shrink-wrapped egos to go

I was kind of aware of this blog called "Sex in Shanghai" before a recent online mob put this supposed British guy (or, according to some websites as www.danwei.org and the Hao Hao report link that the Chinabounder could be a collective of performance artists!) on the underground roadmap. Here are a couple of my thoughts about that smutty little blog:

1. Whether it's real or not, the blog caused an uproar that gives even the casual observer an insight or two about how media frenzies develop and shape the public's opinion.

2. What the blogger(s) described didn't seem too new to me. I lived in SW and Southern China for two years at the beginning of this decade. What I observed in and heard from the Western men that I met in those places basically fell in linewith the blogger's opinions of China and Chinese women. So, if the blogger(s) thought this was groundbreaking material, then it was the wrong assumption....these blog postings weren't even good erotica! What was different was how much "detail" the blogger gave about these women that could have caused (or, may in the near future, cause) an uncovering of these women's identities. I'm not so sure if I was a woman in China, that I'd be willing to give my personal details to a foreign guy for fear that I could end up the next day to find my sex life posted online and enough details for others to figure out who I was.

(Note to women and men, regardless of where you live, I think if you are interested in someone, get their contact details first. Don't use it as a weapon, but if the other person isn't willing to give you some sort of contact details, but they keep pressuring you for yours, then I'd be very, very wary...)

3. The perceptions of *some* Western men about Asian men doesn't seem to have changed much over the past few decades (and before then as well), but the lightning-quick, semi-anonymous nature of the Net just allows some people to fling their views out there for the world to see and it is very hard to hold them accountable for these views.

4. Even though I think women shouldn't degrade themselves by just sleeping with any cad that comes along, it really isn't anyone's business to judge who someone sleeps with. I guess I'm just stating the obvious, but all this "guess who I shagged last night" and "stay away from our women" backlash is boring and childish. However, the ire many of the Chinese male posters had about the British guy's racial attitudes is justified -- so many Westerners get pissed off by Chinese who make fun of our respective countries -- and it rightly needs to be addressed.

5. If this guy's accounts are true, then it tells me he doesn't really have a life. Having sex is great, but if you base life around it and spend a lot of time writing about it, then you really are missing out on a lot. If the guy got paid for his writing, then maybe you could make a (very weak) case for his undertaking having some value, but I'd just reply that it's just one step above being a male whore. Amusing, but sad, really.

6. As an American who lived in China before, and still visits from time to time, I would to say to my fellow Chinese netizens, not all of us foriegners go to China for sexual escapades. I'm sure most of you realize this, but unfortunately so many western men have made us look really bad in the eyes of so many Chinese.

Have a great night,
the dustrabbit

this blog's philosophy

If there is any more room in blogsphere for a middle-of-the-road poster, then I want to jump in.

Sometimes it would be nice to see a blog that can cover a wide variety of topics without descending into nonsense flamewars that are found places like Huffington Post (and I really do like some of the postings there) or, worse yet, just tip-toeing through the "touchy-feely" soft news so often found on your local late-night news or the rehashing of what cable spinheads have gushing over the past 24 hours regarding the latest murder of some rich kid or other sordid scandals. I'm not one of those left-wingnut looking for stupidity in everything President Bush does nor do I do feel the need to defend the guy either. I want to have a blog that isn't overran with kooky conspiracy theories either.

Wouldn't it be nice to talk about other countries besides America and have a running discussion with other folks that actually has some emotional truth and intelligence running through it?

If this sounds like something you want to read on a frequent basis, feel free to leave a note. While you're at it, put up a possible topic of discussion...it's a big world out there, and there's a lot to talk about.

The dustrabbit