chinaSMACK was a blog that covered Chinese internet culture, trends, and discussion. It was founded and run in Shanghai, China, by a woman under the Internet handle "Fauna",[1][2] though its server was based in California, United States.[3][4] Most of its content was composed of trending Chinese-language internet news articles, social media posts, and Chinese netizen comments that had been translated into English, making it accessible to audiences who could not read Mandarin Chinese. It was known for its raw, unfiltered, and often controversial coverage of what becomes popular on the Chinese internet and trends in Chinese netizen sentiments on a broad spectrum of subject-matter.[5][6] Fauna, the founder, stated in an interview that her intention in creating the site was to both practice her English and "expose foreigners to stories that interested Chinese people."[2]
 | |
Type of site | blog |
|---|---|
| Available in | English (comments dual English/Mandarin) |
| Founder(s) | Fauna |
| URL | www |
| Launched | 2008 |
| Current status | Defunct (as of 2016) |
The site was popular among expats in China[7] and, according to its founder in 2010, roughly 32% of chinaSMACK's readers were from the USA, 16% were from China, 6% were from Canada, and 5% were from the UK.[8] Its first post was published on July 9, 2008. Since then, the site had inspired sister blogs (all defunct as of 2016), koreaBANG, indoBOOM, russiaSLAM, and japanCRUSH which adopted chinaSMACK's editorial mission and format for their respective countries and netizen populations.[9]
Notable media and publications that have sourced and cited chinaSMACK include The New York Times,[1] BBC,[10] CNN,[11] AFP, The Telegraph,[12] The Wall Street Journal,[13] Time,[5] The Economist,[14] and The Colbert Report.[15][16]
References
edit- ^ a b Cannon, Maile; Yang, Jingying (February 24, 2010). "Bloggers Open an Internet Window on Shanghai". New York Times. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021.
- ^ a b "Too Weird To Be True? In China, You Never Can Tell". NPR, KERA News. August 29, 2013. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
- ^ "Whois Record for ChinaSmack.com". DomainTools.com. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
- ^ Domier, Sharon (October 18, 2017). "Research Guides: CHI351: Social Issues Project: News/Newspapers". Smith College. Archived from the original on May 29, 2020.
- ^ a b "CHINASMACK: A Taste of China's Internet". Time. October 31, 2008. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2012.
- ^ "China 'bridge blogs' translating web views". Agence France-Presse. February 17, 2010. Archived from the original on September 6, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2012.
- ^ Kim Rahn (April 5, 2012). "'What Koreans are talking about, so are we'". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021.
- ^ Tiffany Ap (July 26, 2010). "The Wild, Wile Web: Ever-Elusive, chinaSMACK founder Fauna". The Beijinger. Archived from the original on February 18, 2022.
- ^ Darren Wee (April 11, 2012). "New Website Shows Korea's Dark Side". HuffPost UK.
- ^ "China's web users debate internet freedom". BBC News. January 22, 2010. Retrieved October 15, 2012.
- ^ "Yale alum's gift stirs reaction in China". January 12, 2010. Retrieved October 15, 2012.
- ^ "Websites that are windows in China's great firewall". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
- ^ "China Watch: Ai's Taxes, China Mobile's Struggles, the Tears of a Child Gymnast". Wall Street Journal. January 7, 2012. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
- ^ "Mr Hu goes to Washington". The Economist. January 18, 2011.
- ^ "chinasmack-featured-on-the-colbert-report.jpg". Retrieved October 15, 2012.
- ^ "ThreatDown - Interdimensional Black People, Gay Strokes & Manipulative Sicko Monkeys - the Colbert Report". May 11, 2012. Archived from the original on February 22, 2016.
