"Do I look like the head of a gang?" asked Pang Dahai, who is 1.81 meters tall, and has a ponytail and a lock of hair down one side of his face. He wears a brown leather jacket, a silver bracelet, and a necklace.
No, he looks more like a cynical artist than a gang member, because he does not have that fierce look on his face. As soon as you talk with him, you find him to be quite a warm person, although you do realize sometimes that he is carefully observing you.
The 27-year-old native Beijinger is presently the most popular podcaster on the Chinese Internet. It is declared on his own website, yyse.imboke.com, that he took first place in the first global Chinese blog competition, winning 13,530 votes from Internet surfers. The competition started on October 28 and ended on November 30 collecting a total of 1,285,430 votes.
The people who make a recorded audio clips and upload them to the Internet are called podcasters. Podcasting, or Bo Ke (Internet broadcasters) in Chinese, started in late 2004 in a worldwide trend of Internet broadcasting. It is believed to originate from software called iPodder, which is affiliated with facilities such as an iPod and an MP3.
With recording software, a microphone and a computer hooked up to the Internet, anybody can record their voice and upload it onto the Internet, podcasting their singing, commentating or telling jokes.
Internet surfers can either listen to the audio clip on the Internet or download them to an iPod or MP3. There are no strict requirements as to what software one uses to listen to them. Any computer with Realplayer or Windows media player can run them.
"The most important thing about podcasting is that it is 'grass-root culture,'" said Pang. "It is the voice of the common mass, even if they can't express themselves well enough."
On Pang's website, http://www.imboke.com/myradio.asp?domain=yyse, there are more than 50 audio clips which talk about topics ranging from Beijing's traffic jams to the newly released Olympic mascots. His most popular audio clips that have been put on the Internet since this September have received 110,000 hits.
"My ideas come from newspapers, chats with friends and hot issues on the Internet," revealed Pang.
The popular podcaster thinks that the point of his Internet broadcasting is to tell the truth, however ugly that can be. His humor is often very black.
"But I have my principles," he explained. "I don't make up fake stories, I don't defame."
"But I do exaggerate. That's my style."
He even occasionally swears in his audio clips and live broadcasting on QQ, a popular Chinese chat forum. Pang believes that does not make him a bad person.
"These words only make my broadcasting more powerful," he argued. "Moreover, I know what is the right occasion to use the words."
The popularity on the Internet has brought him female attention, but not much money. Presently all the audio clips on the Internet are free, although he does get some payment for live broadcasting on QQ.
Pang is critical but he is never against the government. He curses but does not talk nasty. He talks about sex but never gets pornographic.
"My secret is to never extol," he revealed. "I think that the fact that the common Chinese media is too orthodox has helped me to become popular."
Although many people have commented that Pang is like a professional broadcaster, he thinks he is too unconventional for the orthodox Chinese radio.
He was a salesman but quit the job in 2003. For a while he was not doing anything at all. In July 2003, he was encouraged by friends to put an audio clip on the Internet, which started his life as a podcaster.
The fact that he is doing something he likes and that he can influence tens of thousand of Internet surfers is his motivation to carry on.
He has been invited to Phoenix TV's talk show with TV anchor Xu Gehui. He will also give a speech about podcasting at the Peking University on December 16.
(China Daily December 12, 2005)
