New Weekly: Best of the Web 2009
This week’s featured article in New Weekly (???) focuses on the Internet in China. Part 1 of their feature is a highlight of the “Best of the Web 2009,” chosen by the magazine, industry insiders, and netizens. Below is that list, excerpted.
China’s Homepage: Sina News (????)
Innovator: Hou Xiaoqiang, CEO of Shanda Literature (???)
Most valuable website (News category): Yeeyan
Nominations: Caijing, Financial Times CN, Wikipedia, Yeeyan (????FT???????????)
Most valuable website (Commercial and financial category): Taobao
Nominations: Anjuke, East Money, LetPower, 360buy, Taobao (??????????????????????)
Most valuable website (Opinion category): Tianya
Nominations: Baidu Tieba, Cat898, Mop, Tianya, Sina Microblogging (???????????????????????)
Most valuable website (Services category): DianPing
Nominations: DianPing, O.cn, Kuxun, liba.com, 55BBS (?????????????????????????)
Most valuable website (Social category): Kaixin
Nominations: Facebook, Hainei, Kaixin, 51mole.com, RenRen (Facebook????????????????????)
Most valuable website (Multimedia category): Tudou
Nominations: Haoting, Top100.cn, Tudou, 1ting, Youku (?????????????????????????)
Most valuable website (Literature and arts category): Qidian
Nominations: Artbaba, Qidian, Readnovel.com, Artron.net (Artbaba??????????????????)
Most valuable website (Fashion category): Haibao
Nominations: Fashion Trend Digest, Haibao, Modern Party, onlylady (FTD???????????????onlylady)
Best niche website: Douban
Nominations: Douban, Songshuhui, Kongfz.com, Xitek, Pepo.cn (????????????????????????????)
Best blog: Li Chengpeng
Nominations: Han Han, Hong Huang, Huang Jiwei, Li Chengpeng, Lian Yue (????????????????)
The second feature portion is “China’s Internet Life Red Paper,” and the third is “The Internet: Putting People First.” An excerpt from the “Red Paper” on how the effects of the Internet are being felt offline:
In February 2009, the “Eluding the Cat” case broke out in Yunnan and attracted the country’s attention. The Yunnan Publicity Department then made the unprecedented move of inviting netizens to form an investigation committee. “Eluding the Cat” became a popular Internet phrase. Later in May 2009, because the police evaluation of the “5·7″ incident was unsatisfactory, netizens created the term “qishima” [homophone of "70 km per hour"] to satirize the car’s purported speed. Then in July 2009, “Pull Down Pants Gate” and other videos spread on the net; discussions and debates about the post-90s generation flourished.
Today’s Internet is no longer simply an illusory world. Not only does it affect reality to some degree, it also provides an effective outlet for expression.
“The Internet’s three big forms of physical exercise” are “buying soy sauce,” “doing push ups,” and “eluding the cat.” Each has come from actual news. “The Internet’s 10 mythical creatures,” with “Grass Mud Horse” leading the way, were a form of netizen expression. Human flesh search engines showed their strength starting from 2006 Heilongjiang’s “kitten killer” incident. Today, the phenomenon has developed to the point that after most news events happen, different degrees of the “human flesh search engine” will be at work. And breaking Internet news is becoming increasingly popular; the country’s entertainment reporters all go to Tianya to look for news sources, and Sina celebrity blog posts have also become the content of traditional media reports.
[...] From reality to the Internet, every tragedy has a comedic conclusion. Chinese people have experienced 30 years of enormous change in their lives; online, they have experienced 15 years of enormous change. Netizens have gone from being spectators to participants, creating the content of the Internet, and have become society’s watchdogs.
