Chinabounder reveals himself

‘Chinabounder’, the anonymous western Lothario who provoked outrage among the Chinese with dispatches about his sexual conquests of Chinese women in a blog called ‘Sex and Shanghai’, has finally broken cover. He is David Marriott, who claims to be a graduate of Cambridge University. He has revealed himself in order to promote what looks certain to be an equally contentious book based on his blogs, Fault Lines on the Face of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great (pictured).

His blog, as The First Post’s Shanghai correspondent Gary Jones reported in February 2007, provoked a cyberspace manhunt, with his deeply offended pursuers threatening murder and castration if they ever discovered his true identity. Now, speaking to the Guardian from an undisclosed "third country" in southeast Asia, Marriott says: "Modern China has displayed a history of over-reacting to any form of criticism, not just against the country or the Communist party per se. Chinese leaders have fashioned a response based on what they perceive the people of China to be, and a few elitists now often decide what offends people of the motherland."

Looking back on the furore sparked, he concedes: "Chinese men were deeply offended by the blog, and I do understand why. In history, Chinese men have suffered greatly at the hands of foreign armies and now, philosophically, they feel they are being attacked in the bedroom. They see this as the battle for the very women they fought wars to protect."

Zhang Jiehai, a professor of psychology at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, who led the campaign against Marriott - "We must find this foreign filth and kick him out of China," he wrote at the time - has urged Chinese readers not to buy Marriott’s book. In an online statement, he says: "Chinabounder said he had 50 reasons to assume China will not be great. In contrary, I have at least one reason to say Britain can be great. The reason is Cambridge University can train citizens like Mr China Bounder who love to show off the great thing inside his pants. But one thing I believe in is that there is a chance for China to become great again, a far greater chance than for Britain."