The musings of an actress who writes about her pet cats and favourite television series have captured the imagination of internet users and made her the most-read blogger in the world.

That she is one of the most beautiful film stars in China has certainly not hindered Xu Jinglei’s rise to the top. But it is also the everyday style of her entries, distinguished more by their very ordinariness than by sexy kiss-and-tell tales from her life as a star, that has attracted her huge audience. It is an approach with which many ordinary Chinese feel they can identify, and her blog has become the first to boast 100 million page views.

It is not unusual for Miss Xu to receive 1,000 responses to a posting about her cats or the difficulties of learning English for a 33-year-old Beijing-girl-turned-actress. A weekend blog about watching an episode of the American TV series Prison Break has already drawn 776 comments. Her image as the girl next door, often dressed simply in jeans and T-shirt, enhances her appeal.

She has been taken aback by the popularity of her blog. “I’ve been often asked to explain why my blog is so popular. And my standard answer is that I rate quite well all round,” she said. “I’m not the most-famous actress, not the most popular director, nor the best writer. But if you add all that up, I’m fairly good. Also, I started blogging earlier than most celebrities.”

Miss Xu launched her cyberspace diary in October 2005 to pass the time when a film project fell through. Her posts range from her film projects to cooking and those cats. Pictures of the smiling star along with her pets, Weibo and Weiqun (Scarf and Apron), litter the site. “The things I write are real and cover about 70 per cent of my life,” she said. Perhaps her low-key tone is reflected in her work. She gained international acclaim when she won the best director award for A Letter from an Unknown Woman at the 2004 San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain.

She told The Times: “I don’t really write about anything too serious, just the little things in everyday life. So it was really beyond my expectations to see so many people reading my blog. Maybe readers are curious to know about the everyday life of an actress.”

She spends about 20 minutes a day on her writing. Her commitment may be another reason for her blog’s popularity. Fans can be certain that almost every day – sometimes two or three times a day – she will post a quick update. She says she doesn’t know how long she will continue with her postings. “I’ll see how the mood takes me.”

Blogger and commentator Wang Xiaofeng said that her ability to write in an intimate and immediate style – although her personal life is taboo – is among her trump cards. “Ordinary people feel she is one of them, they can relate to her,” he said. “Now, as she is better known, it has become the fashion to read her blog.” The search engine Technorati said that Miss Xu’s blog recorded the most hits on the internet last year. On July 12, her blog broke the 100 million mark, leap-frogging www.boingboing.net to become number one.

Another young blogger may soon oust her as world number one, however. Next to reach 100 million page views is likely to be Han Han. The hip young author, 24, recounts his dysfunctional school, troubled existence at home, what it is like to be young and handsome and his obsession with racing cars.

China’s 162 million internet users – the biggest online population in the world after the United States – are eager to find something entertaining and iconoclastic to read in a cyberspace monitored carefully by internet police. That most are under 30 and spend hours online every day also helps to explain the phenomenal popularity of blogs.

http://blog.sina.com.cn/xujinglei | http://blog.sina.com.cn/twocold

TV and cats’ tales

July 20 It’s too easy to become addicted to TV series on DVD. The last two days I’ve been watching Prison Break. You can’t stop once you start. I began at midnight and finished at two in the morning the next day. I ate almost nothing the whole time. I tried again and again to stop watching but I couldn’t. 24,023 hits, 776 comments

July 6 Today I had a busy day. Did three interviews. When I got home it was midnight. Why are you so lovely, my babies? (She attaches pictures of her two cats) 143,869 hits, 1,463 comments

July 5 In this world, everything is without limits. You think you are lazy? There must be others lazier than you. You think you are short-tempered? There must be others more short-tempered than you. I am worrying about something that will happen in another five months, but today I met someone who is worrying about things in another half year 76,848 hits, 1,070 comments

June 18 The last weekend in New York. I went to the beach. I could have gone to the Museum of Modern Art, but I don’t much like contemporary art. Art always wants to be higher than life, but life is much more exciting! (240,201 hits, 1,740 comments)

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