What is this blog?

I open up Weibo every day on the trending posts page and start going down and translating what’s the newest on Chinese social media until I have about 1500 words. I’m hoping this can be a window for western people to read about all the little tidbits of Chinese life and culture that never makes it into news stories. Hopefully, it can also bring attention to some fucked up shit happening in China (see the Cognitohazard Warning post) and help bring awareness.

What the hell is a weibo?

It’s sort of like Chinese twitter, but if you pay money, you can post for more than 140 characters. The name literally means “microblog”, but it’s the most popular place for Chinese people to blog and, well, tweet. A lot of bloggers focus on posting the best content from Chinese reddit or Chinese instagram, so it’s a very representative sample of the hottest going-ons on the Chinese internet.

Who are you?

I’m a girl born in the mid-90s in rural Shandong—the kind of village that’s practically still using medieval technology, full of subsistence farmers. Shortly after I was born, a big international sweatshop opened up, and that brought enough opportunity that my parents were able to take me overseas when I was 10. I still spent all of my holidays in China though, and I try to visit once a year to see my extended family even now. I’m by no means an expert on China. Every time I’ve returned, it’s to spend time with family, so I have done very little domestic tourism. But I do speak Chinese fluently, and I try to translate these posts as faithfully as I can.

How do you choose which posts to translate?

I don’t. I just go down the doomscroll and translate every one I come across, cutting out only advertisements. That way, I’m not cherrypicking any data. That means if this blog is absolutely filled with a lot of genderwars, that’s because that’s what’s trending on Weibo. If a couple of days is nothing but rather contextless celebrity gossip, well, that’s what people are paying attention to. I’ll explain a little context where I feel it’s absolutely necessary to understand a post, but I try to inject as little of my voice as possible, because I want to present an accurate view of China, not a view filtered through my lens and my assumptions. If there’s anything you don’t get, though, feel free to ask. I try to respond to all my comments.

Should I be a paid subscriber?

I dunno, man, that’s up to you. Absolutely all of my posts documenting Weibo are going to be free though, because I care about as many people seeing them more than I care about making money. Any money I do receive from this venture is going to go towards helping women in China, though. Right now, my best idea is to spread awareness of how the punishment for undicking your husband is a $200 fine. If you have better ideas, please let me know.

Who made that really awesome Doom Scroll image for your avatar?

That’s my good friend Lazar Robinson, who’s an excellent 3D artist and retired vet. You can find him over at https://twitter.com/LazarRobinson!