If you live Shanghai long enough (and  you are  able to read Chinese), you must know what KDS and Liba mean!

Both KDS and Liba are two well known BBS online forums in Shanghai.

KDS stands for Kuan Dai Shan which in Chinese means Broadband Mountain. And Liba in Chinese means fence or hedge. Because most users of these two forums are Shanghainese, both KDS and Liba are labeled as Shanghai local forums.

KDS was originally a website for computer fans and Liba was a place where people share the experiences of living in Shanghai. But don’t know since when, with more and more Shanghainese dominate the BBS, the users started to talk in Shanghainese Chinese in the BBS which made these two sites completely in Shanghai accent.

People are talking all kinds of stuffs in the forums, including something really sensitive, which might never be reported in the mainstream media. Here is an interesting definition about KDS by CNN:

‘In KDS Life Forum, a local website well-known for bolstering parochialism and anti-communism’.

But the two sites do have gender difference. Because of its background, the users of KDS are usually male and Liba’s users are mostly female.

You can also tell the gender differences from the topics in each forum. In KDS, most topics are about cars, politics, IT stuffs, pretty girls etc, the universal Men’s topics. However, in Liba, users are alwasy talking about kids, fashions, beauties, relationships etc.

Interestingly we now have personalities for the guys who love KDS and girls who love Liba.

KDS guys: Shanghai young male, single, usually in the junior post, quiet  in real life but talk a lot online (most are complains)

Liba girls: love quality life, like showing off, have high expectations on others regardless of her own situation

But KDS guys and Liba girls don’t like each other because KDS guys think Liba girls are too materialistic and gossipy and Liba girls think KDS guys are talking too much but doing nothing.

Hm, then this leaves me a question? Am I a Liba girl because I love to Liba as well?

Tags: Culture Matters

Got Questions? Like our Site? Want to Share with Friends?

• Ask Hoo questions and mail to:cookhoo@gmail.com Or Subscribe to our RSS feed:

• Click to bookmark our site or tell a friend: