Bridging the Divide: New China Blog

There are as many China blogs as there are tomes about the PRC lining bookshop shelves. As of today there’s another one to add your RSS Feeds: china/divide.

Here’s how china/divide describes itself: “china/divide features social and political commentary relating to modern China. We seek to go beyond knee-jerk stereotypes, nationalism, and prejudice to engage in genuine discussions of contemporary issues, both in our writing and together with our commenters. We also offer original translations framed by context and analysis to share insights into what the Chinese themselves are saying.”

The blog actually isn’t all that new in terms of contributors. The trio putting it together comprise C. Custer of ChinaSMACK (one of my favorite China blogs) and China Geeks, Kai Pan of CNReviews, and Stan Abrams of China Hearsay.

The first china/divide post went up this morning, penned by Stan Abrams and amusingly entitled “Goat Meat, Loose Women, and the Imperfect China Dialogue.” While it doesn’t offer any particularly revelatory insights, the post offers a concise rundown of various factors informing the way different groups perceive the world, and the ways in which these factors get in the way of mutual understanding.

With the three bloggers so active elsewhere, it’ll be interesting to see how china/divide differentiates itself from the trio’s other work.