Best of Imagethief

Since starting Imagethief in 2004 I have written in the neighborhood of 1500 posts, most between 2004 and 2008, when my pace was much higher. This annotated “Best of Imagethief” includes about 115 posts in five categories, and will give you as good idea as possible of what I have written about since arriving in China. Some posts fit in more than one category, but for simplicity I’ve listed each only once. If you want the ultra-concentrated Imagethief, go straight to the section called, “If you read just twenty…” It’s pretty self-explanatory.

Unfortunately, my old blog’s database imploded in early 2010, taking down the original versions of all the 2004-2009 posts. For this collection I have restored my favorite posts and the most popular or controversial posts from offline archives for those years. For those posts, original comments and some images and links are not included.

If you read just one…
These are my twenty most essential posts, representing the most condensed possible digest of Imagethief since 2004 across all the categories but travelogue. These are chosen largely because they’re my personal favorites, but all were also popular. If you’re going to read just one or two, read one of these.

Humor, Rants and Memoirs
These are posts about the idiosyncrasies and frustrations of life in China, raising a family, and other random things that I experienced or noticed and was compelled to write or rant about. I was compelled to write about a lot. There are more posts here than in any other category.

Travelogue
Travels in China and the region, mostly rendered as video travelogues shot on various low-rent devices and edited with at least some care, but also some written.

Public Relations, Business and Technology
This is one portion of my “professional” posts, covering the business and challenges of PR and communication in China, and analyzing major crises and events such as the dairy industry’s melamine catastrophe. This includes much of my discussion of the woes of American Internet firms in China, as well as technology and Internet censorship. Posts that tilt more toward government affairs than business are filed under “Propaganda, Politics and Public Affairs,” below.

Propaganda, Politics and Public Affairs
This is one portion of my “professional” posts, covering government affairs, public opinion, media, censorship, propaganda and related issued. This includes many of my Olympic post as well as soft-power issues. Posts that tilt more toward straight business or technology issues are filed under “Public relations, business and technology,” above, although it’s a blurry line in China.

Miscellany
These are posts that didn’t obviously fit into any other category. After 2007 I had a clearer idea of the blog’s voice and most things I wrote fit into one of the other categories. But between 2004 and 2007 I generated a few urchin posts, some of which were nevertheless worth keeping alive.

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