Opinion

What I’ve learned so far about China, blogging, and self-promotion…

I’ve done it!

With no prior knowledge of Wordpress templates, Squidoo, MyBlogLog, avatars, trackbacks, post slugs, CSR, bioclimatic design or Zheng Xiaoyu, I’ve managed to complete nearly one month of steady blogging about China’s environmental mêlées and CSR showdowns.

It’s been an adventure, entering into this wild wild blogosphere.

In true blogger fashion, here’s a bulleted list of The Things I’ve Learned:

1. It’s impossible to know everything, no matter how many hours you spend surfing Google News and diving through your blogroll.

I thought it’d be easy to stay on top of what I thought was going to be a fairly niche, concentrated “beat” (as they say in the newsroom.) But as it turns out, “environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility in Greater China” covers a motherload of topics, ranging from panda poop to government executions. My new goal for next month is NOT to scan every news article I can find, summarizing it into bite-size pieces for the lazy reader, but instead, I will focus more on posting original analysis (not ripped from somewhere else) about a few select stories, and then trying to start a discussion about them. (By the way: COMMENT! I don’t want this project to be a one-way street.) This will require more time on my part to do more research, think about what I want to say, and bridge together potentially discordant ideas, but I hope it will make for a better read. Plus, I really need to get onto the Hao Hao Report somehow. For that to happen, “Responsible Round-Up” just ain’t gonna cut it no more.

P.S. I’m hoping to start PODCASTING soon. I already have a guest lined up for next week, so stay tuned. It’ll be my first podcast ever, so if you can’t appreciate the interview, at least listen to hear if I mess up or not! It’ll make for great blog-o-gossip. Aha! Incentive!

2. Don’t believe everything you read.

I guess I already knew this, but it still didn’t prevent me from being absolutely gullible and fanatic over the bogus buns story. The China Story, in general, no matter if it’s about the economy, the Olympics, or Yao Ming, tends to be a little over-hyped anyway, so we should all be wary of future breaking news stories that sound too weird to be true.

3. It’s easy to be hypocritical.

I approached this blog as an outsider. I don’t live in China (anymore.) I didn’t study environmental issues or business. I may present myself as a trained journalist but I’m still a total amateur. And I don’t always recycle. The point is, I write about a lot of stuff that I find very interesting and important to the future of our planet (no exaggeration), but I haven’t quite incorporated all the ethical principles of green living or social responsibility into my own life. I spew a lot of hot air about “responsibility,” but I myself am happy to splurge all my savings in the most wasteful, energy-wasting, supposedly sinful place in America….yes, I’m flying to Las Vegas this weekend to celebrate my birthday, and I’m not going to spend one second thinking about my carbon footprint. However, to be fair, I don’t think being hypocritical necessarily warrants self-criticism. The first step in making a difference in your own life is to become educated and informed. (Check.) And the first step in making a difference in someone else’s life is to start a conversation. (That’s where you, dear reader, come in.) Hopefully, by next month, I’ll start using compact fluorescent light bulbs. And you’ll start commenting on my posts.

4. Don’t talk about yourself in the third person. It makes you sound conceited.

Thanks for making me more self-consious, China Law Blog. No, seriously. From now on, I will always refer to myself as “I.”

5. China is really messed up.

And we’re really messed up for giving it such a hard time. I’m no China-phile. I’m not even a particularly passionate activist. So I’m not advocating that we forgive the former Community country for all its trespasses. But the news in recent months has painted a really dirty, chaotic picture of China, and I gotta say, I feel bad for the Big C. Even the positive news that I’ve read seems to come with a caveat or a hint of skepticism. What really irks me is that China’s many scandals create the opportunity for countries like the United States to step in and play The Responsible Regulator, brandishing the international police stick, thus creating a hero-victim scenario. Yes, China is really messed up, but in order for it to rise from any of its ashes, to borrow from the stereotypical myth of the phoenix, it needs to have the right infrastructure, the authority, the political will, and the support of the international community.

6. I need to learn Chinese, properly.

I am conversational in Mandarin when I speak in fragments to my mom at home, or when I’m shuttling around Shanghai in a taxicab. After all, I’ve been learning the language since I was born and on-and-off throughout my formal schooling, including my college years, but I’m nowhere near the professional fluency needed to analyze complex information and engage in sophisticated discussions. And I hate the fact that I’m contributing to all this talk talk talk about China and not actually engaging with Chinese society. To that end, I have applied to the Mandarin Learning Center at Chinese Culture University in Taipei, thanks to receiving the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship from the Taiwan Ministry of Education. I’ll be there from January to March 2008.

People I admire (and am jealous of): Rebecca MacKinnon and the Global Voices Online crew, ESWN, and the bilingual staff at China Dialogue, a better version of what I’m trying to do here.

7. K.I.S.S.

Keep it Simple, Stupid. The best advice I ever got at Medill.

(and because 8 is a lucky number in China…)

8. Keep track of your identity.

Between all these social networking sites, blog directories and comment exchanges, I’m finding it overwhelming to know myself. There’s Erica. Eschlaik. ResponsibleChina. Erica@ResponsibleChina. Erica.Schlaikjer. And don’t even get me started on my rap star names…

Now that I’ve opened the floodgates, unleashing my online identity out into the universe, I have to watch my words and write with intention.

Because it’s hard to take back what you say when someone else has already gotten a hold of it first.

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I’ll be out of town until Tuesday, August 7th (Vegas birthday, remember?) Hopefully, when I return, my Global Dashboard will say I’ve reached 1,000,000 readers. Thanks for being here!

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