Last night, Yvonne came home to tell me that some people were talking about me on the internet. Feel free to google my name, and you’re bound to find some goodies about the once anonymous KC. I found out about the Weblog Awards nomination last week, and thought it was a really cool little piece of recognition, but honestly, I didn’t know there was such an award, so any recent attention is just icing. I had really just intended to keep up my blog to let my friends and family know what was going on in my life as well as providing a way to document some noteworthy moments. In the year and a half that I was living in Shanghai, I was given the precious opportunity to really open my eyes, and decided along with my best friend Yvonne, that it was important to share what I could about China. Initially, I was afraid to fuel anyone’s boring, and yet blazing fire about China curiosity, feeding off stereotype, smidgens of insignificant importance regarding their culture, and creepy fetishlike interest, but I decided to go forth and write. I wrote about the things that not only mattered to me, but the things that my grandfather would be interested in, and the kind of information that approached China from the perspective of a somewhat normal white American girl. I’m glad that people have read it, and enjoy peeking into my life, but more importantly, I’m stoked to know that people are getting a glimpse into what life is like in China for someone who might even be pretty similar to themselves. I’m just a normal college educated New Jersey girl, who moved to NY for a while before hopping on a plane that lead me to a journey in China that changed the course of my life. I’m not a social nihilist, or a single man looking for love in Shanghai. I wasn’t down and out in America, and looked to escape in Asia. I’m just searching, like we all are, for a potentially conventional version of ultimate happiness, and in that search, I ended up in Shanghai. Now I’m in LA, but China is still very close to me. I’ll definitely be in Shanghai again for my job, and for pleasure. I speak Chinese as often as I can, and I’m soaking with little Chinese-isms that I hope never fade away. I’m not exactly sure why China has been so important in my life, but she is, undeniably so. From my best friend and her sweet mother, to her Aunt who could become my literary mentor, my boss, and current work that’s still firmly grounded in China, Linda, and the many relationships that either pass through China, or touch China in some form or another, the web has been spun, and grows and grows and grows. China’s with me forever, regardless of where I am right now.
And so, here’s a little piece of the scoop that Yvonne told me about last night:
Blogger, Pattaya Jil’s, Comments Regarding the Asian Blogs:
1. As far as I know, nobody nominated "The China Law Blog"
2. Pinoy Stupid is a broken link at this moment.
3. Kristin Collins (Commontales) is only updated about once or twice a month and isn't even a blog.
You skipped Mr. Brown's Blog, which got 10,000 votes last year (second place), and... well... I wouldn't be writing this otherwise... my blog as well.
Sorry about the sour grapes, but from somebody who spends several hours a day on their blog to be beat out of the nomination process by a blog that is only rarely updated... if it is even active at all... if it was even nominated at all... is insulting.
To find that a blog like Kristin Collins was chosen over mine as a finalist is the height of insulting. Her blog is only updated once or twice a month, and she isn't even in Asia currently... she's at UCLA. If your judges picked her blog as a finalist for the Best Asian Blog category, then I genuinely accuse them of not even giving a serious look at the candidates, because the information of where this lady lives is pretty easy to discover from actually reading the blog.
Response from one of the Weblog Judges:
Kristin Collins at Commontales writes more often than just once or twice per month, and perhaps she doesn't blog every day, but what she does write is excellent. True, she is VISITING California right now, but we don't preclude regional bloggers from travelling outside their blogging "jurisdiction" during the entire year . . . just to qualify for a finalist spot. That would be silly.
In addition, perhaps an argumentative approach that is less critical of your competitors and puts more emphasis on your strengths would be more beneficial in the future.