Zuola / Zola – Chinese blog for change

This morning I read a fantastic article in my local newspaper.

It was a portrait of the chinese blogger Zuola – or Zola as he sometimes prefers to call himself.
Real life name Zhou Shuguang (周曙光).

There’s an introducion at Wiki about him.

Zhou is considered to be a local voice of growing importance. Famous in China and internationally for travelling around the country, documenting and presenting cases of injustice. In China it’s not every day, a 28 year-old systematically speaks his mind about touchy political and social problems on the internet. Although the blogosphere in China is growing rapidly, it’s not an easy and comfortable job. Zola has been harassed by the authorities several times. During the olympics he was withheld in his province, so he wouldn’t cause any trouble.

Zola blogs from his ‘office’ in an old factory, which he equipped with grafitti and a pool table. Several times he has announced, that he will quit blogging, but he’s still continuing. I guess he is encouraged by the growing number of media, reporting of this young hero.

I deeply admire Zola for his courage and his ability to reach out over the borders of his in many ways closed country.
He tries to make money from the blog for his activities. I’m going for the Zuola T-shirt.

This song is dedicated to and about Zola. In China the secret service has people hired to search the blogs for ‘dangerous’ material, and subsequently commenting the posts in a more party friendly direction. The song is from this point of view.

You can find him at http://www.zuola.com
Or at Twitter.

Update: The story I read in SydSvenskan (Swedish)

This Mean Tweeter

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This mean tweeta
Can’t get to see ya
Doin’ what you can to be rad

Come on mean cheeta
Out where we can see ya
We just want you autograph

Mean little tweeta
Coming down to beat ya
Can’t have no pioneer

Mean little menace
Advocate the pen is
Weaker than the blogosphere

Mean little killer
Net seat filler
Never know the soul you sold

Come on sweet maker
Opinion faker
Never leave the body cold

This little zero
Constitute no hero
We have all the money you want

Soil back kicka
Everybody digg ya
Leaving all the meaning behind

This mean tweeta
Can’t get to see ya
Doin’ what you can to be rad

Come on mean cheeta
Out where we can see ya
We just want you autograph

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Tagged as: blogs, china, olympics, Zhou Shuguang, zola, zuola, 周曙光