Best China Blog Awards Winners : A Chinalyst Interview with Imagethief

With the Best China Blog Awards 2008 over and a week after the Chinese new year we continue with a series of interviews with the bloggers behind the blogs that won the Best China Blog Awards 2008 asking them to tell us a little bit about themselves and their blogs. Imagethief made it to 3rd place in the Best China News Blog category with 82 votes.

Background

Blogger : William Moss

Blog:  Imagethief

About the blogger (from the blog) - "An American who has lived and worked in China since 2004, first in Beijing, then in Shanghai, and now back in Beijing. I am a director at one of the big, international public relations firms."

About the blog (from the blog) - "It started as typical "expat blog" chronicle of my early experiences in China, and was suitably unremarkable. Over time I developed a somewhat more distinctive voice and, based upon my work, a tighter focus on public relations, communication and technology in China."

Blog Traffic : ~25K pageviews per month.

Originally from: San Francisco, USA

Years in China : 5-8 years

Age : 41-50

Years blogging : 5

The interview

Q: What was your main motivating force for beginning your own blog?

Imagethief was originally started simply as journal of my personal experiences in China, and meant to be shared mostly with my family and friends. As such, it probably started out like many other China blogs once did, although after about six months it started evolving into something a bit more sophisticated -- if that's the right word.

Also, I like to write. I've written professionally since I was in university and for my own enjoyment since I was a child, so blogging is a fairly natural activity for me. Writing about things helps me to think through them and decide how I feel about them. So Imagethief was always a way for me to process my own experiences in China.

Q: What is your blog mainly about? Please tell us a little bit about the general topics you usually discuss in your blog.

If there is a main theme to Imagethief, it's public relations and communication in China. That covers a lot of territory, including corporate PR, political communication, foreign reporting about China and the Internet. I also write periodically about the technology industry in China, since that's my industry background. As if that wasn't enough, I'm also prone to wander off on digressions about things that simply interest me. There is also still the occasional personal post, although these days I write those posts with a broader audience in mind.

Q: What does blogging mean to you? What importance or contribution does your blog have, if any, to yourself or the community?

That's a big question! I write Imagethief mostly because I enjoy it. The blog enriches my own life by helping me work out my feelings about things in China. It's also connected me to a very lively and interesting community in China, for which I am grateful.

That's all great for me. Does my blog contribute to the community at large? I'm reluctant to make any such grand claims on my own behalf. I'm lucky to have a decent readership, and insofar as there are people that enjoy it or find it useful then I am happy. But if Imagethief vanished tomorrow I doubt there would be a great public outcry or groupies sobbing in the streets or such. Although I do fantasize about that from time to time.

Q: Did you experience any special or out of the ordinary events or interactions as a result of writing a blog?

Well, in Singapore in 1996 and '97 I wrote what might be considered a proto-blog. This led me into a brief and tempestuous relationship with a reader from which I have taken the lesson that it's probably best not to date readers. Of course, being married now, that's kind of a moot point.

Q: How did your blogging help promote you personally? (either professionally, by reputation, additional direct/indirect income or similar)

I'm pleased that my blog is read by some share of Beijing's foreign correspondent community. As PR man I find that flattering, but it's also been a useful way for me to get to know people. I regularly get called by journalists as a result of the blog. While I can't always comment on the record, for a PR man it's always good to have journalists calling you because they think you might have something interesting to say. Imagethief is also fairly widely read in the China public relations community at large. Whether that helps or hurts me in the long run remains to be seen, but on balance I think it's positive.

Imagethief has been written up several times and was named the "top industry blog" by Media Magazine in late 2007. It has also been quoted in major mainstream media and linked to many times by other prominent bloggers. I take all of that as validation of the effort that goes into it, and with any luck it will all mean something someday.

As for extra income...that's best not thought about.

Q: How much freedom do you feel you have to discuss what you care about in your blog? Are some topics more sensitive than others? Do you include personal details and stories in your blog? Why?

I have fair freedom, but not completely freedom. There are a few considerations. First, I'm not anonymous. Second, while I make it clear that the blog represents my personal opinion only, and I don't identify my employer on it, it's not hard to figure out whom I work for. So I try to avoid writing things that could cause problems for either me or my company. This is a bit of a balancing act since many of the subjects I am interested in are controversial by nature.

Personal issues present so no such problems. As my regular readers know, I pretty regularly get into personal matters on the blog. In the past year (as of early 2009) that has generally meant writing about my son. But when I do write about personal matters I try to combine it either with humor or some kind of worthwhile observation about life in China.

Q: How would you generally describe the Chinese expat blogosphere? Do you personally know any other China expat bloggers? In your opinion, what contribution or role does the China expat blogosphere have, if any?

I know many other expat China bloggers, and consider several of them among my good friends. The expat China blogosphere is small and incestuous and operates to some degree like a big, cozy club. We all link to each other. We all know the same people. We all speak on the same panels. This isn't necessarily a good thing, but fortunately there still seems to be some diversity of opinion among us.

There are true subject matter experts and long-time China hands among the expat China bloggers. At our best, the main contribution of the expat bloggers is to provide another source of decent insight into China beyond the mainstream media, which faces certain constraints in terms of resources, commercial imperatives and having to reach a largely overseas general-interest audience.

Not that we always live up to this potential.

Q: Do you have any favorite blogs about China you would like to recommend?

There are many. Rather than list them here I'd refer readers to the blogroll on Imagethief. The main blogroll, which is not on the front page but is linked to from the front page, is annotated. The blogs I list on the front page itself are my most regular reads.

Q: How did you first make the decision to arrive in China?

I had been living and working in Singapore for many years. Singapore is a wonderful place, but it is small and I was beginning to go stir crazy. I knew I wanted to live and work someplace else in Asia, and China seemed like the most interesting place to be. I'd say that has proved correct.

Q: What do you think about life in China, the Chinese people and Chinese culture? How would you generally describe your experience in China?

I could go on for days, but in the interest of the readers I won't. I enjoy living in China a great deal. I find the Chinese people generally warm and receptive to foreigners. My Chinese colleagues are smart, witty and fun. I find the country fascinating and diverse. There is much more that I need to learn, culturally, linguistically and historically. I think Beijing today is a surprisingly livable city. If the air could be made consistently clean it would be one of the world's great cities to live in.

Q: What advice would you give new bloggers?

First, find a niche. Don't write about something that dozens of people are writing about already. Or, if you do, bring some kind of fresh new spin to it.

Write about what you know and can contribute real expertise to (ideally this should line up with point one, above). It's also OK to write about something you are learning about. But beware of trying to sound like an expert in a field you have only cursory knowledge of. Someone will pin you.

Write in your own voice and keep it human sounding. Don't try to construct something artificial. People have a lot to read and most don't want to add something dry and didactic, no matter how useful it may be. It may take time for your written voice to emerge. That's OK.

Seek feedback from people you trust to give you honest opinions (not your mom) and act on it.

Link to other blogs in thoughtful ways. That will get you noticed, blogrolled and responded to.

Stay current and react to what's happening around you.

Don't be spiteful. If you want to attract controversy, do it with your intellect. Similarly, however, don't suck up.

Edit. Don't publish sloppy, un-proofread stuff.

Remember that all rules can be broken, but break them in a calculated fashion.

Q: What advice would you give someone considering coming to work, study or live in China?

For those who want to work:

1) Learn some Chinese. You don't need to be Da Shan. You do need to show that you are invested in the idea of living and working in China.

2) Take a chance and come to China. No one will hire you from overseas. There are too many smart, talented people here already. Line up meetings ahead of time if you can.

For those who want to study:

1) Do it. But research your language or exchange program carefully. There are a lot of mediocre programs.

For all who are considering coming here to live, living in China will easier than you expect in some ways, especially if you are in one of the major cities, and it will be harder than you expect in some ways (the giddy sense of adventure tends to wear off, often, for some reason, when you are trying to deal with a Chinese bank). China is a country for people who are open minded, patient, and tolerant of things that don't always work as expected. It is a really bad place for wound-up Type-As who like everything just-so.

Thanks Imagethief.