Blogger Demographics

So the other day I was checking some tweets when I notice one in particular regarding the most prolific writers/bloggers in Vancouver. I wasn’t expecting anything in particular, not even ranked at all because, well, I did not register myself for such thing! However, when I looked at the list, I was surprised to be fifth. How that came to happen?! Now, I won’t be starting any investigation as to their ranking mechanism, rather, I will focus on something… Odd (for the lack of a better word): the demographics of the people who is writing blogs/tweets, specifically… How come there are some many Far East Asians (or descendant)?!

I will do a small detour here and, rather than take that list, I will use Urbanspoon’s list. The reason is that it is a bit more sanitized, in the sense it focus more on restaurants, not to mention individual/personal blogs rather than a major publication where there can be several contributors of different origins. I know I will be semi-excluding some people, affect the ranking of some (like Raul of Hummingbird604 ranking in Urbanspoon) and some people not even listed at all (Vancouver Savvy). But, still, I think that provides a good yardstick for my line of thought.

So, let’s take a look at that Urbanspoon, as of January 22:

1. Sherman’s Food Adventures
2. Chow Times
3. Vancouver Slop
4. I’m Only Here for the Food!
5. Ho Yummy
6. Noshwell
7. timinganddelivery.com
8. The Bon Vivant Blog
9. Hummingbird604.com
10. 604Foodtography
11. Foodosophy
12. Deeeelish
13. Follow Me Foodie
14. Eat’n About
15. Ethnic Eats

Out of this list, I am certain of the following:

Far East Asian: Sherman (Sherman’s Food Adventures), Ben and Suanne (Chow Times), Matt (Vancouver Slop), Gigi (Ho Yummy), Kevin, (604Foodtography), Polly (Deelish), Mijune (Follow Me Foodie), Wendy (Eat’n About) and, of course, myself. I have the hunch some members (if not all members) of Foodosophy are Asians, so, for this purpose, I will include them as well.
Latin American: Raul (Hummingbird604.com). I think I can semi-include myself on this list…
Caucasian: Degan (Ethnic Eats).

As for the writers of Noshwell, the Timing and Delivery team and The Bon Vivant Blog, I haven’t met/seen them so I won’t make any assumptions.

Of course, some might say I am manipulating the numbers. Why I did not stop at 10? Or, why not go all the way down to 25? There are several reasons behind it and it includes (1) The 10th spot is too close among several blogs, (2) provides a better representation, as I am not sure of the demographics of several of the top 10 and (3) after that spot, the activity starts to dwindle a little bit.

Now, hopefully with that set, here is my line of thought why this happens – and I hope you will share your thoughts as well!

For one, I believe that our perspective of food is completely different than that of other places. Far East Asian people, and this time I will narrow it down to Chinese people, have a belief that great food is a birth right and, to an extent, taken for granted. A lot of us, with even with our hectic life but under normal circumstances, we won’t stop at MickeyD’s for burger (though, I will admit that, in a hurry, I have stopped in Wendy’s or KFC). We would rather try different restaurants and sit down for a meal – though, of course, at times, a rushed meal. If that wasn’t the case, the explosion of small restaurants in the different strip malls in Richmond won’t have easily occurred. Of course, there will be some favourites but these are when you are too tired to think or in a hurry and need to decide a place… That does not mean we do not cook; we do often. Just that, there will be times we will just go out to eat.

The second reason is somewhat implied above: we are more willing to try different cuisines and/or ingredients and usually do not freak out. Now, we also have our share of picky eaters – my mother, for example, hates pizza. One of my favourite stories is that a group of co-workers, my manager and I went to a HK style cafe, where I ended up ordering ox tongue. The reaction of my boss was that of disgust; somehow I was expecting it as he was raised eating steak-n-potatoes. The irony is that his wife is Taiwanese and, when his in-laws are visiting, he can only smile when he is served “bone soup”. While I do understand the reluctance of eating some dishes (specially if you are allergic to, say, peanuts or gluten), not giving it a chance would be, well, disappointing. That’s partially how I learned to like eggplant. For a long time I did not like it visually but, once I tried it, my mom ended up having to buy more every time she was planning to cook it. On that note, I am certain there will be niche blogs to those who are specific to certain allergies or diets. For example, H.Peter writes about his gluten free adventures. (On that note, I am certain all of us are honest about our likes/dislikes/dietary restrictions. I don’t want to imagine any of us blogging a dish was good without actually trying it).

Of course, there is a wild card argument: that only seems to happen here in Vancouver! If you were to check Seattle which is ~250Km south of Vancouver, such statistic does not seem to occur. And that brings another wild card argument: “visible minorities” make up a large chunk of Metro Vancouver’s population, with Chinese taking the largest share. But, if that was the case, why we do not see a share of, say, East Indians?

In the end, it seems that Vancouver has an odd conditions to create that perfect storm where Far East Asians dominate the blogger demographics in Metro Vancouver. Fortunately, most of us do not blog exclusively Chinese restaurants and, instead, provide a balance of different food options found around. And, if you feel I am being unbalanced in the type of restaurants I have been blogging, please, let me know! After all, this blog is about readers.

Tagged under: Random