Teaching Comparative

Blogging about a blogger

Thousands of people start blogs every day. (Who reads all those things?) Bloggers read each other, and seem to write about each other's entries. Sorry, I'm falling into the same trap.

The LIUZHOU LAOWAI blogger recommended another blog Danwei, saying, "If you have even the vaguest interest in China, you should keep a close watch on the Danwei site. [It's] informative, erudite and witty."

The bloggers at Danwei are all those things, but most of what they write about is peripheral to government, politics, and comparative processes. But once in awhile there is a solid and important note.

Like, "The New York Times, like most US newspapers, has a story about the All-China Federation of Trade Unions being allowed to set up at a Wal-Mart store in Fujian Province. This is big news because Wal-Mart has always been hostile to unions and its American work force remains un-unionized. However, it is not really big news at all, because trade unions in China do not actually stand up for workers rights, and tend to be used merely as channels for Party influence and for distributing 'benefits', like the odd case of free shampoo, or fruit before Spring Festival."

There are also entries that offer curiosities like,
"The Kite Runner, a film adaption of Khaled Hosseini's novel, will be directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) and shot in Xinjiang and Beijing from September to November this year."

And "Is Steve Ballmer the Deng Xiaoping of Microsoft? Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called on the phantom of Mao Zedong while trying to convince the Wall Street Journal that the Redmond giant will flourish without Bill Gates at the helm: 'There have been many companies who lost their greatness post their founders. There have been many companies who went on to greater greatness after their founders.... When did China get great? China didn't get great under Mao Zedong. China got great under -- in the recent years -- probably got great under Deng Xiaoping.'"

I will keep my eye on it for awhile and let you know if I find entries that seem relevant for our purposes.

posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:25 AM