I thought…
January 21st, 2008
I thought Sinocidal had stopped posting…
I thought wrong. They have continued the inevitable slide from “occasionally funny venting session” to “rarely funny and almost never useful vent if you’re a cynical expat unhappily stuck in China” to “stupid, boring and pathetic racist drivel”. Not that that slide takes particularly long… Anyways, such sites can kinda serve their purpose and are actually kinda useful in their early, frustrated and venting expat stages, but it really doesn’t take too long before they sink into the “I’m a superior Westerner stuck in inferior China” bullshit. I’m sitting here wishing I’d never clicked on that link I should’ve (and very early on intended to) delete from my bookmarks.
But just so you know: Sinocidal is following in TTC’s ignoble tradition.
Oh, and before anybody asks, there is a bloody good reason for the lack of links.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I also thought Sinocidal had decided to pull the plug on itself and deleted the bookmark. In fact, if you hadn’t mentioned it in this post, I would’ve forgotten about it altogether.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:11 am
It’s probably best forgotten. Past its use-by date.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:37 am
Sinocidal is a recent discovery for me. My first impression was that it was a group of 15 year olds hafing a laugh certainly nothing that appeals to my sense of humour. I loved talktalk China and I still cry myself to sleep now that its gone. TTC poked fun at situations (such as the “laowai death stare” withour resorting to dehumanising Chinese people.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:03 pm
TTC could be good, and was at its best when it poked fun at other laowai. Otherwise I found it unnecessarily negative.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
My regret is that I only found out about TTC a day before it closed. Sinocidal had a few things which were amusing, but a lot more that I couldn’t be bothered with.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:09 pm
And unfortunately with such sites, the good stuff tends to happen in the early days. As time goes on, it just gets worse and worse.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:27 pm
There are a lot of things that go on in China that are absurd to the average laowai. So much to push me past the bounds of normal political correctness.
I think a lot of the anger and frustration vented on sites like sinocidal stems from the fact that foriegners in China are and will always be seen and outsiders.
It’s absurd to come to a country only to ctitisise the way the people live.
I have a healthy dose of cynisism after two years.. I think I just need a month in NZ every year or so to refresh my passion for this place.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Ay, Nick, you’re right on all counts. It’s just there are appropriate times, places and methods to do your venting. If you’re going to do that venting somewhere open to all comers, you gotta make sure it’s done in very good humour. Appropriately timed trips out of the country are one healthy method.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:02 am
Sinocidal has its moments- the “open letter to Air China” was brilliant, in my view- but I generally hew to your view of it. What struck me was the pure venom in a lot of the posts…that’s when I stopped reading.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 am
[...] Chris, Sinocidal appears to be active again. Chris is not impressed, to say the least: I thought [...]
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 am
Matt, I was in a ranting mood myself when I wrote this post. Actually, what got to me about Sinocidal was the venom. The had good posts and were good for a healthy venting at the start, but it got poisoned.
January 26th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Thank God for Sinocidal is all I can say.
Well, when I say “thank God”, I mean of course that I would thank Him, except that He does not have approval from your Red Gods, and so therefore thanking Him is a crime punishable by 16 years in a Laogai.
Still, you get the point.
Thank Mao for Sinocidal.
January 27th, 2008 at 3:07 am
[...] of my favourite bloggers over in Bejing, Mr Chris Waugh of bezdomny ex patria recently noted [...]
January 27th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
And thank you for your contribution, MyLaowai.