Welcome new Autoblogger, Lu Zhou
For as long as Lu Zhou can remember, he has been a car guy. Yep, he was that kid that enjoyed a sweet aroma of gasoline. And yes, he's that guy who has a small library of car magazines and never misses an auto show. When Lu first arrived in this country some 13 years ago, someone asked him, "Where would you like to go?" "Detroit!" he replied without any hesitation, leaving the inquirer perplexed — years later, when Lu visited Detroit in the winter, he realized why the Motor City that he had been dreaming of is not exactly a tourist destination. These days, Lu keeps his passion for cars alive by blogging about them and the occasional whiff of gasoline.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shinkaze 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Congratulations Lu! We're looking forward to your posts.
Reply
icebin 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
me too
Reply
Joel A 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Awesome, Lu. Can't wait to read your stuff.
Reply
iLash 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Welcome aboard mate!
Reply
iQuack 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Welcome, Lu, and many congratulatory quacks!
iQuack');">Reply
Hobart 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
I have noticed that Lu's posts are kind a little too Pro-China. China is still an awful place with no freedom of the press or religion, no democracy. The may be buying fancy cars, but that doesn't change the fact the people have no POLITICAL freedom. Lu, from the posts I read recently, you are too pro-China. Stick to cars and stop spinning politics on this car site!
Reply
Lu Zhou 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Thanks everyone for your kind welcomes. And Hobart, while I appreciate your sensitivity, I fail to see where you get that I'm "spinning politics on this car site". If by simply reporting on car news related to China that I'm somehow pro-China, then CNN, NY Times or any other news organizations that's ever reported on China is guilty of the same charge? oh wait, I forget, you are only used to negative news coming out of China. By the way, there will be more Chinese car news coming soon.
Reply
matt 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
China is a dangerous country to the western world. we should subsudise an over throw of the gouvernment. In canada by the year 2025 chinese will be the majority on canada.
Reply
iQuack 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Thanks, Matt.
Now take your Ritalin and go to your room.
iQuack');">Reply
matt 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
It's official i am going to start reporting on Poland's booming car market. Stay tune. I will be reporting from Krakow. Bet you guys can't wait
Reply
Hobart 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Mr. Lu Zhou, you obviously come from China and yes by reporting on 3 news items about China on your very first day, yes you are indeed too pro-China. Just report about Ferrari's cars, no need to tell everybody that Chinese are rich now they can buy some. We don't care, we come here to read about cars, not about your home country and your job of informing the foreigners about China. If you love it so much, why did you leave?
Reply
Lu Zhou 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Hobart, learn to count. It was 2, not 3.
Had you actually addressed my counter-points, this would have been a more interesting debate; however, you chose to walk around it and just repeat yourself again...nice.
Reply
futabu 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
I agree with Hobart that Louis is Pro-China, but that doesn't mean that he should refrain from posting articles related to China. Personally I don't care about China or the wealthy bastards that can afford expensive cars so I choose not to read them. We all know that the 0.01 percent of the population that can afford cars are able to do so by exploiting the other 99.99 percent. We also know that the Chinese government tortures and executes political prisoners, invades and occupies a sovereign nation(Tibet), threatens a free democratic nations with missiles (Taiwan), and thousands of other atrocities. What do these things have to do with cars? Nothing. It is true that multinational corporations, including automotive manufacturers, are investing heavily in China and the car buying population is increasing, but if you want to write a meaningful article about China you need to state the facts. China is a pirate state. It's embedded into the mind set of the 1.3 billion people. There are a few qualities the Chinese have that are detrimental to any furture progress. Chinese lack any original thought, extremely greedy, and are filled to the brim with ignorance and intolerance. This is not a racist remark, it is statement of fact caused by the societal structure and educational system of a communist government. There are many clone cars coming out of China (previously featured on Autoblog), but there hasn't been a single automobile displaying an innovative design or technology. I doubt this will change in the near future. So what do we have to fear? As a pirate state, Chinese corporations (all state owned) will accept foreign investements, learn manufacturing processes, etc., then cut ties with the foreign company once they have learned the process. These firms have large amounts of money (government again) and then have the ability to buy foreign companies. It's been done in other industries and attempted in the auto industry (MG and Shanghai). One day a significant car manufacturer will fall into the hands of a Chinese state run enterprise, and that is the situation we need to worry about. Well I guess we also need to worry about cheaply made Chinese components ending up in our cars, manufacturing jobs lost to China, and later on potentially engineering jobs as well.
Sorry if all of this is incoherent, I'm rushing so I can go out and buy my lunch.
Anyways, my point is you're free to write all the Chinese crap you want (you are in the US after all) but I doubt anybody is interested in rich Chinese people buying expensive cars. There is a lot to be said about China, it is a horrible country with horrible leaders, but when it comes to cars...well I guess there isn't much to say.
Good luck with your future blogs
Reply
iQuack 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
#13-Futabu:
"There is a lot to be said about China, it is a horrible country with horrible leaders, but when it comes to cars...well I guess there isn't much to say..........Sorry if all of this is incoherent, I'm rushing so I can go out and buy my lunch."
I hope you enjoyed your lunch--Chinese take-out, no doubt.
There will be plenty to say about Chinese cars in the future and if my guess is right, most of the comments will be favorable.
iQuack');">Reply
ETMC 10:45PM (12/18/2005)
Much as an Autoblog in Spanish makes sense, so does this.
Lu, I don't know your background, but to me, your insight to asian automotive news - let alone that of China - is an asset.
Too often do people want to brush off Chinese vehicles as pure piracy; too frequently do people disregard Asian vehicles/marques that are unknown here as unimportant.
While there are cases that fit those stereotypes, many people don't care to actually research the truth - perhaps the language barrier is somewhat to blame.
I had a gentleman the other day on a forum insist to me that it takes years for Isuzu to build 20,000 vehicles. If he had poked around their Japanese coporate website for about 4 minutes (assuming he found the English portion in under 2), he could have seen that they sold more than 70,000 medium and heavy units globally in the last fiscal quarter.
His claims of their financial situation (yes, we know it's tight) were chock full of even greater hyperbole. Incredible.
I'm well aware of some of the legal issues and political ramnifications of the country. Regardless, China will prove to be of import in the global economy of years to come; to speak the least of the automotive industry.
Nevertheless, accurate insite into the Asian automakers is something I treasure. The fact that you offer that - with strong, consistant writing (about time!) - is something I hold in high regards among journalists; even higher among bloggers.
Please continue your great work, and I look forward to reading more in the future.
Reply