Matt Schiavenza From the Dragon to the Apple- A Sinophile in New York

Through The Chinese Blogosphere

I occasionally hear from readers that they consider my blog a useful source of information about life in China.  I sincerely am flattered, mind you, but would also like to point toward blogs that I believe do a far more effective job of providing a glimpse into China than mine does.  NBNL remains a repository of my many disparate thoughts, to which anyone who slogs through my baseball and politics posts can attest.  These sites are far more focused on China, so I'd like to introduce them to you.  These are the blogs I check daily:

EastSouthWestNorth- Blog kept by one Roland Soong, a Hong Kong native and resident who nonetheless spent decades living in the US.  Soong often translates various documents and newspaper articles from Chinese to English so thus provides an interesting look into the Chinese media.  He writes mostly about culture, life, and media.

The Peking Duck- Richard is an American citizen living in Taipei.  His blog is a blend of news commentary on both Chinese and American politics. He's an outspoken liberal and so sometimes writes highly earnest, emotional rants that are painful to read. Nonetheless, for readers interested in following China-related news stories in the English language media, TPD is a good resource.

Simon World- Simon is an Australian economist living in Hong Kong.  His blog focuses mainly on HK issues, but like The Peking Duck he comments on much of the China-related English language media.

Danwei- Media and advertising in China

SinoSplice- John is an American graduate student in linguistics living in Shanghai.  His subjects range from daily life in China to linguistics.  John's fluency in Chinese gives him an insight into the culture that many other expats lack. He also blogs in Chinese.

Chris Waugh- Chris is someone I know personally through the three work seminars I've been to with WITT, so I read his site partially just to see what he and the others are up to.  Even if I didn't know him, though, I'd still find his site interesting.  Chris speaks a lot of Chinese, is engaged to a Chinese girl, and has been in China for quite awhile.  His blog is a bit like Sinosplice in that he talks about linguistics, but it has a distinctive New Zealand flavor full of colorful turns-of-phrase that I think anyone could enjoy.

Matthew Stinson- Like Chris, Matt is an ESL teacher in Tianjin.  Unlike Chris, he's an American and he writes about politics and pop culture more often than China-related stuff.  Matt is a staunch conservative, but he's quite honest and fair and writes very well.   My only complaint about Matt's blog is that he doesn't update it enough.

Shanghaiist- Part of the Gothamist network of city blogs, Shanghaiist is a group site providing news, commentary, and updates about China's most exciting city.  Great resource if you live in Shanghai, or plan to visit soon.  Even if you, like me, dislike their annoying "royal we" writing style.   The editor, Dan Washburn, is an American journalist who also keeps a personal blog called Shanghai Diaries.

Talk Talk China- By their own admission, the TTC trio tailor their blog to readers having a "bad China day"  If you're looking for a place where foreigners bitch about China, this is it.  I personally find most of their shtick pretty tiresome but every now and then they write that's spot-on brilliant.

There are lots and lots of other sites I could plug, but these are the main ones.  I hope you don't abandon NBNL, of course, but if you're interested in China and would like to supplement your blog reading a little, I suggest taking a look at these sites.  Enjoy.