Xu Jinglei is regarded by many to be China's most intellectual actress. From acting to directing and writing, it seems she's always finding ways to speak out what she wants to say. And she's certainly been successful in attracting enough listeners.
Her blog on sina.com has received a reported 10 million clicks in February, only four months since her entries began being posted. On May 4th, Xu's blog knocked of Boing Boing, and topped the Technorati 100, a worldwide list for popular blogs.
So what exactly does Xu Jinglei write about in her journal online? Well, sometimes she writes about her daily life, sometimes about her work and her new film, and sometimes about showbiz news, for example, the recent dispute between director Chen Kaige and digital video maker Hu Ge. She updates her online diary everyday, sometimes even posting pictures of herself, most of which are not about the glamorous actress on stage, but about her ordinary life. She says she doesn't want to make a distinction between the online diaries of celebrities and ordinary people.
Perhaps lured by the celebrity's personal world, or maybe touched by her candid way of writing, web surfers are flocking to read Xu Jinglei's blog, and each article is receiving thousands of comments at least. Xu Jinglei says she didn't expect her blog to be so popular, but those comments are exactly the reason why she loves blogging so much.
"I love to read the comments to my articles. Not because they're all positive, but because they're true. For example, if an acquaintance tells me he loves my movie, he might just be flattering or comforting to me. But people tend to be very straight-forward on the internet, because we don't know each other."
(chinaculture June 9, 2006)
