Happy Birthday, ChinaGeeks!

Today marks the one-year anniversary of this humble blog, which burst onto the scene with a historical post about the atrocities committed at Unit 731 that virtually no one read.

In terms of growth, we’re fast-approaching our 100,000th visitor to the website itself, and have over 800 RSS subscribers according to the last count. For some comparison, check out our 100th and 200th posts, which have similar statistical information.

While the blog is back to being just me, much of this blog’s success is owed to contributors Chris Hearne and Michele Scrimenti, who both wrote excellent posts and remain an important part of ChinaGeeks even in their absence.

In any event, this seems as good a time as any to highlight some of my favorite posts of the year. In chronological order:

• The “50 Cents Party” and Fearmongering
• “People Being Unaware of the Truth is the Fault of Officials” – One of our earliest translations, one of our awkward-est post titles.
• What the Hell Does “Crackdown” Mean?
• A (Nearly) Forgotten Anniversary
• “Twenty Years Unfinished”
• Racism in China
• Race and China: Touching a Nerve
• Li Yinhe and the Limits of Nationalism
• “English Teacher Scandal”
• “The Story of Yang Jia’s Mother”
• In Memory of Hu Yaobang
• Ai Weiwei: “Gangsters in the Government”
• “They Beat Me Until I Was Sceaming in Pain”
• The 90th Anniversary of May 4th
• Ai Weiwei: “Your silence and ignorance have already become the price for your safety”
• Ai Weiwei: “Let Us Forget”
• In Memory
• The New York Times Enrages Netizens
• Appalling Racism
• Book Review: Apologies Forthcoming
• “Hitting Others’ Cars, Beating People”
• Why Western Media Mistakes Matter
• Race and the Law in China
• Bricks that Fall Apart in Your Hands
• “On Changing China’s Ethnic Policy”
• Liu Xiaobo, Drifting with the Tide

Thanks are due, of course, to everyone who has linked us over the year (too numerous to mention but check out our blogroll), to everyone who has commented (ditto), and to everyone who has offered help and support behind the scenes. Some exciting things are in the works for the future, and they are going to be very good for you, reader of China blogs!

Here’s hoping the next year of ChinaGeeks brings more talented contributors, and fewer depressing stories! If you want to help out, please read this and join us!