a journalist sent me an interview questionnaire as follows this afternoon. my answers are colored in blue.
Questions to Bingfeng!
This story is about the development of media in China, I have visited some newspapers like Wenhui Daily, and magazines like Caijing Magazine. and it seems like there has been a lot more freedom in China today, but that there are still some things you can not say.
I totally understand if you don’t want to respond to some of these questions, just leave them blank in that case. If you want to be anonymous, that is also fine.
Q: When did you start blogging?
A: one year ago.
Q: Why do you like blogging?
A: to practice my english.
Q: How much time do you spend on blogging every day?
A: averagely one hour.
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about the bloggers conference in Shanghai, where you there? What was the main topic during the bloggers conference? Why did you decide to have a conference? What did you talk about?
A: Chinese Blogger Conference 05: Recap and Random Thoughts
More random thoughts on Chinese Blogger Conference
Q: What do you think is the most important question for bloggers in China right now?
A: i don't know. to me, the most important question/issue is how to avoid the danger of losing identities of this blog in order to make the ever increasing readers happy.
Q: What was the main conclusion of the conference?
A: n/a (i didn't attend it)
Q: What do you think about other media in China? What do you think is the most interesting magazine/TV-show /site in China right now? Why?
A: all media in china is still in their infant stage, because both the administrative bodies and the readers are still in their infant stages. my picks of the most interesting magazine/TV show/web site in mainland china are China National Geographic (Zhongguo Guojia Dili), Lang Xianpin Talkshow (Caijing Langxianping) / Dialogue (Duihua) and Hexun dot com, respectively.
Q: What do you think internet, and blogging has meant for the development of Chinese media and the freedom of speech in China?
A: these technologies help the once monopolized information spread to all levels of the social hierarchy and make the debates on public issues possible. due to the emergence and popularity of the new media, traditional media have to react, in both positive and negative ways, to meet the needs of their readers. in this process, the boundaries of the freedom of speech are tested and expanded, and more importantly, tastes and mentalities tath suit a more open media are gradually formed.
Q: Did your blog ever get censored? Is censorship something you ever think about as a blogger?
A: not in my case. censorship is a hot topic in my blog because a lot of people talk about it when some web sites are blocked here in china. if nobody talks about it, i may not even notice the issue because it's not pertinent to my life and not in my priority list of china's problems (sorry to disappoint many of my readers).
Q: Other people have said that it is ok to say anything in China as long as you don’t mention Taiwan, Tiananmen and falungong, do you have the same feeling? Are there any other limitations?
A: certainly it will bring you troubles if you peddle taiwan secessionism, flg or rant about TAM. there are many other rules for internet speech like comments of racist, porngraphic or sex discriminative flavors are not allowed, but mostly they are not strictly followed. it's true that certain political topics are taboos here.
Q: What is freedom of speech to you? Do you have a feeling that there is freedom of speech in China?
A: to me the freedom of speech has two levels, in the lower level, you free yourself from the outside institutional constraints, and in the higher level, you free yourself from stereotypes, opinions of others, prejudice and bias. the freedom of speech in china is not enough in the lower level and far from enough in the higher level, but in general, people have much more freedom of speech in most fields.
Q: Any example of when you imposed self-censoring on your own blogging?
What is not ok to write when you blog in China (for example…)?
A: the only self-censorship i made in this blog was to ensure the Friday Girls wear minimum clothes, otherwise, i might be kicked out by BC blog moderator. i have no porblem to talk about taiwan, flg, etc. because i support the reunification with taiwan and am against flg cult. it might be a different story if you peddle, i mean peddle not hold, different opinions.
Q: It seems like many people in China think the traditional media, like TV, is boring, what do you think?
A: there is no such a thing as "boring media", quality programs on tv are not usual, and new media make them even less attractive, but the most important aspect of media is always content.
Q: What do you think this will mean in the future, will people spend more time on Internet (downloading tv-series instead) and less time with TV and printed media?
A: this already happens. a lot of my friends stop buying DVDs and only watch downloaded movies, but on the other hand, people buy more printed media like magazines. i think i spend more time reading books and newspapers than surfing the web.