That's a conclusion.

One word, Xiaxue :-)

Because Singapore is a pathetic place. So usually bloggers will vent via Internet.

would language make a difference?
could there many more chinese-language blogs than english-language blogs in hong kong? as compared to the chinese-english ratio in singapore (i am not aware of any census counts)

here are some hong kong chinese-language blogs that no english-language ones can touch:
Hung One Bean: http://hungonebean.blogspot.com/
Cafe Horizon:
http://www.littlelittle.org/

these people can read and write in english, but they use chinese instead, and i don't even imagine how these results are deliverable in english.

I heard it was because HK men are too busy with all the beautiful women to develop decent blog followings.

The guys in Singapore have to deal with the fact that their women are more interested in ex-pats and men from HK. :)

I suspect ESWN is right. But I like the other answers.

I demand HK Government funding to correct the problem!

Singapore is an island and their blogs reflect that. The vast majority are very young and their blogs are somewhat childish and incerstuous*. They blog about each other far more than HK bloggers. I think we have some better quality bloggers (Hemlock, Simon, Spirit Fingers spring to mind and others who don't blog often like Fumier, Ordinary Gweilo, Undressed* King on the Blog, Hongkie Town, Daai Tou Laam etc). As for the Singapore bloggers - OK there's a couple of good-looking birds, but the only one who writes well is SPG. Among the guys Expat@Large, mr brown are pretty good but I don't rate the others much. I don't think numbers are everything. The local English media ignore us because we're constantly slagging them off too! I'll post on the subject.

* deliberately mis-spelt to get past the spam-blocker, Simon!

I would agree that there arn't many (non expat) English blogs in HK, while almost all Singapore blogs are in English. Maybe you guys could run a meta blog that has "notable posts" translated from the Chinese blogs in HK. I was once looking at organising something like this Mainland China and Thai blogs.

Another thing we are looking at doing here in Sg is work through public libraries and community centres to run sessions on blog/rss and other social networking tools. That would bring more people into blogsphere and hopefully more interesting writing and interaction.

I know this is a trivial observation, but in my somewhat funky state I found this bit in your post howlingly funny:

"English proficiency is decling in Hong Kong"

If I think of it, I'll ask some of the people I work with about Chinese language blogs. Could be interesting.

I have many Hong Konger friends here in Melbourne, most of them fellow school and classmates.

They're all lovely people, and I do like them. The one major thing that pisses me off though, is how they think they're English is very good.

Granted, I'm in no position to judge. But how the hell do you respond to a statement like "I speak wewy good English" ?

lol, sorry, I meant to say "how they think their English is very good". Egg on the face here for me. :)

I haven't spent much time in Hong Kong, thus this comment is based on my experience living in Singapore and New York. Please excuse me if it is irrelevant.

Surprisingly, I've found that the Internet is a much larger part of the average Singaporean's life than a New Yorker's. People my age (mid-twenties) in Singapore started using the Internet heavily in our early teens. Even in 1995 and 1996, when most of the people you'd encounter in online communities were American, it was almost impossible to find a single chatroom without at least one Singaporean chatter. We had BBS's in 1993/1994, and a Singapore-based MUD with hundreds (if not thousands) of users.

Singaporeans seem to really enjoy the heck out of online communities. I remember when I found out my (middle-aged) aunt had IRC buddies, I was shocked. But despite the technological learning curve, she really dug the Internet.

I think most Singaporeans definitely see the Internet as a social arena, whereas most of the New Yorkers I know use it as an informational tool. Perhaps our comfort level with using online communities as social activity is why we've so many blogs and such strong connections between our bloggers?

this comment had to be posted at my blog because it was too long and involves chinese characters.
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20050402_2.htm

How dare you make such an arrogant comment on Hong Kong bloggers!! How dare you suggest HK government give you a grant to promote blogging culture!!

I suggest you "grant" yourself some money and time to learn Chinese and Cantonese. Or just "grant" yourself some time for self-reflection and learning to be more humble to local cultures.

I agree that Hong Kong blog culture is not strong enough. But the reason or solution is not about language. Try to know more about the Chinese societies.

Just want to remind you of one more thing you might not be able to understand. There are millions of bloggers in China. Most of them write in Chinese.

They rely on blogs for getting and exchanging information more than people in Singapore and the West because of government's censorship. But I would not come up with any idea of teaching Hong Kong people to write blog in simplified characters.

You are upset for no reason hegelchong. Simon isn't actually asking for government funding, he is actually being sarcastic. The whole asking for money is a parody of the stiffening levels of bureaucratic morrase that smothers Hong Kong as well as the level of collusion between monopolist business interests and the government.

what's the meaning of "east meets west" after all? if eastern languages have to give way to the western counterpart for making themselves visible; if the west, without understanding the eastern cultures and respecting their cultural values, while making stupid and arrogant comments about the place's culture / blogsphere.

and i wonder if the writer knows what is the value of blog, blogger communities, and the new trend in blogger journalism in providing an alternative frame of reference to the world's reality. such value can never be promoted by any "state", it is a counter current to the static hegemony.

please don't think that because you can write in english then you can represent the east to the Rest.

oh the irony!

Hegel Chong neatly demonstrates the perils of a language divide. Isn't the lack of proficiency in English the most probable cause of one not being able to understand sarcasm and irony?

Wery nice Hegel, wery nice.

oiwan:

Blogs don't provide "an alternative frame of reference to the world's reality". Citizen journalism or distributed journalism is not about providing "alternate frame of reference". It is about revealing the truth.

Ever heard of the phrase "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow"? That's the maxim formulated by Eric Raymond to describe the process in which Open Source methods of software development attain such excellence.

It equally applies here, "with many eyeballs, all lies are shallow". Blogs provide the eyeballs to scrutinise what other people say, so that any lies or untruths will be uncovered. The explosion of blogs allow for many people to scrutinise what others say, especially in the mainstream media, provide them with a platform to publish their criticisms so that others may gain from their insights.

Any references to "alternate frames of reality" would certainly lead people to conclude that you've either been reading too much of that po-mo crap, or hitting the bong one too many.

I'd like to factor in Internet usage by Singaporeans vs Hong Kongers in their everyday lives. As Samantha rightly states, Singaporeans tend to use the Internet as an extension of their social lives and perhaps Hong Kongers use it to a lesser extent? I am also guessing that blogging is a fad that hasn't caught on with Hong Kongers. Yet. Btw, how often has the media in HK reported on blogging, much less having a blogger write regularly on one of it's major publications? The Singapore media has been quite active in promoting blogs, which simply gets people quite curious over it. That's my take... it's all good though, as the blogging pie is massive and everyone should have a slice of its goodness.

Han, I'm never upset about what simon said. I just find his ideas funny and stupid.

I certainly understand simon's irony. But there are always assumptions behind irony. How come you don't understand my irony?

Even if I didn't understand it, it would not be necessarily a problem of "proficiency". It might be about "culture" (or sense of humour). And how come you guys (and HK government) keep judging people's English?

I do appreciate Singaporeans' blogs. But the problems of simon (maybe including you?) are not about language, not about his proficiency in English or Chinese. The problem is whether you show respect to the local society and cultures.

I'm not sure I see the 'problem'.

hegelchong: it's understandable how and why you're pissed off, but I don't think simon means to be completely disrespectful of the local culture in Hong Kong. it's not like he's totally slagging it off...

maybe it boils down to a cultural divide in the end (ironically enough). he's just being critical and voicing his views, and you're viewing it from a more Eastern perspective i.e. as a 'disrespectful' comment on the local culture, not giving 'face' to the local blogging community. chill out, i say! :)

"OK there's a couple of good-looking birds, but the only one who writes well is SPG. Among the guys Expat@Large, mr brown are pretty good but I don't rate the others much." - HKMacs

HKMacs: I'd be curious to know which well-known singapore blogs you've read but don't rate highly.

Chinese is my primary language but I blog in English. I do agree to an extent that the English blogs made by Chinese speaking HK Bloggers is lagging behind SGs ones. (I don't find my blog interesting or worth following to be honest, but at least I made the effort)

But there are again some interesting Chinese blogs around which are worth reading.