From Wall Street Journal:
Beijing officialdom loves to talk about how the Olympics were a chance for the world to “get to know” China. But here in Hong Kong, one man has made it his mission to provide the West with a window into greater China since long before the Olympic Games began. Meet Roland Soong.
His blog, EastSouthWestNorth, receives as many as 26 million hits a month and has been a key driver for stories like China’s paper tiger scandal and the exposé of false reporting during the Taishi Village elections in 2005. It’s a bit like the Drudge Report, but for greater China — a news aggregator with an attitude and an outsized influence.
The bulk of ESWN provides links to and English translations of stories in Chinese media. But it is far more than a translation site. “My goal in running the blog is neither fame nor fortune, but it is a personal attempt to bring about a social transformation,” he wrote in 2006. I ask him whether that is still true. “I want people to think,” he says. “I want for people to decide for themselves. If that is social transformation, you can say yes.”
