Feeling Shanghai(3)

isaac mao
Originally uploaded by bigkoala.

One of the city's characters is Shanghainese. The group of people are famous for their languages and the exceptional character, such as not interested in politics, addicting with the local language and love in the western culture.

I don't have many Shanghainese friends in the city. Instead, many friends in Shanghai are expatriates from other cities, such as Isaac Mao, one of the most popular but low-profile bloggers in China. Oh, wait a minute, popular and low-profile, are the two words contradictory?

Meeting Isaac feels like meeting a TV idol after crazy for him on the screen for a long time. I will never call it "nervous", but in fact, a little bit like that. From reading Isaac's blog, I assume his character should be as hard as a common engineer usually has. But in fact, I am wrong. He is nice, warm and outgoing. "I am always the first to be contacted in SH when friends visit". He said. And of course, many bloggers are included in the term "friends", who never met Isaac face to face before.I am one of them.

I learned a lot from our talk in a peaceful and sweet restaurant Isaac chose. Isaac is knowledgeable in many fields including blog, social software and venture capital. He joked himself as a quack, who seems knowing many things. That made me think of popular commentators on the Phenix TV. When a event happen, to say, related with Russia, they suddenly become experts on Russia the second day. They learn fast, so they are easy to be experts in various fields. And that's good.

We talked a lot, from blog business in China, to the grassroot voice on the Internet. His resent towards the "evils" on the Net impressed me. It is scare in the society where most people only talk about money. "One of my mission is to help good things succeeding evil in the war". He said. That's exactly the principle of Constantine, the fighter inhibiting devils from the human world in one U.K. fiction. Isaac is pessimistic that he can't live to 100 years old, but in Constantine's story, his courage impressed the God and got a second life at last. So, Isaac, come on.