English ’sex blogger in China’ reveals his identity.
Two years after he provoked a firestorm of internet outrage in China, an anonymous British blogger, who wrote about his sexual exploits with the country’s women, has decided to reveal his identity to the Guardian as he publishes a provocative new book.
David Marriott, who claims to be a graduate of Cambridge University, sparked an online campaign to out him after he set up a blog where, using the name ChinaBounder, he posted entries with graphic descriptions of his attempts to charm the women of Shanghai into bed.
The campaign drew thousands of people to ChinaBounder’s blog but despite endless speculation in the media and online, Marriot’s cover was never completely blown.
Now he has decided to emerge in an effort to promote a new book, Fault Lines on the Face of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great.
The book itself will further add to Chinese ire as it rubbishes their country’s attempts to tout itself as a global force.
Speaking exclusively to the Guardian from an undisclosed “third country” in south-east Asia, Marriott confirmed for the first time that his alter ego was ChinaBounder.
“Modern China has displayed a history of over-reacting to any form of criticism, not just against the country or the Communist party per se,” he said.
“Chinese leaders have fashioned a response based on what they perceive the people of China to be, and a few elitists now often decide what offends people of the motherland.”
Looking back on the furore that his online accounts of sexual adventure in Shanghai had sparked among conservative Chinese, he said: “Chinese men were deeply offended by the blog, and I do understand why. In history, Chinese men have suffered greatly at the hands of foreign armies and now, philosophically, they feel they are being attacked in the bedroom. They see this as the battle for the very women they fought wars to protect.”
Zhang Jiehai, a professor of psychology at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, who led the campaign, has urged Chinese readers not to buy it.
“ChinaBounder said he had fifty reasons to assume China will not be great,” said Zhang in an online statement. “In contrary, I have at least one reason to say Britain can be great. The reason is Cambridge University can train citizens like Mr China Bounder who love to show off the great thing inside his pants. Of course, by saying he is from Cambridge University is another piece of performance art. But one thing I believe in is that there is a chance for China to become great again, a far greater chance than for Britain.”
More than 17,000 people visited Marriott’s blog in the wake of professor Zhang’s campaign two years ago, but the book and its reaction have so far generated far less traffic.
Marriott, who visited Japan to secure his book deal before moving on to a secret location, said the confusion surrounding his identity at the height of the campaign to denounce him “gave me excellent cover”.
He insisted his decision to leave China was connected to his book deal and “differences between me the Shanghai police – a story best left to a later time”. The self-confessed Casanova said he had written his sexlog as a “mental purge and colonic for my sexual adventures” and in an attempt to secure his “fifteen minutes of fame”.
“Although it seemed cowardly at the time, not revealing who I was, those Chinese men who wished to protect women did not realise that the women I wrote about would have been torn to pieces by those very same Chinese men if their names had been revealed at that time along with mine,” he said.
Marriott survived the witch hunt and according to latest reports he is currently living in Singapore.
bron: www.guardian.co.uk [17-7-2008], www.campus.tv [3-9-2009]
