China Law Blog

The China Observer blog has been up for about two months now and I have already become a regular reader. The blog is written by Joel Backaler, who describes himself as follows:

Joel Backaler (周乐达) first traveled to Beijing in 2001 and has since returned to the capital city where he works as the only non-Chinese analyst for a leading multinational IT and management consulting firm. Joel has accumulated over six years of China market experience through positions in venture capital, new media entrepreneurship, independent consulting and research.

Joel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and East Asian Studies from Connecticut College. He was awarded the prestigious U.S. State Department sponsored Fulbright Fellowship to work and study in Taiwan. Upon completion of his Fulbright grant Joel studied under the academic year program at the Stanford/IUP Center intensive language training program hosted by Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

Joel is a native English speaker. He speaks, reads and writes fluent Mandarin Chinese; and is conversationally fluent in Spanish.

Joel is using his blog to chronicle what he is seeing in China, which is "the next big thing":

China is the next big thing.”

Every visit home, friends and family all make the same observation: “You’re in the right place. China is the next big thing.”

When asked why, most offer anecdotal evidence about China’s rapid economic growth and the outsourcing of American jobs. They just don’t get it.

Back in Beijing, I am surrounded by many friends and colleagues, both expat and Chinese, who do get it. Like me, these dynamic and diverse professionals live in China and understand the language, culture, and business environment. Innovators write blogs about the latest happenings, emerging businesses and all aspects of China’s ongoing transformation. Silicon Hutong, China Digital Watch, and China Law Blog are just a few of my favorites.

What is missing, however, is a bridge connecting these two groups (what I define as Outside Observers and Inside Observers). Someone to take key local observations from within China and share them with the greater global community. The China Observer Blog presents readers with the essential information on companies you need to know, best business practices and cultural factors that drive the Chinese marketplace. Only through analysis of these factors can one begin to truly understand why and how the focus of the global economy has shifted away from the U.S. and other traditionally “strong” economies.

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The ultimate goal of The China Observer Blog is to educate and offer readers a source of current and comprehensive information about the business world in China. My aim is to be an educator across borders and cultures. In today’s business world, if you don’t know about what is happening on the ground in China, then you will inevitably be left behind.

Yes, I agree: China really is “the next big thing.” I don’t feel this way because of what I have heard from the mass media, or because of the stories I’ve been told by friends impressed by China’s dramatic growth. I base my opinion on first hand observations made while living here in China. The China Observer Blog presents these local observations to you and gives you the opportunity to see what today’s China is really all about.

Despite Joel's gargantuan ambitions for his blog (ah, youth), of which I do not believe any one blog can achieve, the blog does fill a very nice niche. Many of the posts start with Joel's observing a China business or industry, then explaining how that industry works in China and what we can expect of it in the future. He does this with China's online gaming industry, China's plastic surgery industry, and China's beauty products industry, among others. To complement his industry observations, Joel also throws in an occasional post on what I would call the cultural ramifications of technology in China.

I urge all readers to check out The China Observer.