Baidu’s spokesperson Kaiser Kuo initiated the idea of an English-language weblog to offer the outside world a window on China, he tells the Voice of America. Baidu is China’s largest search engine. The VOA:
Baidu spokesman Kaiser Kuo said he came up with the idea for Baidu Beat as a way of providing insights on hot trends in China.
A recent posting listed the top questions asked by Baidu users in 2010. The top entry was “What should I do if my girlfriend refuses to marry me because I don’t have an apartment under my name?”
“That particular question is very illustrative,” Kuo said. “It is something very much on the minds of Chinese people. It gets to a fundamental problem here in Chinese society. There is, to a certain extent, a lot of materialism. Women, who say they are being very pragmatic, simply won’t marry a man unless he actually owns an automobile or his own apartment. It’s not a renter’s market on the romance market these days.”
More at the VOA, including an audio clip. The weblog is called Baidu Beat.
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Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.