Although the Journal has not been updated for quite sometime due to some reasons, it recently became a victim of online vandalism. It was attacked by some hackers and the hacking was reported by a reader on the 16th of July. We believe that attacking website is not a proper way to express oneself, and we condemn online vandalism.

As the Spring Festival is approaching, I have put together a new theme named Spring Festival for this special occasion. As what you see this site is now on this theme.

The Spring Festival is more commonly known in the West as Chinese New Year and it is also an important occasion for all families to get-together. Similar to the importance of the Christmas Day for the westerners, the Spring Festival is the most important celebration for Chinese people. The Chinese New Year is following the lunar system, and for this year of 2007, the New Year’s day will be on the 18th of February. The new theme uses more red and golden colors which are lucky colors in Chinese tradition symbolizing happiness and wealth. I hope you like the theme, and you can download it here:

Spring Festival WordPress Theme Demo

This is actually my first theme for WordPress, and it is based on the works of many other excellent and beautiful themes by other people. Credits should duly given to them. I hope this theme works fine on your system. It has been tested with WordPress 2.1 on both Firefox and IE. To be honest, I am not a code savvy, so I can only give limited support.

Some simple tips on the installation of the theme is included in the readme file of the download. The theme is also widget ready for the two columns on the left side of the index page. Feel free to download it, use it and modify it. If you have any suggestions and comments, please also feel free to contact me.

Happy Spring Festival!

On this occasion of Thanksgiving Day, I would like to thank everybody for your kind support. In a month’s time, it will be a new Christmas. I wish all of you A Very Merry Christmas And A Happy and Prosperous New Year.

The theme of the blog has been updated specially for the up-coming Christmas and the New Year, and I hope you like it and enjoy reading here. Please feel free to leave comments.

[ thanksgiving ] Any time  This definition of [ thanksgiving ] is from Google. 

[ Christmas ] Any time  This definition of [ Christmas ] is from Google. 

This post gives some interesting thoughts on the question of permission to put a blog in your blogroll:

… put bloggers on your blogroll that you sincerely recommend, whether or not they link back to you. Do it because you want to, not because you want something in return. Do it because you can honestly say “this is worth reading!” Remember, they are a reflection of you and your blog, so think through their inclusion.

And,

You can put anyone and anything you like on your blogroll. You can make up your own guidelines and standards for inclusion, or feature a totally diverse collection. As far as I’m concerned, there are no rules, no etiquette, and no reason to ask permission to put a blog on a blogroll. Can you think of any?

Excellent post on blogging culture!

[ blogroll ] Any time  This definition of [ blogroll ] is from Google. 

[ bookmark ] Any time  This definition of [ bookmark ] is from Google. 

It is reported that by April 2006 China has a population of 110 million of internet users, 80% of which are below the age of 30; and by 2010, the number will rise up to 230 million. It is also reported that the population of internet users at age 15+ is about 74,727,000, ranking second after the United States, where it is about 152,046,000. And the total number in the whole world is about 694,260,000.

A recent research conducted by the Ministry of Education and National Linguistics Work Committee reveals that the rapidly increasing number of internet users are in fact bringing about changes in the Chinese language:

Netizens prefer using symbols to words when chatting online.

And,

These unique net lingo creations embody the netizens’ intelligence and creativity. For instance, they use “88,” which pronounces similar to “bye-bye” in Chinese, as well as “3166,” which sounds like “sayonara,” Japanese for “bye-bye.”

The Chinese Internet lingos are usually sets of commonly recognized numbers, symbols, letters and abbreviations, and in some cases, combinations of different languages or witty use of symbols for sounds. The top 20 Net Words are (ranked by popularity from the news report):

• 顶(support)
• 555. It is used jokingly to represent the sound of sobbing and sadness.
• ding (support)
• mm/MM (young girls)
• LZ. The person who publishes a post.
• DD/dd (young boys)
• 88 (bye-bye)
• 偶(I)
• 马甲(online alias)
• ID (identification)
• 版主(BBS moderator)
• 恩 (okay)
• 汗或寒(sweating or cold). It is used when something strange or unacceptable has been said.
• 晕 (faint). People use the word when they see something unordinary, confusing, funny or meaningless.
• ps/PS (abbreviation of Photoshop)
• 灌水 (flood-blogging). It means posting an essay online.
• ddd (support in a strong tone)
• bs/BS (despise)
• 楼猪 (the person who publishes a post)
• 滴 The word is similarly pronounced of auxiliary words “的” and “地”

While popularity of internet lingos is increasing, the number of frequently used Chinese characters are decreasing; while the netizens are enthusiastic about using symbols, numbers and letters over the normal words and characters, people outside the internet sphere found it more and more like somthing astray from the normal language. The fast evolving internet lingos is widening the ‘digital gaps’ between the netizens and non-netizens.Controversies around these cultural phenomenon are naturally raised as to what extent it can be tolerated to ‘challenge’ this language characterized by using only characters, and the debate has been focused on the question of the purity of the Chinese language. While a ban was proposed for use of internet lingos in government documents, and books are published talking about the Crisis of Chinese Language, Others regard it as something that “embodys the netizens’ intelligence and creativity“.

As a matte of fact, besides the lingos used by netizens, people would use “3G” instead of “第三代移动通信技术“, even in the media and government documents. The influence of internet is far beyond just language. The repid development of information technology and the fast spread of internet have already changed the people’s way of communication, and have imposed deep and great impact over the society as a whole, and will continue to bring about more changes along its way of development.

[ netizen ] Any time  This definition of [ netizen ] is from Google. 

A CCTV program intro clip from their website.