Eric's Beijing Diary

It's weird. Only been home a few days, and I am leaving again. I came here to the East side of Beijing to visit Jean and Claire. Claire has just rented a siheyuan to use as a home for troubled or homeless people. Right now, she is hosting a dear lady who has suffered for three years from constantly hearing voices. Claire has definitely bit off more than she can chew this time. But she is going to make it, because she has an incredible attitude. And she just happens to serve an incredible God.

Had a friendly phone chat this afternoon with a magazine editor from Beijing. She had been reading my blog, and wanted to interview me for her magazine. She sent me an email ahead of time with a list of questions, so that I would have some time to think about it.

I may focus on the following questions.

Mr. Langager, why did you start blogging?

Well, this one is pretty basic. I started blogging as a means of keeping folks informed about what I am doing. There are other ways to do this, but all of them had disadvantages I didn't like. If I communicated with everyone by way of individual emails, that would take too much time. But there is another problem with that approach. Some people like to hear from you, but don't like to be in the position of sending you an email for every email they receive from you. In other words, they like to read, but they don't like to write. A blog meets the needs of these types much better than email. I also considered sending a group email, but that is always problematic over a period of time, because there will always be someone on that list who doesn't really want to hear from you. I don't like spam, and I don't want to be guilty of sending it myself.

As we know, blogging actually takes a lot of time and energy. How do you keep on writing?

As a matter of fact, it does take more time and energy than I had originally anticipated. I opted for blogging as a time saver, but while it does save some time over writing separate emails, it is still time consuming. But the discipline of writing for publication is something that helps me to think through what I am saying a little more carefully.

After more than 3 years blogging, do you really get some fun from your blog?

Actually, my blog has changed a bit. After awhile, I began to realize that the stuff I am writing about may bore people to death if they are not interested in China. On the other hand, there may be people I don't know, who would have the same interest in what I write that I had in the many, many articles I read while I was preparing my own move to China. So I decided to list my blog publicly. It has moved from becoming a short cut email, to becoming a sort of hobby. And it is a good one, I think, for now. So I would say that it's fun, but it is also a lot of work.

Do you think it is really possible to make money from blogging?

Possible, but probably not likely for most people. The reason for this, is that to make money, a blogger either has to sell advertising, or eventually quit blogging and become a professional journalist. The problem with the first option is that a "friends and family" blog is not likely to generate enough income. The problem with the second option is that if you become a professional journalist, you have all sorts of requirements and restrictions as to what you should write about, and what you can say. I have no such restrictions. I write about anything I want to, although I generally restrict my comments pretty much to that which relates to life in China. And I express my own opinion, not someone else's.

Do you have some suggestions for those who are going to set up their blogs?

This is interesting. Whenever this question is asked, the response is usually that the first thing you need to do is find a blog hosting service. But in fact, if you start looking for a blog hosting service first, you are getting ahead of the game. The first thing you need to do is not to get a blog hosting service. The first thing you need to do is get a life. This is the problem with most people, especially in America. They don't have a life.

This morning, I ran into one of my neighbors, who is an English teacher from the States. He was a lawyer before he came to China. He worked 70+ hours a week. He had a good job. A house. A nice car. But he didn't have a life. Now he has no car. And he doesn't make much money. But he has a life. I asked him this morning if he had been tempted by offers when he was in the States this summer. He said, "I didn't even look."

Ever read anything by a writer who has nothing to say? Ever had to listen to a speaker who had nothing to say? It's torture. Step one: Get a life. The other steps will take care of themselves.