Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

China here, China there, China everywhere. Well, that's the impression one gets from the media at the moment. Whether threatening to manufacture everything we need or threatening Taiwan with annexation, China can't stop making news. So what's happening, then, on the other side of the Great Wall? Well, the blog format is rapidly establishing itself as the barometer we should check to find out what?s going on in a country, and a good starting point for China is Sinosplice. The listed blogs are in English and many of them are written by foreigners in China, which gives an interesting perspective on the culture and society. Of course, China being China, old habits die hard, so blogs are viewed with suspicion and are sometimes subject to repression — those on Sinosplice with a beige background, for example, have been blocked by the authorities. Winds of change are blowing, however, and as this is the week in which China suspended the publication of 673 state newspapers "for yielding no economic profit" it looks as if the time for the People's Blog is at hand. Out with the old, in with the new, sort of.

So, which Chinese blogs are worth reading? Hailey Xie's journal is one that caught my eye. The writer is a 20-year-old computer science student in Beijing who blogs in excellent English. Her range of topics is as impressive as her writing. On Friday, 21 November, she wrote:

"My friend is watching a TV series which tells the love stories of four different girls. These four girls meet different men in their lives, change boyfriends from time to time. They like to talk about love. Their conclusion is: appearance is the most important thing.

I like enjoying these kind of chick series. It's very funny. But when these four girls trying hard to get themselves with fascinating appearances, I feel kind of frustrated. Why do girls have to spend more time and money on dressing? Why people think girls without shining dressing is stupid while when this happens to men people think that is cool? My friends around spend much money on clothes and decorations. I feel grateful that they never laugh at my indifference. And my mom's always telling me to dress more fashionable because I'm already 20 years old. But even though my clothes is not so fashionable, it is by no means out of date. What I'm wearing is pretty decent. That's enough. Why should I spend money to look more fashionable? I think my coolest apprearance is wearing sports clothes, sneakers, rolling on my skateboard, and maybe falling over once in a while. That's so cool. Never get used to wear skirts or whatever."

Hailey Xie, there, blogging life in China. I'm very impressed.

Diarist of the day: David Gascoyne, 27 November 1938

"Sad, wandering, lonely, absent. Worn-out with wanting what I haven't got (before it was money I wanted: now it's love: always either one or the other, generally both), what a relief it would be to have something to rest on. But nothing is firm, there is nothing to prevent one falling. The only unfailing relief is sleep. The humiliating abdication of one's consciousness. (Regarded in that sense, sleep becomes a minor from of suicide). Must now try to begin to work really hard and to forget everything else for a while. Saw Jean-Pierre again last night and am going to meet him again during the coming week."