Is it legal to host your own blog in China? Discuss.

Or just read Joel Martinsen's post on Danwei, which republishes part of a post from English language Chinese blogger Yee (also worth reading in its entirety) and provides a translation of the extensive precautionary steps necessary for private individuals to host blogs in China.

Yee himself is relaying the story of a Shanghai based Chinese blogger called Zousouper. The posts contain some bureaucratic dialogues with the Shanghai Communication Administration that invoke Terry Gilliam's dystopian film, "Brazil".

Essentially it all comes down to comments. If it's just you, go crazy (within limits). If you're open to public comment, you assume all kinds of headaches and responsibility.

Of course, one must wonder why anyone would want to bypass the fine services offered by China's many blogging service providers which include all that monitoring of comments for harmful content that you would otherwise be personally responsible for. After all, if you're not writing anything improper, you've got nothing to worry about, do you?