Home About

What is the mission of this site?
Here are the three purposes of this site:

1. Help me cement my knowledge of Chinese language and culture by writing articles, photo essays, sharing multimedia, etc. Even if it is not very profitable, financially-speaking, the mere act of creating the site will strengthen my education in all things Chinese.
2. Make money from ad banners, affiliate programs, etc. Yes, that's right -- I have to pay rent, eat, and have a basic entertainment budget, just like everybody else, and like billions of other people, I hate (or at least strongly dislike) my day job. My dream would be to quit my stupid day job and just blog and do the other things I love to do to make money.
3. Inform my readers in a no-bullshit fashion about the interesting parts of Chinese culture and language. None of this "I'm an English major who is trying to show the world that I got something out of my degree program" bullshit. I write frank, no-bullshit articles and photo essays, trying to keep flowery writing (like too much description) in check. In writing, my strong suit is that I spell and punctuate well, my grammar is good, and I keep the bullshit to a minimum. The following is the kind of thing you'll never see on my site (except in this example):

   "A million jagged rocks protruded from the earth like broken glass. The emerald foliage surrounded me like a warm blanket, and I sipped the crisp morning air through my nostrils. And it was then that I saw a crab the color of satin, with tiny hairs as fine as silk, crawling over the boulders which were coated in a carpet of chartreuse seaweed and barnacles that dotted the various surfaces of the megalithic stones like a million tiny fortresses."

   Nope, there won't be any bullshit like that on my site.

1. Flamers won't know anything personal about me that they can use against me. I'm just a nameless, faceless commentator.
2. My friends and family won't come onto this site and skew the Google AdSense banners or the page counter. All the hits I get will be based on the merit of the site, allowing me to judge traffic and Adsense revenue more accurately with regard to the methods that I use to promote it.

If someone finds out who I am, it's not the end of the world. However, I won't go out of my way to share the link with friends and family, and I won't publish any info that could be used to pinpoint me easily. I'm sure that if someone really, really tried, he or she could figure out who I am, but let's hope that this site is getting thousands of hits per day and generating me a full income before that happens.

The only things I'll let you know are these:

• I live somewhere the Sinosphere (the Chinese-speaking world). I won't say whether it's China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, or Singapore, though you may be able to figure it out.
• I'm a foreigner.

Warning: I might throw out some red herrings as to who I am!