This is not a Hanoi blog
Posted: June 28, 2012 Filed under: Hanoi, Reflections | Tags: blogging, expat, Hanoi 9 Comments »On reading my thoughts on staying up late to watch football,Hanoi-resident Williams Charles Cole French responded via G+:
Hmm… Why do you need to share this with the world at large? Your posts tend to center so much on yourself and yet I am sure you could do more news analysis – reflecting on and interpretting the significance of events in Hanoi and other current events. Isn’t that what your “our man in Hanoi” domain would imply?
So, okay this is now not a Hanoi blog. At best it’s Hanoi flavoured. It’s my life and thoughts and anything that makes me think or amuses me – with a Hanoi flavour because that’s where I live, work and, now, where half my extended family are based.
I’ve been here six years and frankly I’m bored of most Hanoi blog content. I feel I’ve read all I ever want to read of the usual range of Hanoi blog posts from streetfood to traffic problems. But they’re personal content too – if that’s what people are dealing with for the first time or it’s a particular passion of their’s.
I was just writing about migrants for my next Word column and, in the end, if anything makes you an outsider it’s relating everything to where you live. If you intend to stay here a long time then you have to reach a point where not everything is about your location. Hanoi can’t take credit for all the good things that happens to me and so shouldn’t be blamed for the bad either. Location can be incidental.
As for news analysis, it’s not such a smart move in Vietnam and I don’t feel compelled to push that – any more than I would compell others to. In a country where reliable information is at a premium, having a blog doesn’t make me any more knowing, wise or well-informed than the next man. Especially when the next man too often relies on guesswork or info from those who have their own agendas (and do their own guessing).
The blog is what it is and, inevitably, the longer I stay here the Hanoi flavour will increase as the Hanoi content decreases. Inevitably Hanoi will shape me but I won’t change it.
As for blog content, in the end I only know about my life and what I encounter first hand. It’s a life I feel incredibly lucky to live but it’s just my life and no different, in that respect, to any other expat.
At first I was angry on your behalf at the comment. Then I realised something quite profound was unfolding. You make a good point. And while I agree that Our Man in Hanoi made more sense when you were an outsider in Hanoi, I actually like the idea of blog titles losing their direct relevance and becoming something of an anachronism.
I can see the guy’s point but I’ve always thought that there’s nothing worse than a deliberately crowd-pleasing personal blog. I always thought it was odd seeing those sites that give you tips to get people to read what you write. Fair enough if there is a commercial element but there isn’t here. Christ if I was writing just for direct commercial gain then I’d have given up years ago – firstly because there’s not much cash out there and second because it would be a real chore.
In the end it’s written for myself. I was offered the chance to take some cash for an advertising plug recently but I turned it down, I noted another VN blog took the money. But the content would have jarred on here – just as me writing trying to second guess what other people wanted would.
If you’re in it for the long haul then a) you’re writing mostly for yourself and b) you’ll hit the mark and miss the mark on an off again as you keep blundering forward. Better that than trying to chase hits and boring yourself daft and becoming a bit needy.
I actually think the Hanoi “flavour” is far more honest and probably more accurate, better that than regurgitating what’s already out there when the accuracy is based upon an outsider’s view and the accuracy is often questionable.
The other point being is that blogs are niche. What he wanted it not my niche. There are others doing that – which makes it even less attractive. None of us should be writing anything other than what we want to write. What we choose to write becomes are niche and we develop an audience (or not) on that basis.
I was searching for a citation on the old adage “everyone’s a critic” and couldn’t find that one specifically. I did find a very long page on other quotations on criticism, most of which are critical of critics. I suspect any one of them would do fine for your purposes.
TH, I guess so. I was trying to find a suitable metaphor – I came up with complaining about blog content is like going into a neighbours house and complaining about the decor. In the end it’s not really down to you and if you want to see/read something then do it yourself.
Nice post – I agree that it is a little strange when people demand certain content from a blog. I write about what I want to write about on my page, and if people are interested they can find it. I’ve also read multiple articles explaining how to direct your blog towards a target audience. Pageviews are nice, but I’ve always refrained from ads, specific keywords, and the like. It’s not a popularity contest, it’s your thoughts on a given subject.
It is odd that someone would be upset by the content of something they don’t pay and aren’t forced to read.
Personally I enjoy reading about your life. I’ve never actually physically met you but over the years feel I’ve got to know you a little (and like you) through your online existence.
The personal aspect of a blog is a powerful thing. There are professionally produced sites I can go to for analysis, but your blog (and similar others) provide an insight into what it is like to live in a certain place or a certain life in a way that cold analysis and comment never can.
Keep it up.
Been a lurker of your blog forever. Enjoy it for the growth and evolving it’s gone through the years. Been thinking of a way to move to Vietnam (just went for the first time in my 26 years of life and I’m a Vietnamese American (first gen..parents came after the war)
İ’m really pleased to see this post: you added me on your sidebar list of Hanoian blogs and İ was a little worried because my blog is about 95% self indulgent musings 3% fashion and 2% Hanoi and İ was quite worried that İ was going to get some negative criticism from people who came to my blog through yours and didn’t find what they were hoping for, but your post i see we have a similar attitude to blogging in Hanoi. I agree that there are only so many street food or traffic complaints that bloggers can write about and found this post refreshingly honest. I enjoy your blog and appreciate the link up. Thanks.