Not LOG, But Publication: A Feature of Cn Blawgs

The number of Chinese blawgs  (NOT China Blawgs in English, BUT Blawgs in Chinese) is increasing in a geometrical rate. It is an impossible mission to surf all the blogs, so no one dare to say that he/she has grasped all the exactly features of Chinese blawgs, me neither. However, if you are a bilingual reader (Even not so fluent in Chinese or English, like me), and you are interested in the blawgsphere for a certain period (say, two months), I believe you may at least discover SOME characteristics of Chinese Blawgs, me either.

What I find in Chinese blawgs is: A good many of them are actually not "blogs" but  online academic magazines. The following list can be an empirical example, which is a part of the list of today’s "hot posts" in the index page of Law Blog (http://www.fyfz.cn), a well-known site providing blawg service. The topics are oringinally in Chinese, so I translated them roughly.

One Must Regard the People’s Indignation Seriously 
The Translation of Surya Prakash Sinha’s Jurisprudence (Part 83)
Deng Zheng Lai: Preface for Silhouettes of Chinese Lawyers in 100 Years (Author: Chen X. H.)
My Opinion on the Legislation of Lawyer’s Fee
A bit Coolness in this Hot Summer
A Discussion with Prof. Lin: On the Legislation of…
Beijing, What Makes You So Luxurious
Feelings during Supervising the theses
A Facet for Constructing in the Regime of Administrative Aidance
Some Ideas in Reading
The Distance to the Humanism in Our Legal Education
The Ideology of Entertainment
Constitution-Government-Market: A New Analytic Approach of Consti-Economic
Patents Will Never Be Unlawful Registered
The Rule of Law is the Base of the Democracy
A Benificial Attempt in the Study of Civil Law
The Issues on Gender and Minorites among the U.S. Legal Professionals
……

Most of the above topics are as serious as articles in law journals, and after clicking the links, one will find that the contents of the posts are mostly in very formal formats and with very academic tones. In my view, these posts are NOT LOGs, BUT PUBLICATIONs.

One may get further evidences of this feature easily. Academic theses with dozens of footnotes appeared frequently in Chinese blawgs. Some sites have been turned to be a collection of academic works: "blawggers" classified their "logs" with names of famous researchers, then uploaded bunches of those researchers’ academic achievements.

At the same time, some features of classical blogs are missing. While copy other’s articles entirely onto their sites, few Chinese blawggers employ copyright licences like those of Creative Commons (that means these blawgs reserved all their own right). The typical logs that embedded links navigating readers to further related web pages are rare. Chinese blawggers are not used to "log" what happens every day but keep uploading their (or others’) formal publications.

The owners of most popular Chinese blawgs are mainly researchers. Some famous law professors have their own blawgs, such as Deng Zheng-Lai, He Wei-fang, Lin Lai-fan, Xie Hui, etc. Among them, prof. Xie Hui and Prof. Lin Lai-fan’s blawg follow the suit of classical blogs: they post diaries, sentiments, scribbles and even poetries on their blawg site. But their style are not standing on the mainstream.

In another log, I will discuss why many Chinese blawgs represent themselves not logs but publications. Here gose the influences of this characteristic. To readers are looking for research materials, libraries are better than caffs. A researcher may find many useful references from Chinese blawgs and some times he even need not follow the links – blawggers copy the articles entirely! To readers are interested in Chinese lawyer’s life, however, they may feel disapointed. There are not so many practical cases as well as practice experiences be shared in Chinese blawgsphere. Solicitors, barristers and attoneys are still standing in the corners of the blawg club.