Note: When this article mentions "China," it refers to "Mainland China" by default.
Talking About Personal Blogs#
A personal blog is an individual's act of recording and sharing information using internet websites. After China connected to the international internet, many people established their own blogs. I believe the two most famous blogs are "Ruan Yifeng's Blog" and "Programming Thoughts." They are typical representatives of personal blogging in China, showcasing two directions of purpose: being law-abiding or actively participating in social movements.
"Ruan Yifeng" represents the "tranquil life" faction of the petty bourgeois ideology, avoiding politically sensitive areas and discussing trivial topics, which is why his blog has lasted for over twenty years. "Programming Thoughts" represents the right-wing in a political sense in China, advocating for Western-style capitalist democracy and market economy, attempting to engage in sporadic political resistance through the internet, a domain with weak control by the nation-state. He failed and was imprisoned.
Today's focus is not on the two, but on "Chinese personal blogs." Why not discuss "Chinese-language personal blogs"? Because there is no time to consider information from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
China once experienced a brief desktop internet era, giving birth to various social existences. The year 2015 was a watershed: the popularity of 4G and smartphones led to a surge in mobile internet, effectively killing the desktop internet. Blogs coexisted with the desktop internet, thriving during that era and declining with the rise of mobile internet. The "blog" of the mobile internet is SNS—Social Networking Services, specifically referring to internet applications aimed at helping people build social networks, such as Weibo and Xiaohongshu in China. Now, most Chinese people have no need to purchase or even use computers, as mobile internet based on smartphones can meet the public's internet needs. The desktop internet is the realm of web pages, while the mobile internet is the realm of apps.
If working-class families were to vote with real money, would they buy a phone or a computer? Undoubtedly, over 70% of families would choose a phone, as mobile internet has structurally embedded itself into the daily lives of contemporary Chinese people, becoming an essential component—one can live without a computer or never have used one, but one cannot live without a phone.
In addition to economic foundations, usage habits, and trends of the times, personal blogs in China also face political censorship. The Chinese government has gradually strengthened its regulation over the act of "establishing blog sites," which is a form of political control. It is unclear when it became necessary to register and obtain approval to set up a blog within mainland China; establishing a blog without permission is considered illegal. To obtain official permission, one must fill out materials based on real-name registration—who you are, where you live, your contact information, what website you want to establish, why you want to set up a website, and how you will ensure your website is "safe"—submit the application and wait for approval. Of course, your application cannot contain the word "blog." From this requirement, it can be said that China effectively does not allow the existence of personal blogs. If someone wants to start a blog (without declaring it as a blog), they will find that websites with comment functions face a more complex approval process compared to those without, and the pressure from regulatory agencies is greater. In fact, the Chinese government fears and is wary of the social mobilization effects that interactive websites with "comment" functions can provoke in public opinion, thus imposing stricter restrictions on websites and apps that have comment interaction features.
This is indeed the "family planning" of the Chinese internet. The authorities have successfully made "establishing a blog in China" a daunting and troublesome task through complicated procedures and risk transfer.
Nowadays, more people are not falling victim to government regulatory procedures but are instead defeated by a "lack of thought" and "unwillingness to think." As mentioned earlier, various factors after 2015, along with the pre-modern perception of computers as "toys" in Chinese families and the educational system's systematic neglect of information technology skills, have made it difficult for young people to even touch the existence of "blogs," let alone establish their own blogs. "What is a blog?" This is the basic understanding of contemporary internet users.
After painstakingly completing the approval process and establishing a site, the road to blogging is not smooth sailing. The biggest obstacle is not network attacks, malicious slander, or spam ads, but the blogger's own creative enthusiasm. Many bloggers are like punished Sisyphus, having to push a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down every time they reach the top, repeating this endlessly—writing a blog out of a whim, the boulder falls, they stop writing and fall silent, then start all over again.
Personal blogs are a historical product of the desktop internet. It can be said that societies that develop to the stage of desktop internet will inevitably produce blog culture. This period may be long or short, and it can even be directly crossed into the mobile internet era, where blogging becomes merely a hobby for a small group of people still using computers.
Talking About the Blog Circle#
"Wherever there are people, there are grievances; where there are grievances, there is a community; people are the community."
This saying, often claimed to be from "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer," actually originates from Xu Ke's film "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer: The East is Invincible," where Linghu Chong wants to withdraw from the community, and Ren Wo Xing says, "The community, as long as there are people, there are grievances; where there are grievances, there is a community; people are the community, how can you withdraw?"
Source: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/281584030
My Thoughts#
Wherever there are people, there is a community, and social circles are no exception in the "blog" field.
Each blogger's motives and purposes vary, collectively forming a diverse and complex blog circle.
With the decline of the desktop internet in China, the blog circle has also shrunk. More people are using social media.
I initially wanted to write about the blog circle, but ultimately found it uninteresting.
However! When discussing public discussion spaces and carriers, "blogs" are an indispensable arena for public discourse on the internet. Perhaps in the future, I will explore the special role of blogs in detail under related content.
Having scoured all members from the ten-year agreement 2017~2024 (as of December 1), I believe that the number of active and interesting bloggers does not exceed 100. This also confirms the assertion that "blogs are dead" in the Chinese internet.
Blogger's Perspective#
Simon, in "Looking at the Differences Between Chinese and Japanese Blogs from 'The Chinese Internet is Accelerating Collapse,'" pointed out that the collapse of the Chinese internet is not only related to the censorship system but may also be linked to the decline of blog culture. He noted that social media with high information density, strong interest, and rich content has ecologically squeezed out blogs, which are less interesting and longer in length. Additionally, the registration system, technical requirements, creative enthusiasm, and social interactivity are important factors affecting the decline of blog culture in China. He observed that Japanese blog culture has the potential for continuity; however, in China, the cultural habits of reading and writing blog posts have disappeared, and text content media face the threat of retrospective censorship. Simon concluded that the decline of Chinese blog culture is an inevitable historical trend.
Mobius, in "The Boring Chinese Blog Circle," cited a friend's evaluation of the Chinese blog circle—"quite boring"—to extend criticism of the current state of the Chinese blog circle. His friend believes that some blog content is more suitable for publication on social media with greater exposure and questions whether "independent blogs" are an escape from "the audience's scrutiny of the work." Mobius explained that "writing a blog" suffers from a serious lag in reader-author interaction, and a lack of reader interaction can lead to a decline in the author's creative enthusiasm. He also pointed out that bloggers may be constrained by the external image construction of their blogs, entering a state of social performance that obscures genuine self-expression. He advocates that social connections among bloggers should first focus on others' self-expression and develop into deeper social interactions through resonance or collision of viewpoints. Mobius ultimately concluded that neglecting others' expressions or unwillingness to reveal true thoughts will reduce interactions among bloggers to boring, hollow social statements, making it difficult to achieve deeper progress.
Mobius, in "The 'Poisoned Wine' and Unquenchable 'Thirst' of the Chinese Blog Circle," further explored the current state of the Chinese blog circle. The closure of Jixin sparked reflections on the "death of the Chinese blog circle"; bloggers believe that "the proliferation of AI" is a significant reason for the "chronic death of the internet." Mobius combined personal experiences and observations during the pandemic, pointing out that the overall repression of social consciousness, combined with dissatisfaction and the censorship and castration of social media, prompted a brief revival of the Chinese blog circle but also brought many low-quality IT-related blog posts. He believes that low-quality and/or IT-related blog posts should not dominate the Chinese blog circle. Mobius interpreted different types of creators based on their writing motives and purposes, noting that the underlying motive for "writing a blog" includes the subconscious desire "to be seen and noticed by others." He claimed that the development of generative AI has led many creators to rely on AI for content creation, resulting in low-quality, emotionless articles that pollute the blog content ecosystem and internet search results, raising the costs of information searching and filtering while reducing efficiency. Mobius likened "articles generated with AI involvement" to "poisoned wine," arguing that blog creators ultimately cannot "drink poison to quench thirst" and should not rely on AI for creation, as the cold symbols produced by machines cannot replace human emotions and thoughts.
Mobius, in "Follow—Perhaps a Temporary Antidote for Blog Creators," discussed the relationship between information aggregation tools/platforms, AI, and blogs. Follow, as an emerging information aggregation tool that combines Web 3.0 features, can be used to subscribe to RSS feeds, boasting a beautiful interface and ease of use, and provides an "AI summary" function that extracts the main points of articles. Regarding the usage scenarios of AI summaries of blog posts within Follow, Mobius expressed concerns about "AI replacing humans," warning that AI functions may lead users to develop dependency habits, abandoning active thinking during reading and understanding the author's thought process and internal logic, thereby weakening the thinking ability of dependents. He also emphasized that this dependency might allow AI to generate content that aligns with reader preferences, diminishing or even replacing the existence of human creators. Mobius proposed "recursive islands" to summarize the dilemmas faced by the Chinese blog circle, including outdated carriers, high thresholds, self-censorship, and lack of readers and interaction, revealing the awkward situation of self-entertainment within the circle. He noted that the limited popularity of Follow has somewhat introduced a new readership to the blog circle, but it has not yet resolved the issues of information anxiety and the lack of effective interaction between "readers and authors," and its impact on the blog circle remains to be observed. Mobius emphasized that the key to creation lies in persistence and improvement, rather than the platform for presenting works; in the face of external scrutiny, blog creators should abandon a self-entertaining mindset and earnestly write "meaningful" content.
Bai Xiong A Wan, in "From Algorithms to Human Connections: The Story of Friendly Links," elaborated on his views regarding "friendly links" within the blog circle. He reviewed his experience in building a website, supporting the important role of friendly links in being indexed by search engines, but emphasized that the key to operating a personal blog lies in the website's user experience and content quality, stating that "exchanging friendly links" usually does not improve the blog's indexing results. He quoted Mobius's analogy of "exchanging yearbooks," interpreting that some bloggers set thresholds for "exchanging friendly links" because unconditional exchanges do not bring about good social experiences. A Wan argued that "exchanging friendly links" involves interpersonal communication, and the requester should fulfill social etiquette and respect others' wishes. A Wan believes that one-way links and mutual friendly links each have their purposes, with mutual friendly links emphasizing the shared interests and mutual respect between bloggers.
Wajie shared an experience regarding "exchanging friendly links" in "Talking About Independent Blog Friendly Links." He recounted an encounter with a visitor who rudely accused him of requesting an "exchange of friendly links," using this to clarify his views and stance on "exchanging friendly links." Wajie stated that familiar bloggers do not need to exchange links, and those who exchange links do not necessarily have to be acquainted; the condition for "exchanging friendly links" is mutual familiarity based on "effective interaction," and one should not morally coerce others. He believes that "friendly links" are usually "first make friends, then exchange links," and their main function is to facilitate bloggers in visiting each other's blogs. Wajie ultimately called for respect for social boundaries between people and to avoid rude offenses.
Soulizer, in "A Brief Discussion on the Winds and Clouds of 'Blogism'," shared his views on different types of bloggers. He categorized bloggers into "four sects and twelve schools," analyzing the behavioral patterns, motives, and purposes of each sect. He explained that the "Material Sect" focuses on the quality of blog content, pursuing high-quality creative output; the "Form Sect" emphasizes the superficial form of "writing a blog," driving progress in the technical field of blog building; the "Purpose Sect" has a strong sense of purpose, such as converting traffic into wealth through the blog platform; while the "Motivation Sect" often consists of "downlines" from other sects who choose to write blogs for personal reasons. Soulizer humorously narrated his observations of the blogger community.
Soulizer continued to express his insights on the "Material Sect" in "The Cultivation Methods of the Material Sect of 'Blogism'." He elaborated that the core values of the "Material Sect" are to pursue "valuable" and "easily disseminated" content, specifically possessing four major principles: ① truthful and reliable; ② high originality; ③ concise and to the point; ④ easy to understand.
Soulizer discussed the ideological differences between the "Form Sect" and the "Material Sect" in "Special Report on the Love-Hate Relationship Between the Form Sect and the Material Sect of 'Blogism'." He illustrated the differences between the two using the expression techniques of television dialogue programs. The "Form Sect" believes that the significance of blogs lies in being a private expression field that self-contradicts nihilism, and what content bloggers publish is a matter of personal freedom, with no external authority to interfere or comment—emphasizing the freedom of expression on the blog platform; while the "Material Sect" believes that free self-expression holds little value for others and is more suitable for social media, while blogs should provide "valuable" content—emphasizing the social value of expression.
References#
Bloggers Discuss the Meaning of Writing Blogs#
【Personal Blog, What Is Its Significance?】https://lmwa.cn/archives/93.html
【Output-Oriented Life】https://jecvay.com/2024/10/creators-life.html
【Weekly Report #68 - On Writing Blogs and the Colors of My Life】https://www.pseudoyu.com/zh/2024/08/18/weekly_review_20240818/
【A Brief Discussion on My Original Intent for Writing Blogs—Presenting a Real Me】https://blog.bxaw.name/archives/A-Brief-Reflection-on-the-Original-Intent-Behind-My-Blogging-Presenting-the-Real-Me.html
【From Disliking Writing to Enjoying Sharing: My Journey with Blogging】https://innei.in/notes/176
【Calm Down, Return to Blogging】https://laozhang.org/archives/3624.html
【What Is the Meaning of Writing Blogs?】https://smallyu.net/2024/08/30/%E5%86%99%E5%8D%9A%E5%AE%A2%E7%9A%84%E6%84%8F%E4%B9%89%E6%98%AF%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88/
【Regarding This Blog, I Actually Wrote a Long Piece on My "Original Intention..."】https://cyrus19.cc/archives/273
【Topic: What Is the Purpose of Writing Blogs?】https://www.vergilisme.com/index.php/2024/01/12/2340.html
【Why I Want to Build a Blog】https://veryjack.com/life/reasons_for_blog/
【Late Night Thoughts | Why Do I Write Blogs?】https://blog.moraxyc.com/post/eee568ed/
【Finding Myself in the Ups and Downs: Bipolar Disorder and Creative Drive】https://blog.bxaw.name/archives/Finding-Self-in-the-Instability-Bipolar-Disorder-and-Creative-Drive.html
Bloggers Answer Questionnaires#
【1900—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://1900.live/du-li-bo-ke-zi-sheng-wen-juan-15ti/
【Imprint—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://yinji.org/5330.html
【Yuyi Jiangnan—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://yyjn.org/toss-record/Bloggers-ask-themselves.html
【Chen Cangxie—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://imzm.im/15-questions-on-blogging/
【Netizen Xiao Song—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://xyzbz.cn/archives/1233/
【Zhuo Re—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://zhuo.re/writings/thoughts/du-li-bo-ke-zi-xing-wen-juan-15-ti.html
【Jun Jie Adventure—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://www.alrcly.com/Independent-blog-15-questions
【Yiqu Ji Guang—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://ejsoon.win/yayu-ask-blog/
【GoodBoyboy—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://blog.goodboyboy.top/posts/414991615.html
【Dennis—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://www.domon.cn/du-li-bo-ke-zi-sheng-wen-juan-15ti/
【Autumn Wind at Weishui—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://www.tjsky.net/natter/1031
【Lan Xing—Independent Blog Self-Reflection Questionnaire 15 Questions】https://www.lanxing.net/?post=61
【Weekly Report #75 - Answering Dayu's 9 Questions About Independent Blogs】https://www.pseudoyu.com/zh/2024/10/23/weekly_review_202401023/
【"Weekly" Independent Blog 9 Questions Double Eleven Book Purchase】https://blog.sehnsucht.top/posts/%E6%97%B6%E8%AE%B0/weekly%E7%8B%AC%E7%AB%8B%E5%8D%9A%E5%AE%A29%E9%97%AE%E9%A2%98-%E5%8F%8C%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%80%E4%B9%B0%E4%B9%A6/
【Blog Authors, I Want to Interview You with These 9 Questions!】https://anotherdayu.com/2024/5962/；【Answer Questionnaire】https://anotherdayu.com/2024/5981/
【Blog Author Interview Questionnaire from Dayu】https://owlswims.com/blog-questionnaire/
【Answer Questionnaire】https://www.sanji.one/posts/71a97d220770.html
【As a blogger, I accept your interview!】https://veryjack.com/life/questionnaire-for-blogger/
Chinese Blog Circle and Others#
【The Chinese Internet is Accelerating Collapse】https://wzxnl.com/index.php/2024/06/02/zhong-wen-hu-lian-wang-zheng-zai-jia-su-beng-ta/
【Looking at the Differences Between Chinese and Japanese Blogs from 'The Chinese Internet is Accelerating Collapse'】https://song.al/DifferencesCNandJPblogs
【The Boring Chinese Blog Circle】https://onojyun.com/2024/11/22/%e6%97%a0%e8%81%8a%e7%9a%84%e4%b8%ad%e6%96%87%e5%8d%9a%e5%ae%a2%e5%9c%88/
【The 'Poisoned Wine' and Unquenchable 'Thirst' of the Chinese Blog Circle】https://onojyun.com/2024/08/16/%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87%E5%8D%9A%E5%AE%A2%E5%9C%88%E7%9A%84%E9%B8%A9%E9%85%92%E4%B8%8E%E6%AD%A2%E4%B8%8D%E4%BA%86%E7%9A%84%E6%B8%B4/
【Follow, Perhaps a Temporary Antidote for Blog Creators】https://onojyun.com/2024/12/02/follow%e6%88%96%e8%ae%b8%e6%98%af%e5%8d%9a%e5%ae%a2%e5%88%9b%e4%bd%9c%e8%80%85%e7%9a%84%e6%9a%82%e6%97%b6%e8%a7%a3%e8%8d%af/
【From Algorithms to Human Connections: The Story of Friendly Links】https://blog.bxaw.name/archives/From-Algorithms-to-Human-Connections-The-Story-of-Friendly-Links.html
【Talking About Independent Blog Friendly Links】https://hin.cool/posts/aboutfriendlink.html
【A Brief Discussion on the Winds and Clouds of 'Blogism'】https://www.ntiy.com/1003.html
【The Cultivation Methods of the Material Sect of 'Blogism'】https://www.ntiy.com/1980.html
【Special Report on the Love-Hate Relationship Between the Form Sect and the Material Sect of 'Blogism'】https://www.ntiy.com/2043.html
【Publicly Share Your Learning】https://farland.vip/2022/04/29/learn-in-public/
【Writing After Breaking Ten Thousand Views】https://yinji.org/5242.html
【A Response Regarding Podcasts】https://bonjourafe.com/2024/07/08/%e4%b8%80%e6%ac%a1%e5%85%b3%e4%ba%8e%e6%92%ad%e5%ae%a2%e7%9a%84%e5%9b%9e%e7%ad%94/
【Why I Don't Like Instant Messaging】https://kinnoukabokudo.com/127/
【Why I Don't Like Social Networks】https://kinnoukabokudo.com/117/
【Self-Censorship】https://kinnoukabokudo.com/14/
【Is Podcast the New Generation Blog? | Podcast Listening Experience Sharing】https://blog.ypingcn.com/2023/05/02/podcast/
【My Relationship with Social Media】https://www.geedea.pro/posts/%E6%88%91%E4%B8%8E%E7%A4%BE%E4%BA%A4%E5%AA%92%E4%BD%93/
【Self-Externalization and Desire for Expression】https://www.geedea.pro/posts/%E8%87%AA%E6%88%91%E5%A4%96%E5%8C%96%E4%B8%8E%E8%A1%A8%E8%BE%BE%E6%AC%B2/
【About Us】https://shinekid.com/about/
【About】https://thiscute.world/about/
【"Unintentional Exposure" – About the Top Feature of Moments】https://cyrus19.cc/archives/853
【About】https://blog.lyunvy.top/about/
【ben—About Me】https://rolen.wiki/about-me/
【Future Plans and Development of This Blog】https://sliun.com/119.html
【The Problem of Blog Return Visits】https://www.jeffer.xyz/cid/2201.html
【Flow】https://chuanliu.org/
【Blogs I Like】https://yinji.org/5269.html
【Look at You, Do You Resemble It?】https://ihaihe.cn/2796.htm