Translated by EastSouthWestNorth:

I have treated the blog as an extension of my work. I blog about the things that I cannot usually publish in the printed media. The reason that I get nervous writing for the printed media is that another person who does not and cannot fully understand you has the right to edit your article. You spend such a long time to come up with this phrase, but the editor just deleted it when the time comes to publish, or else he amends it into another form. After a while, this becomes of a test of wits with the editor in the psychological sense. I found that this was hard for me to take, just as no one would feel good about cutting off one’s foot to fit the shoe.

For example, I wrote an article about cats and I described the deceptiveness, selfishness and ruthlessness of cats in lively fashion. Unfortunately, this article fell into the hands of an editor known as “Old Cat” and an article that praised the virtues of cats was printed instead. When I think that the words that I write have to be trampled by several people before being published, my heart aches. Actually, when I was an editor, I also trampled upon others in the same way. I remember clearly how I felt. Therefore, there is a principle in my blog in that my posts must be different from that which is published in the printed media. I wanted to write those words that the editors were not used to, or else I would lose interest in writing altogether.

But I discovered that this space is very huge. I am not limited by the printed media and I can let myself go. When I think about something, I write about it. When I want to write about something, I write it. I don’t have to have a topic in order to write. I don’t have to conduct any news gathering. There is no style or format … it seems to let people go back to the original state of creating popular literature. Therefore, when we look at the language on blogs from the viewpoint of traditional media, we find that blogs lack a refined system. Even if a bunch of celebrities were invited to start blogs at a certain website which wants to set a Guinness world record, this does not alter the grassroots nature of blogs. Blogs offer people the space of a different means of expression. When people use a laissez-faire approach to use language afresh, the magic of blogging shines through. You do not know what kind of new language will be created in the future.

Therefore, when I write for the printed media, I seem more to be writing for the editor. When I write for the blog, I seem more to be writing for myself.