Filed under: Ben is Thinking
In addition to the numerous mandarin blogs covering practically every topic that someone can think of, Taiwan got also its bag of English blogs and they are qualitatively imposing, another niche market affirmation?
English bloggers in Taiwan successfully distinguished themselves in diverse blogging categories and their blogs are as eminent as American or other English speaking country’s blogs, in terms of quantity, quality, variety and interaction with the audience.
The view from Taiwan is one of the top and most successful English blogs in Taiwan featuring Political views about Taiwan, Owned by Michael Turton, Chao Yang University lecturer in Taichung.
Michael Turton came to Taiwan in 1989 and became a very active person in Taiwan’s politics since.
He taught in several universities, had his own business going on for a little while and started blogging on 2005 and was already known on the internet before getting into the blogosphere.
“It is something that I know and I thought wasn’t getting enough exposure in the world, it just came naturally, I suppose.” said Michael, in regard of the reason behind launching his blog about Taiwan, “My Taiwan website was already very popular but it lacked a regular update function. Further, there were many things I wanted to say about Taiwan, but really didn’t fit the kind of website I constructed”
Michael recently gave a speech about blogging in Ming Chuan University, Taoyuan branch. He also talked about how important the role of globalization in Taiwan is, and how blogs can change the view of a person, a country and even the whole world.
The speech ended with advices for the audience on how to have a successful blog and a question/answer session.
The view from Taiwan gets high blog stats but is not profitable yet.” I dislike advertizing intensely, but I see no other way to make money off the blog” said Michael,” And I have a wife and two kids who need me to make money.”
Michael is actually working on his next project which is a book entitled “Taiwan: A memory”
Blogging in English in Taiwan is not only about politics but also other areas as education.
Scott Sommers, Ming Chuan University Lecturer, runs Scott Sommers’ Taiwan Weblog, One of the top English blogs in Taiwan about education.
Scott has lived in Taiwan since 1996 and prior to joining MCU in 2002 taught business English in Taipei and Taipei County, before Taiwan, he taught at universities, colleges, and business companies in South Korea and Japan.
“A lot of blogs provide information that in the past would have been very difficult to find. For example, the information about living in Taiwan that you find on Michael Turton’s blog would have been impossible to find without his work” said Scott,” My blog provides a similar service for those interested in teaching English here and for those teaching here to stay informed about professional and policy issues in Taiwan.”
Scott expressed his opinion about the education in Taiwan, which he thinks has 2 major problems, “One is that the government does not provide support for the aspects of education that would really improve the quality of education here. The other is that it does not allow the flexibility that educators and administrators need to handle the problems that emerge regularly. The MOE itself has become one of the obstacles that schools have to overcome in their efforts to educate students.”
Scott said that he doesn’t really have any expectation concerning his blog and that as long as blogging is fun, he’ll keep doing it.
One of the most powerful ways to get more and more audience towards a blog is to have tons of pictures on it as Michael said, “People are visual animals.”
35Togo is another, but nevertheless important, English blogs in Taiwan featuring the photography work of Clark MacLeod, a freelance designer and art director.
“Photography is a far too serious term for the photos I have on 35togo”, said Clark describing his blog, “I was simply trying to record the quotidian of life I saw as I wandered the streets. The results are usually not of high quality but it is representative of the artifacts I noticed.”
The blog gets some 900 unique visits a day and is much like a scrapbook, explained Clark, a catalogue of ideas, events, artifacts, and impressions. He records the things that interest him during this period of his life.”It isn’t always beautiful nor technically compelling but it’s my view of the world no matter how mundane.”
Clark has BA in Jazz Music from Saint Francis Xavier University; he spent three years studying towards a Music Performance diploma from Humber College. His graduate studies were at Chiao Tung University where he was a student of Prof. Chung in Visual Communication.
Whether it’s Michael, Scott, Clark or other English bloggers, Taiwan is well represented in the world blogosphere and as dozens of blogs are popping out every second, Taiwan certainly doesn’t have to worry about its English blog community.
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