Muzi Mei

Who is Muzi Mei?

Muzi Mei or Mu Zimei or Mu Zi Mei or Muzimei is the nom de plume of a female journalist and blogger from Guangzhou, People's Republic of China, who became a notorious household name in China in late 2003. Her blog contained frank descriptions of her sexual encounters with various men, which is believed to be a first for China.

Her legal name is Li Li -- note that "Muzi" becomes "Li" when the characters are arranged vertically, and "Mei" and "Li" are synonyms. She studied in the Department of Philosophy in Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, and graduated in 2001.

In 2003 she was the topic of heated discussion and controversy in print media, bulletin boards and Internet chatrooms across China, and was even mentioned in stories in the New York Times, TIME and Washington Post and other international media. Her name was often mentioned together with Tang Jiali, a dancer who was the first to publish a book of nude artistic photographs of herself. This reflected a partial liberalization of restrictions on sexual material and nudity in Chinese publications beginning in 2003.