Welcome to any first time Travvie (Travel Blog Award) visitors. I thought it might be good to share with you the brief history of the Dreamblogue and how it came to be.
The Blog of Dreams began innocently and with a very small scope: Yanzhi and I were teaching in Macau, and as part of a class project in Global Internet Marketing we organized a blog project. Both of us and our students were frustrated by the stereotypically negative and uninformed commentary found on so many blogs about China–no this week is not new in perceptions if western media coverage. In the spirit of creating a positive voice for China and raising some money to help with charitable causes, we created The China Dreamblogue,. It was to be a site that focused on creating 100% positive China content and a mission to create educational opportunities for Chinese students and a chance for an international audience to find out more about what is right with China.
Soon the “Dream Team” team exploded with ideas for promotions and getting people around the country involved. We worked on a Technorati campaign to get favorited, participated in contests, and held our own photo contests to get people involved. Everyone was excited and happy that we were brainstorming creative ways to engage, not isolate China and its people.
During this same time in China, Yanzhi had become connected to a group of women he began to call, The League of Extraordinary Chinese Women, cancer survivors who had banded together to provide each other with strength, support, and encouragement during a times of deep t crisis. Yanzhi also introduced me to his former student, Coffee, who I later taught. She was and is a remarkable woman who has overcome bone cancer and a leg amputation to train for a professional UN translator certification program in French and has been an intern with the blog for over a year.
Entranced and empowered by the positive force of these women living their lives with freedom and courage, Yanzhi and I decided to take inspiration from these women and other people who were willing to live out their dream. As a part of our pro-China campaign, the two of us had a mission: we as two American teachers would travel around the country for a year on sponsorship from ethically responsible businesses and institutions. Our plan was to visit every province an interview someone from each province and at least one person from each of the fifty-six ethnic minorities in China.
As we began our travels, we also planned to use the Dreamblogue to do good in China. Knowing about the remarkable number of students and new graduates in China who struggle to find jobs, we agreed that we would begin an internship program that would teach students about online marketing, digital media, and professional/corporate blogging, all skills which are extremely important in China’s growing Internet environment and a skill set which few people in China have. So far, we have trained a number of interns and worked with them to develop their skills and knowledge in regards to digital media. We have focused on finding and working with students of remarkable ability who have little chance to take part in the remarkable changes and opportunities available in China.
As an additional part of helping people to achieve their dreams, we have continued to seek out schools and regularly post information on the blog about top schools around the world that are well-equipped and suited for Chinese students, such as the Cal Poly Orfalea School of Business. To this day we have had a number of students who were part of the Dreamblogue get in to top schools around the world, including the University of Michigan, UCLA, Columbia University, Ohio State, Purdue, and others.
To this day, Yanzhi and I have completed about a third of our journey, taking time to continue to accumulate material on the Dreamblogue about different aspects of China, running our photo contest here, and continuing to work with our interns to help them find schools and develop skills in digital media.