Gou-rou.com

Infobox Website
name = gou-rou.com



caption =
url = http://gou-rou.com
commercial =
type = Online magazine
language = English, some Chinese
registration = No
owner =
author = gou-rou.com staff
launch date = February 2005
current status =
revenue =

Gou-rou.com is a satirical website based in Beijing, featuring a mix of comedy news and lifestyle articles. It originally took the form of a parody of the city's expat magazines. This format has shifted over time and the parody aspect is now less obvious.

The content mocks publications such as [http://www.thatsbj.com That's Beijing] and [http://www.cityweekend.com.cn City Weekend] . While often tackling the life of foreigners in Beijing, the site also satirises Chinese life in general. Most of the humour is accessible to English-speakers worldwide, but many throwaway lines and, more rarely, entire articles are rather specific to China/Beijing residents, or require some knowledge of the Chinese language to get the joke.

Staff

The real authors of gou-rou.com hide behind a variety of pseudonyms, though the characters thus created do have fairly consistent personalities, specialties and writing styles.

Some of the recurring staff members are:
* Arabella Green (editor)
* Henrietta Wang (features writer)
* Solomon West (music/nightlife)
* Dino Zapataria (food critic)
* Irreleva Wu
* Kitty Yip Kee Wah ("party girl") - NOTE: Kitty's predecessor was Angel Chu, who was fired for stealing office supplies
* Delilah Sheraton
* Joy la Joie (fashion)

It is not clear whether the pseudonyms are given exclusively to one writer, or whether they are traded between writers as the need arises. It seems fairly certain that none of the names that appear on the pages are the real names of anyone. While the above list of names might conceivably be real (just about), other less often used names strain credulity. E.g. Reticulated Wu, Kalinga Brendonfort, Dr. Fact Portugal.

Features

The recurring sections include:
* Beijing Beats (live music)
* Down on the Dancefloor (clubbing)
* A Month in Pictures
* City Girl (Angel Chu's former column, now by Kitty)
* A Bite To Eat (dining)
* Audio section (in MP3 format)
* Spotlight on History

Issue 19 included a video segment (a spoof "sneak peek" at preparations for the Beijing 2008 Olympics). It is unknown whether there will be future video segments.

Print versions

gou-rou.com is almost exclusively online. Rumour has it the editors were in negotiations with That's Beijing at one point, but this never materialised. Insiders raised the possibility that some articles of theirs may soon appear in Time Out Beijing, but this also failed to materialise, on the grounds that none of their articles would get past the government censors.

In December 2005, a gou-rou.com book was released, available via Print On Demand through the website. Called "gou-rou.com's Greatest Hits issues 1-10", it contains very little new material (the only brand new stuff being comical fictional biographies of the equally fictional journalists). Most of the book consists of reprinted selections from the first ten issues.

External links

* [http://gou-rou.com gou-rou.com]