, from tasting independence (as it was my first time to be living alone) to yearning for home, from frustrations with the language to dating Chinese boys, from worries over finding a new job to meeting fellow Filipinos in a strange land. I finally left China in November 2006 but everything before that are musings of my China adventure. (And there are pictures too! But again, these are from the time when I was still living there.)
Joni, thanks for sharing your blog. Is it currently about China? Doesn’t seem so.
Well, it’s about whatever it is I am presently occupied about, which from time to time could be about China as my job requires that I keep up with the goings-on in the Middle Kingdom. But you’re right; it is, at its current form, not exclusively a China blog at all. Thanks for the consideration though.
I hope that you may consider my Blog in your list.
Xiexie!
Cristy Li
Isn’t really about China, mostly about US politics.
worldblog.msnbc.msn.com — has a China blog with contributions from Bo Gu and Adrienne Mong, both women.
5/5 added.
Thanks you for this idea…
Please visit my blog as long as it is not blocked ;-)
I am 110% female, German and for some time in China.. bringing – hopefully – good usability to Chinese products…
But I blog mostly about what comes across my daily life…
So long
Astrid
link adress is
http://guiworld.wordpress.com/
and
http://guiworld.de
Thanks Astrid. Added this 5/8.
I have a few more:
Charlene Chi: http://madeinchinaandamerica.blogspot.com/
Alex Stevenson: http://beijingbriefs.com/
Laura Barnhart: http://eastversusmidwest.blogspot.com
Thanks Laura. Added these on 5/8.
Would love my blog added!
My Beautiful, Far-Flung Life at http://kristinbairokeeffe.typepad.com/.
I write about Shanghai, writing, adoption, and family.
Thanks Kristin! Added 5/8
I’m thrilled to see this list of all the great female voices on China topics. I myself am a woman China-blogger and author of The China Society Pages (chinasociety.blogspot.com). For my site I translate offbeat stories from the Chinese media. I would love it if you would consider including my site in this list. Thanks!
Nice to meet you Mollie. Added 5/8
Hi Elliot, fantastic list, and echoes my sentiments completely — we need to highlight the women out there covering china. Thumbs up!
Thanks for the shoutout, Elliot! Great compilation- time to explore some new female-authored China blogs!
looks like I’m not the only one who slips up on the “1t” vs. “2t” difference. Relieved, but still feel a bit of shame for my mispelling!
Hi,
good research!
And thanks a lot for putting my blog (Beijing Notebook) on the list. I would list it under ‘travel’ as most of my readers are travelling to Beijing or intend to visit.
I have been reading (and enjoying!) this blog about family life in china.
http://ginainchina.blogspot.com/
OK, I added it. Does Gina have a last name? couldn’t find it.
Wow, it’s great to see how this list is growing!
Here are a few others from my blogroll:
Law professor Flora Sapio – http://florasapio.blogspot.com/
Novelist Catherine Sampson – http://www.catherinesampson.com/pages/blog/index.asp
Teacher KimmieG in Yunnan – http://kimginchina.blogspot.com/
….actually I don’t have a full professorship yet, but I’ll take that as a good omen : )
Flora Sapio
Thanks Sky! Added 5/8
hey, i’m a female and i’ve been off and on blogging in china for a little while now- could i get added to your list?
it’s really wonderful to see all of the things that other people have been doing here, i’m glad that this is maybe making the way for more of a community of bloggers.
Added 5/8
Not that you spelled my name wrong or anything, but you spelled my name wrong…
A couple more for you:
http://www.kathrynpauli.com – Tai tai blogger. (She’ll kill me for saying that :) )
(Two below are the same lady – new blog, old blog)
http://kristinbairokeeffe.typepad.com/kristin_bair_okeeffe/ (Mommy blogger in Shanghai)
http://www.shanghaiadventuresofatrailingspouse.com/
And the CNR award for longest and most descriptive URL goes to…
I am one of the anonymites (I’d self classify as Arts/Culture but am too nascent and erratic to stick to it)! Thanks for linking and for this project – I’d started a blog in part because of the absurd disparity in gender representation (a plague in East Asian studies at large, I think), and will greatly enjoy browsing through other women’s blogs!
Thanks so much for assembling this list. Like many, I’ve been going through them, bookmarking new favorites, wondering where some of these blogs have been all my life!
What? No tech-related blogs? Or am I the only one?
http://www.shanghaitechwriter.com
Hi, thanks so much for compiling this much-needed list of ladies that blog in China. I would like to offer my own blog address to be added to the list, if possible. I’m an American teaching at a high school in Lishui, Zhejiang province. My blog is mostly about the trials and tribulations of cultural interludes and all the crazy stuff that happens in a small Chinese town. The URL for the blog, which is titled ‘gypsytracks’ is http://www.meganeaves.com/personal/gypsytracks/gypsytracks.html
http://haomama.us
(if it qualifies…)
thanks
This is Catherine from Under the Jacaranda Tree. I have been blogging since 2007. My blog also features my co-blogger Ned Kelly and a few other guest bloggers. I mainly blog about current affair in China, with a focus on media censorship, religious freedom and China-Australia relations. Ned specialises in China and the USA. I am not living in China at the moment but have been for many years.
I’m not sure if I agree with you that most female current affairs bloggers are indistinguishable from their male counterparts. Take me as an example. In the past I have blogged or joined discussion forums under some gender neutral names. But no one has ever mistaken me for a man.
Arts blog:
Andrea Descoteaux Hugg
http://worldchambers.wordpress.com/
Thank you for noting my blog, Elliott. I have not been posting in several weeks, but will be getting back to it in the next couple of days.
I hope that you are enjoying the summer!
-Andrea
Here’s mine if you choose to add to the list. Literary classification, perhaps? http://jessgoestochina.spaces.live.com/
Hi guys,
I’ve revived my old blog and was wondering if you could add it to the list:
http://www.speakingofchina.com
It’s called “Speaking of China”, and I write about China from the perspective of a woman married to a Chinese man.
I hope you will add my blog to the personal journal section. Thanks :)
mllewoods.blogspot.com
The Paper Republic website dedicated to Chinese literature in translation has a female founder (Cindy Carter) and a number of female translator/contributors (Nicky Harman, Rachel Henson, Lee Ambrosy, Cindy Carter).
Our author resource section includes info on over 40 translators (one third of whom are women) and profiles and excerpts from Chinese female writers: Xiaolu Guo, Zha Jianying, Xinran, Chun Sue, Sheng Keyi, Woeser, Yan Geling, Yin Lichuan and Chi Zijian, among many others.
http://www.speakingofchina.com/
http://rhiannonldelabruere.blogspot.com/
http://thelocaldialect.wordpress.com/
Hi please add mine too:
http://styleshanghai.blogspot.com
Thanks!
Maris
Hi
Can I submit my blog? Woman xpat in Shanghai blogging about the digital and advertising industry in China
Thx!
Hi
Can I submit my blog? http://www.BuzzandtheCity.com
Woman xpat in Shanghai blogging about online and advertising industry.
Thanks
here’s my site http://www.neatnest.biz, there’s a blog section related with creative home storage products.
Looks like there are plenty of women English-language China bloggers our there afterall!
http://www.shanghaihalfpat.com
About eating + living + working + exploring Shanghai as a halfpat. :)
I would love it if you would add my blog!
I write about daily life in Shanghai — some travel, whatever strikes me, which may well be, as Lawrence Sheed said, a tai tai blog.
Thank you.
Kathryn
I lived in Beijing for a year and have written some posts about life in China over at my blog http://suzieprince.wordpress.com. I’m still an expat (British living in USA) and so continue to read and write about expat issues. Love the list – there is so much to read!
I seem to have stumbled upon this about a year too late… Can I add my blog under misc or personal…?
http://www.chinarama.wordpress.com
It’s great to see so many female bloggers around. I’ve been trying to search for female blog writers and had only stumbled across a few *book marks page*. Thanks for compiling the list.
At least you should add author wanglili’s blog focuses on Art of Life in practice at recordsoftoday dot com.
The idea of the list seems good to me.
But I checked out just one — Sky Canaves/Juliet Ye — and must say that doesn’t “feel” like a blog to me. I enjoy reading this sort of web site, but it’s a China news web site; nothing personal about it. No different than Danwei.org, which is always worth a read…but doesn’t classify as a blog in my eyes.
It’s Really Nice Article.
Not sure if this thread is still alive, but I’ve started my own language-learning blog about journey to Mandarin comprehension and I was wondering whether it could be added to the list. I just started it two months ago, but I’m hoping that a bit of traffic will keep me motivated to keep the blog up to date and to continue learning Mandarin.
And yes, I am a woman.
Ruminations of a 鸡蛋 – http://ruminationsofanegg.blog.com/