I’ve been a loyal reader of Tim Johnson’s McClatchy Newspapers blog, China Rises, since it started three years ago. It’s only today that I thought about it, though, because Johnson is leaving the blog behind. He writes:
All good things come to an end, and that is true today for myself and China Rises. This blog is taking a rest. At some point in the near future, a new McClatchy correspondent will arrive in China and likely take over this blog – certainly with a different perspective than my own.
It’s been nearly three years since I started the China Rises blog, and my family is on its sixth year in China. English-language blogs on the Middle Kingdom have exploded in that time, and there’s a huge variety to read.
Indeed, China blogs have come to dominate my reading from Asia, mostly because there are so many good quality blogs out there. It began with my daily look at EastSouthWestNorth. The most recent addition to my China reading list is a Hindustan Times blog, Middle Order. I wrote a quick piece and Q&A with the author for The China Beat:
In the land of news-meets-the-Internet, China has been fertile soil for very interesting blogs by journalists…Perhaps what is most interesting about these blogs is the opportunity to get a greater picture of reporters’ perspectives as foreigners living in a new country. But if the recession — and the seating arrangements at a G-20 summit dinner — tells us anything, it is that the West’s perception of the East is not all that counts. How emerging powerhouse economies see each other is of great importance, and lucky for us is incredibly interesting. An excellent entree into Asian takes on Asia is a Hindustan Times blog, Middle Order, written by the newspaper’s first China correspondent, Reshma Patil.
Next up on the cross-culture China blog list: Double Handshake, written by Tom Pellman in Peru.