A lot of people are curious as to why I even have a Chinatown Blog. What am I doing? Why is it so unfocused. Is it about food. Is it about affordable housing? Why am I writing the stories I write, and furthermore, why the hell don't I double check my sources and protect myself. In fact why not just do this anonymously so that if I tick someone off they can't find me?
I mean doesn't the Sampan essentially do what I do? Why not leave this story telling to the professionals.
Here is the thing. Yes I've made mistakes, generalizations and outright false statements on the blog, because I misheard or misunderstood. But Actually I will tell you, those wrong perceptions and mistakes are as much a part of the story as the corrected version. What do I mean?
If I got the story wrong, then that means other people also got the story wrong. Which means that it is a common misconception in Chinatown. The wrong story is part of the story too. See what I mean?
Now if I can get a story wrong, and I am from Chinatown and know some of the names of the groups and players and can actually speak Chinese, think about the mistakes that real journalists make.. real journalists with deadlines who are writing to get a Pulitzer or are already working on the next story and frankly, have nothing vested in the community or even in the City necessarily. Now sometimes I think it is better to have an outsider write about these things too. They will be more protected and they will be willing to write stuff that I may not. Like how Spotlight covered the Catholic Church scandal only because the New Editor was not from Boston and Not Catholic an outsider. I am not that removed. I good example of an outsider is Bob Halloran writing, "White Devil." I have heard a lot of complaints about the story being different from what people remember. But I think overall, he did his best with what he had. At least the story is being told right?
Some people would say, maybe these stories shouldn't be told at all. I think I can do another post about that. But actually mostly I get flack for being inaccurate. But think about this. At least you know me. Because you know me, you can contact me and I can change and edit. The truth is there is already a story out there about Chinatown in the minds of most people. It is a perception, perhaps an unwritten one, that basically lumps concepts and mis-perceptions, movies, stereotypes, news articles.. and there are different angles out there. But as inaccurate as I am finding that at the end, the blog as whole, with the corrections and write-ins on Facebook or e-mail catching and correcting me and bringing up other points and leading me toward new ideas for posts, creates a fuller picture, than any article in the Herald or the Globe. But I can totally see why nobody has done this before really. I mean yeah me and Kye Liang had the other Chinatown Blog, but we didn't do this crazy interviews I didn't push the limit at all as to what was appropriate to write, and when I did, I didn't use any names.
And just from what I've done so far... I'm stressed.. and what do I have to show for it.
This blog doesn't make a million dollars. I a m embarrassed at how little it makes, I'd rather make people think I do make a million. The Fun Toyz collector on Youtube makes 5 million a year.
Some people say, "Oh I'm not doing it for the money. I don't make any money." To be quite honest, I'll admit it, right now I don;t make any money. In fact, I'm losing money. There I said it. However, I don't use that as a badge of honor or altruism. The fact that I don't make money.. that's just because I am not smart enough to make money with this. Imagine if I did make 1 million a year with this blog. First off I could pay the contributors yeah? And I could put money in to the land share yeah? If this was a successful blog the way some blogs are... I mean it could help save Chinatown. Instead I am just running around in circles. Okay though if you really think about it. 1 million is actually what the penthouse at Metropolitan costs so even 1 million won't save Chinatown, it would actually just be a drop in the bucket. But it could affect some change. And maybe even without any money, this blog can affect some change.
Maybe not though. Maybe I am just wasting my time and energy for no good reason.
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