On September 12, 2003, John Battelle published the first post on chinadigitaltimes.net:
Here’s what a Google Search on “china weblog” yields, I’m looking forward to seeing ours at the top soon!
China’s online population at the start of that year was nearly 60 million. Ten years later, it was fast approaching 600 million, and now, after 20, it is well over a billion. This new completely revised and significantly expanded update to our ebook series, formerly known as “the Grass Mud Horse Lexicon,” aims to capture something of the enormous explosion of online speech that accompanied this growth, with a particular focus on efforts by authorities to tame it, and by others to push back. It contains explanations of 104 terms that have resonated most strongly in this arena, from official slogans and their irreverent appropriations to protest cries and nationalist accusations.
The CDT Lexicon is available in PDF format on a “pay what you want” basis. In honor of the Lunar New Year, we are offering an option to download the eBook for free through February 13 (PST). We are grateful for all donations, which help support our work.
