Who is Muzi Mei?

Posted on December 13, 2005

Muzi Mei is the pen name of a 27-year-old journalist named Li Li who authors one of the most popular blogs in China. Most recently her name appeared in a recent news story in Time magazine about the emerging openness towards sex in China.

For the past couple of years, Li has kept a blog--written under the pen name Muzi Mei--that has chronicled everything from her penchant for orgies and Internet dating to her skepticism toward marriage when it means staying faithful to one man. This fall the Beijing resident posted a recording of her own lovemaking sounds that would make Paris Hilton blush. More than 50,000 people simultaneously tried to download the 25-minute podcast, crashing the host server. Despite government attempts to censor it, the sex diary is so popular that Li's pen name is intermittently the most searched keyword on China's top search engine. "I express my freedom through sex," says Li, unapologetically. "It's my life, and I can do what I want."

The Wikipedia entry for Muzi Mei says she also appeared recently in Washington Post and New York Times articles about censorship in China. Like some of the popular U.S. bloggers parts of Mei's blog have also been reprinted in a book according to the Wikipedia entry.

An article on Crienglish.com has a brief bio, some photos and a link to her blog that doesn't work. The Crienglish article says she was originally popular in 2003.

Muzi Mei, real name Li Li, rose to a brief far-reaching notoriety in the last few months of 2003. Writing from south China's Guangzhou city, she kept a blog where she described sexual encounters with various men, including a well-known rock musician.

Muzi Mei is also sometimes listed as Mu Zimei.