I would like to join “Amanda Liu”‘s lobby group. It sounds very patriotic and worthy. Do they have an office in Guangzhou or meetings I can attend?

November 13, 2005 @ 7:43 pm | Comment

Sorry Richard, but with this fascist interference in our own affairs (blocking the site) I haven’t caught on as to who this “Amanda Liu” is. I take it it’s from the only guy I know who would take things to such extremes that he’d actually block his own site (requiring a password) but that’s it.

November 13, 2005 @ 7:44 pm | Comment

Keir, you’re right, of course. Amanda Liu is an invention, a close friend and drinking partner with Paul smith and Allison Bridgewater. She allegedly works for China Daily, though she certainly does a great job covering her tracks, as a google search will show she exists only in the fantasies of a creative blogger. Anyway, if she does exist and is truly dedicated to having this site blocked in China, she’s failed totally.

November 13, 2005 @ 8:18 pm | Comment

“Amanda” is what he calls himself when he puts on high heels and fishnet stockings and prances around in front of the mirror.

(Oh god, just had a flashback of a scene from “Silence of the Lambs”, Buffalo Bill dancing around in front of the mirror……)

November 13, 2005 @ 8:24 pm | Comment

Dear Alison,

It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. Put the f—ing lotion in the basket!

PS, would you f— me? I’d f— me.

Sincerely yours,
Buffalo-Bob-Amanda-Smith-Miers (PhD)

November 13, 2005 @ 10:01 pm | Comment

When they block your site they don’t seem to block the rss feeds. I didn’t know you were blocked. Glad you are unblocked now, hate that blocked up feeling.

November 13, 2005 @ 10:06 pm | Comment

Wickedly funny, Ivan. Jamie Gumm is alive and well and teaching in Shenzhen.

November 13, 2005 @ 11:07 pm | Comment

Keir,

“Mrs. Amanda Liu of Guangzhou” first surfaced in a China Daily forum thread started by someone named (surprise!) MAJones. She described herself as a graduate cum laude of Harvard Business School, married to one of China’s top-ranking PLA officers (perhaps General Zhu???), and dutiful mother of one.

The intial focus of “her” obsessive rants was ungrateful foreign teachers in China, and to attempt to get the government to block Dave’s ESL Cafe (of all sites!).

Apparently there were a few yahoos leaving some over-the-top comments about China at Daves – a site which arguably benefits China by providing information for people hoping to teach English abroad.

Anyway, Mrs. Liu (whose long-winded writing style would be instantly recognizable to you), was actually able to generate enough complaints that Dave’s ESL Cafe implemented a password system on its open forum to limit incendiary commentary. Chalk one up for the patriotic forces of censorship!

Mrs. Liu was then elevated to “head of a lobbying group based in Guangzhou” — at least according to one unimpeachable source (Flowing Waters). I was unaware she had since joined the staff of China Daily! Talk about a meteoric career! Perhaps her high-ranking PLA officer husband assisted her ascent to those lofty regions of patriotic journalism.

Anyway, she was one of the more colorful manifestations of Mr. Cut-n-Paste.

Someone should make an org chart of all the phony IDs and where they first surfaced (Ivan?). Some day it might be useful to a psychiatrist trying to re-assemble the pieces of Humpty Dumpty’s mind.

November 14, 2005 @ 7:25 am | Comment

You know, as soon as I saw that (name omitted) was ranting about Dave’s ESL I started wondering. Their open China thread had a terrible troll problem a few years back (haven’t been there for ages) and I remember how the trolls kept on changing names and reinventing themselves aka someone we all know. They didn’t tend to be quite so verbose though.

Shanghai Slim: would you be interested in sending the information you’ve gathered to either Dave Sperling or one of the open thread moderators? Possibly some information-sharing might be a good thing.

November 14, 2005 @ 9:19 am | Comment

Thanks for the info, S.S.. This guy is right scum. I had tracked down all his previous aliases before this but got bored and felt there was no use to it, although I think it would be helpful to set up a proper dossier on him at flowingatersstale. Maybe a link to it anyway so it doesn’t detract from the original satirical purposes of the site. Then we could set up a network to track and neutralise him somehow. Ivan always tantalisingly drops hints about him but that’s it…
In the meantime, what do we do with this guy? He was always a source of fun for everyone, but now he’s attacking Dave’s ESL cafe?!?! We need that site! I think we should initiate the fightback. Whoever is in charge of flowing waters, maybe you could host ideas. (Don’t want to get Richard implicated). That google bomb Richard described could be a start (I’d use words like paedophile and the like).

November 14, 2005 @ 6:47 pm | Comment

Of course, there’s a simple and obvious way to carry out Keir’s suggestion, i.e., have an array of bloggers participate in a googlebomb campaign so that every time someone clicks on the name Mark Anthony Jones they will be sent to his original blog, now the victim of a cruel and unforgivable parody. Of course, I consider Mark Anthony Jones to be a dear friend and would never encourage people to googlebomb the name Mark Anthony Jones. Of course, he in effect did this to me with his China Daily article and his attempts to plaster my full name on comments across the blogosphere, but i wouldn’t want the same thing to happen to Mark Anthony Jones. Please, don’t even think about it. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you could pass this comment along to all your friends and loved ones and urge them to never, ever googlebomb the name Mark Anthony Jones. Thanks.

November 14, 2005 @ 8:00 pm | Comment

Some day it might be useful to a psychiatrist trying to re-assemble the pieces of Humpty Dumpty’s mind

Why bother? It’s all right there in his own words.

That would be another good googlebomb for Mark Anthony Jones, come to think of it. Now, don’t anybody do that.

November 14, 2005 @ 8:06 pm | Comment

Richard,

WHAT was that man’s name again? Could you repeat it for me? I want to be careful never to googlebomb him.

By the way, I see some interesting new comments on flowingwaters.blog.com It seems to be morphing into a Warner Brothers cartoon, you know, with Wile E Coyote……..

November 14, 2005 @ 8:24 pm | Comment

Dish, that’s a great suggestion – it didn’t occur to me that Dave may not be aware of just who exactly was behind the slanderous attack.

Keir, I agree that for Richard’s sake this discussion should be carried on elsewhere. I will reply very soon via private email.

November 14, 2005 @ 8:31 pm | Comment

i was a vetran/casualty of the now infamous Dave’s War. i tried to fight the trolls, but was subsequently barred for life. the guys that run that site are all a bunch of assholes who caved into the pressure. pussies.

November 14, 2005 @ 8:37 pm | Comment

Haha, I see Richard was posting while I was writing.

Richard, I commend your high-minded denunciation of any attempts to google-bomb a patriotic lover of China. 🙂

(picturing Slim Pickens of “Dr. Strangelove” riding a “google bomb” earthward, “yee-haaaawww!”)

November 14, 2005 @ 8:40 pm | Comment

Great image of Slim, Slim!

You and keir carry on your discussions in private. I will will have nothing to do with any slanderous attempts to googlebomb the name Mark Anthony Jones. It’s silly and I wash my hands of such nefarious nonsense.

November 14, 2005 @ 8:44 pm | Comment

Chris, which site were you barred from, Daves ESL Cafe or China Daily?

November 15, 2005 @ 2:50 am | Comment