Sunday Samurai: Bloggers and consumerism

I read in the WSJ on Friday that 29-year old Chinese television anchor and blogger, Rui Cheng-gang recently posted a blog regarding the inappropriate representation of Western-Culture in the holiest of all holies for Chinese Nationalism, the Forbidden City. Starbucks operates a kyiosk in a corner of the Forbidden City. Rui wrote:

"Starbucks is really too inappropriate for the world's impression of
the Forbidden City"

As it is for the Chinese, nationalism is also individualism and when someone finally had the chance to reflect on the coffee-shop in the Forbidden City. After Rui's post was viewed by 1-million visitors to his site, it became more than just a simple distaste for a coffee shop, but his words became a new challege for consumer-activism in a country with 20-million bloggers and 3.2 bloggers who post daily. The Chinese government does scrub the internet for political diatribes, but in a country with little or no action as consumers, they let the "market" control itself. This in turn brings a new challenge for companies in China. How much dialogue should they respond with between the blogosphere and how fast can a company put out the fires before 1-million people view it. As Mr. Rui e-mailed Starbuck's CEO Jim McDonald, he changed the face of dialogue between the average person and big business. Which I must admit is amazing.

Buttering the bread

What this story brought out to me the most was how Rui (a Starbucks customer) didn't care about not having a Starbucks, so he could snag a cup of Joe before a television broadcast; he just wrote what he felt and penned a jab at a company he felt took away from his heritage. On the flip-side, I can imagine that Mr. Rui also realizes that people will respond to this story, they will like him; Rui will become a better or at least more watched broadcaster. He knows where is bread is buttered, but like all reporters, he knows a good story when he sees one. Regardless of his own personal agenda, we must all think about the "truthiness" in this story, that one voice can become the voice of many. For those of who blog, we should think about the effect our posts will have on the blogosphere community and if the attention given to something is deserved. If we truly want to live the Bushido way, we should be honest, frank and approach each issues with as even of a keel approach as possible. (Photo compliments of Japanlifestyle.com)