CHINA EYE - Average Chinese speak in cyberspace

Watching two guys argue on a bus doesn't usually make for great entertainment.  Unless, that is, the event takes place in Hong Kong and is then uploaded to the world's most popular site for amateur video.

New reality TV from Fox? Not exactly. In May, this video, now known as "Bus Uncle," ranked among the most popular on YouTube.com. Since its original upload, the video has now been remixed with a soundtrack from local Hong Kong hip-hop outfit LMF, and local news coverage of "Bus Uncle" has helped push it into the ranks of YouTube's most-watched.

The 17th anniversary of Tiananmen Square just passed on June 4, a date that now has more meaning for foreign media than it does for the average Chinese person. The Chinese government chose to commemorate it by apparently blocking Google's Google.com and Gmail sites throughout the weekend. They may be onto something: While the students in Tiananmen Square failed to make their voices heard, Chinese Internet users are speaking increasingly loudly on the Internet, not just in China and Hong Kong, but internationally.

Until recently, China's Internet market was inward-looking, with companies focused on building infrastructure and producing content in a medium dominated by English. But the influence of the sheer volume of Chinese Internet traffic is being felt throughout cyberspace, as bloggers and wanna-be boy bands make use of Web-based tools without regards to language.

YouTube.com representatives declined to be interviewed regarding foreign users' habits on their site, but more Chinese than just Bus Uncle are spending time there. The Backdorm Boys, another viral video success, lip-synched their way from the dormitory to YouTube to becoming pitch men for Motorola, with Pepsi in hot pursuit. The blogosphere is now one of the hottest spots to recruit new Chinese talent that resonates with other young people in this country. Sister Chrysanthemum (even less talented than "American Idol's" William Hung and embraced for the same reason) will now flog for a dot-com after her audition tape hit YouTube and made her a star instead of a joke.

Earlier last month, blog search engine Technorati.com proclaimed Chinese actress and director Xu Jinglei the world's most popular blogger. Hosted by portal Sina.com, Xu's blog went from zero to 10 million readers per day, with her posts receiving as many as 5,000 comments each, according to Sam Flemming, CEO of CIC data LLC, a Shanghai-based blog and BBS market research firm. China's top bloggers regularly receive millions of page views.

A Chinese magazine editor told me the other night, "since we can't talk about politics in China, there are only two things we can openly criticize: Chinese soccer and the Japanese." That may be true, but relatively free expression increases as Internet use in China does. Politics and sex are still taboo, but as user-produced content and social networking becomes more of an integral part of the Internet's fabric, more and more Chinese voices will make themselves heard, be it at home in China or abroad in cyberspace.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.