BEIJING, July 10, 2008 -- Yang Ping, the 47-year-old chief of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Zhuzhou city committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in central China's Hunan Province, never expected to get an internet nickname.

But the netizens who interacted with him at a forum on rednet.com recently decided to call him "Classmate Yang Ping". And that wasn't the only thing he had to get used to since he began to use his real name to post articles and comments online in May.

Yang came up with the idea in April, when he saw many netizens' complaints about the local government. The complaints focused on people's daily lives: inconveniences caused by street construction and how they could not get fresh pepper because the street peddlers were driven away.

He thought that he could offer some explanations to ease people's irritation. So he used a fake name to post an entry. But he was immediately criticized by netizens as a "running dog of the government".

Yang was taken aback. But he wondered what would happen if he used his real name.

On the morning of May 14, he saw news about how the secretary of the Hunan provincial committee of the CPC, Zhang Chunxian, had used his name on an internet post wishing netizens a happy new year.

Yang pondered for two hours and asked his secretary to edit a speech that he had made and reports on two cases of corruption he had cracked. He posted the materials on rednet.com using his real name, under the heading "Eight problems in the working style of municipal officials in Zhuzhou."

The article was soon deleted by the forum moderator, with a comment saying: "You must be impersonating Yang Ping."

When Yang's secretary posted the entry again, the moderator deleted it with another comment: "How dare you? We have to expose this imposter."

The secretary had to find the moderator personally, who was surprised to learn that it was really Yang Ping himself behind the posting.

The moderator immediately opened a "backdoor" to Yang and gave him the right to post photos online. Soon, a working photo of Yang, wearing a striped red tie, was posted with some of his articles on rednet.com.

The general moderator of rednet.com also learned of this and decided it must be encouraged. So he granted Yang more posting rights and raised his rank at the forum.

The first night Yang went online under his own name, he was showered with vehement criticism. Someone said he was another Sister Furong, a girl who became famous for her online stunts. Another person said it was just a show. Yang tried to answer the criticism patiently and tried to explain his position on the second, third and fourth nights.

Gradually, people began to accept that this "Yang Ping", who logged on at the same time every night, was really the party official himself.

Some netizens who had been criticizing Yang began to post positive comments. Some even described him as "great".

The articles he has posted are usually at the top of the website, and they are usually the most commented on.

Since May 14, he has posted more than 314 articles. More than 20,000 people have browsed his first article and more than 550 left comments.

Many people wanted him to listen to their complaints. Some of these entries said such things as: "A woman who violated the family planning policy has become the head of local women's federation" or "Para police used violence to drive away peddlers." Others claimed: "A candidate for village chief spent 60,000 yuan (about 8,700 U.S. dollars) to bribe his way to the position of village chief." And another commented on a cement road in a village, terming it "a crappy project."

Yang usually goes online from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. At midnight, some netizens check the chat room, asking: "Is Classmate Yang Ping here?"

People have tried their best to draw Yang's attention to their personal grievances. Some titled their entries "I beg you," "save me," "Yang Ping, please come in," or "Secretary Yang, please have a look."

Some people called Yang "an official with integrity" or a "trouble shooter".

He posted another entry, "Two Requests From Yang Ping," in which he urged netizens not to name the people they were complaining about, if there was no solid evidence for their complaints.

But those who have solid evidence for their complaints were welcome to come to the Discipline Inspection Commission to report to him, Yang said. He also begged people not to "flatter" him.

For Yang, using his real name online is like "standing in the spotlight with a vast darkness offstage." As he put it: "I did not know who threw flowers and who threw bricks at me. I could only stand onstage and smile."

Sometimes, criticism and curses made him so angry he wanted to smash the keyboard. At times, he composed an angry reply. But when he thought of his identity, he lit a cigarette, swallowed his anger and deleted the posting.

He had to think before he answered any comments, and he was afraid of typing mistakes. It sometimes took him more than a dozen minutes to send a few sentences. Some people laughed at him, asking whether he had to draft every entry on paper before he sent it out.

He had to answer speculation by fellow netizens. He posted an article on June 25: "The closest place to Zhongnanhai (a compound in Beijing where the Chinese central authorities are located) is the internet." A netizen immediately replied, interpreting it as an exhibition of the traditional official-centered mentality.

To this comment, he explained that he meant the internet could be a channel to get public opinion by the central government.

Since he used his real name, he felt he was completely exposed online. He had to watch what he said. No bad temper, no curses and always "in earnest".

It was almost as if he was "posing" online, he thought, and sometimes it felt strange. He called this type of chatting "wearing a uniform."

His friends suggested he could "dress casually" from time to time and express his opinions under a pseudonym. He took their advice, sometimes talking back anonymously to those who cursed him. Sometimes he published controversial opinions under a fake name, too.

He said he did not like the photo his secretary chose for him, a 2-inch photo (a large head shot). He would rather have a photo of himself smiling beside a river or on an outdoor trip wearing sunglasses. But he figured that such a casual image might make people doubt if it was really him.

Yang was elected deputy secretary of the Zhuzhou municipal committee of the Communist Youth League of China and president of the city's youth federation when he was 25. At 27, he became the youngest deputy county chief in Hunan. Then he worked as deputy-director of the state-level high-tech development area of Zhuzhou, director of the city's housing bureau and then director and party chief of the high-tech development area.

"Using your real name and photo, don't you worry that people will point out your bad qualities?" asked one netizen.

"The day I decided to use my real name, I was ready for netizens to do a full examination of my history and qualities," Yang said. "I am quite confident about myself."

He said his commission has obtained clues for several corruption cases through online entries.

In the past two months, Yang has received more than 30 complaints by text messages. He handled seven and passed the rest on to the relevant departments for investigations.

"The internet has become my second office," he said.

Some people have called Yang a "special netizen" or "special official," but he said he did not want to be any different from his colleagues.

He said since he used his real name online, almost no one in his office building talked about it with him. But he got some strange looks.

A few good friends joked when they saw him: "Hi, Classmate Yang, you've become really famous now!"

He could feel the pressure accumulating until one day he got some news on his cellphone: President Hu Jintao had interacted with netizens at a forum at people.com on June 20.

"So there is nothing to fear in using my real name online," Yang said, adding that Hu had "sent some political signals" by holding the chat.

Since then, Yang has played his anti-corruption role online every night more enthusiastically and less formally.

He adopted an "electronic baby" at qq.com, a popular chat room. "She has lived for 789 hours so far, and has entered college," he said.

He also planned to provide "chicken soup for the soul" to netizens, in addition to his professional solutions to problems and complaints.

"The first story I want to tell is that how you treat the world and other people will determine the way they treat you," said Yang.