Louis Cha has a blog! Or not.

Beginning in late March, he has posted New Sword of the Yue Maiden (新越女剑) and The Kunlun Slave (昆仑奴) along with some conversational blog posts. Here's an excerpt of the first post, giving a rationale for finally launching a blog:

A friend at Sina had aske me a while back if I could run a blog on Sina. First I said that I didn't have time, then I said that I have never been much interested in avant-garde stuff. In addition, I also thought that if I started one but didn't write every day, I wouldn't be respecting my readers. So I'll claim a space here and worry about writing later. Cai Lan writes here, did you know?

I'm ambivalent about Sina. First, Sina has investment from Japanese board-members, so it holds back sensitive news about Sino-Japanese relations. As a decision of my work when I was young, I state this first as a professional habit. Next, when I registered for this blog, I encountered two things. First, I discovered that many famous people and even the names of older generations were already taken - Cao Xuexin, Dream of the Red Mansions - it was comforting to know that my good friend Liang Yusheng's name has not been taken to date. This phenomenon is not good at all. My name [Jin Yong] was kept for me by Sina, so if you type it in you are taken directly to the front page. I am very moved by their concern for me. I didn't want to disturb them, so I used my English name Louis Cha to register another one. When you're old, it's better to be quiet.

One more thing, when I registered, I found that the birth date [was from 1930 to 2007]. I am very displeased with this. I found that the birth date was limited to between 1930 and 2007. So old people born before 1930 cannot communicate by writing? This is something I suggest to Sina.

Later, the blog was moved to Bokee, also registered under Louis Cha. Some people were suspicious about this; The Beijing News quotes some commenters: "There are dozens of blogs registered to the name 'Jin Yong,' but none is genuine." "From the style, structure, and grammar, this is definitely fake."

And sure enough, it was. A Sina book channel editor contacted Cha privately after noticing the blog, and received a statement from the author:

Statement

I do not know how to use computers, and I have never communicated with people online. I am currently studying computer use, so perhaps for one or two years there will be no messages from me on websites. The blog on Bokee is written by someone masquerading as me. This person (or persons) is absolutely not my student. My true students are Liu Zaifu's daughter Liu Lian, and three Zhejiang University PhD students Lu Dunji, Wang Jian, and Shi Guorui. I have already resigned from Zhejiang university, but they are my students. I trust that the four of them would not use my name to write a "blog" without my agreement and permission. This is the first time that I have seen the writing published on Bokee. "The Kunlun Slave" and "The Xuanwumen Crisis" were not written by me. Although my learning and writing are not the greatest, they are still not as bad as that. If they have opinions, then publish them under their own names. With that level of writing, I would certainly not accept them as students, and with this kind of personal character, I would keep an even greater distance. Thanks to Sina and the "book channel" editors. I also state that I have already arranged with a mainland lawyer to take legal action against this person who has usurped my pen name and claimed to be my student.

TBN reports that Bokee is not taking any immediate action:

The reporter then talked to Bokee marketing director Si Nan, who said that Bokee had done a lot of work looking for evidence in this incident and hopes that colleagues in cultural circles and among the reading public can provide confirmation or refutation. This is in accordance with blogging's fundamental principles of freedom, openness and sharing. "This is not the first time for counterfeit Louis Cha works, and it will not be the last." As to whether this fake blog will be deleted, Si Nan said that if the government makes a determination of the nature of the incident - if the author has indeed infringed on copyright - then they would work to cooperate with the government. However, "Bokee will not be the guardians of celebrities' chastity; we attach more importance to a grassroots environment."