chinaSMACK

It's a great concept but it's not a good source if you really want to see what China is. ChinaSMACK is a site based in Shanghai that provides raw, unfiltered stories fresh from China. The stories are professionally translated, and they include some unfiltered comments from the Chinese themselves (also translated).

While it's a great idea, unfortunately, chinaSMACK has a tendency predominantly to report negative stories that occur in China. For this reason, the site and English comment section (not the translated Chinese comments) tends to attract many people who hate China. The site says the reason for providing negative news most of the time is because those stories tend to be more popular (which is true for most of the world). So while chinaSMACK provides good reads, they should not be taken as what the average day in China is (anymore than anime represents the everyday life in Japan).

There's probably no way you're going to understand Chinese society by reading Chinese newspapers and magazines, though I think I can honestly say that you'll have a different viewpoint afterward. This site is an aggregator of news articles and comment from many Chinese language web sources, translated into English and made very readable for us in the West. Comment on the articles, also originally in Chinese and well translated, throws light on what the Chinese people themselves think about the issues that occupy their news media and the way they are presented. This is a must-read if you want to get a fresh look at China through the eyes of the Chinese. Recommended.

UPDATED:

A year on from the previous review, I've been revisiting this site recently and wanted to make a few more comments.

Firstly, I think I should have been a bit more cautionary in the earlier one, as this is a site for moderately mature audiences and may not be family friendly in some areas, at all. Chinese society is very different to the west, and sometimes those differences don't make for comfortable reading. Likewise, the site sometimes does lean toward the sensational, and the odd story and image here and there may be disturbing.

There is also no guarantee that mature language (or perhaps, immature language, depending on how you look at it) won't creep into the comments, which are often outspoken.

In other words, this is a very direct and largely uncensored community and you should be aware of that. Though the idea of bringing China to the west through translation and imagery is by no means a new one, this particular concept pulls few punches compared to those aimed more at encouraging tourism and painting attractive pictures, than telling the news as the people see it and hear it. I recommend it, because of that, and because the audience here has an unique voice. But just be aware, China Smack is not everyone's cup of green tea.