Han Han. He’s China’s most famous blogger-cum-race-car-driver, accomplished writer, and a bit of a misogynist. He’s now also an online social magazine — or something — thanks to Tencent, which is the country’s top web portal. Today, Han Han and the company launched The One, which you can find and browse through at hanhan.qq.com.
The site consists of two parts. One is about Han Han, and contains a collection of some of his writings, as well as some photos, info about his car racing, and some other stuff. The other part is a magazine type deal (pictured below) that will publish one report, one question, one comment, and one piece of art, apparently updating each day except on weekends.
No, Han Han hasn’t suddenly become the world’s most prolific artist; rather he’s got the whole crew from Party, his short-lived but enjoyable print magazine, on board to help produce content. The idea, he says, is to create a sort of oasis in the internet’s sea of information, to give people one thing to read each day rather than seventy billion. The topics look to be eclectic — much like Party — but it’s hard to be sure if there’s any pattern until the thing has been around more than a day.
It’s not hard to see why Tencent would get involved with this — oh, the delicious traffic — but I wonder if Han Han will eventually bump heads with the company over content censorship. Although he’s been quieter of late, he’s notoriously outspoken in his writing, and censorship concerns are what delayed and ultimately destroyed his print magazine Party. With the same folks behind the helm of The One, expect an interesting ride…but perhaps not a long one.
[via ce.cn]