Never in history has a country experienced such fast development as China has in recent times. In merely 20 years, China has grown from an unknown country to the "awoken dragon" or “the next superpower” predicted by Sinologists.
Many westerners, including North Americans, were overwhelmed by a psychological and memory gap "created" by the western media. The superpower seemed to come from nowhere! For those who flip through newspapers and TV channels daily, over the past two decades they heard almost nothing but poverty, cheap labor or tyranny concerning this half-a-world-away country. How come it all-of-a-sudden out-of-the-blue became a superpower-to-be?
This is not to blame the reporters or the anchormen. In the media world, it's well known that "Dog bites man" is not as newsworthy as "man bites dog." That's why over 80% of what we heard over news is about war, crime, poverty and disaster. The same was true about the reports on China. How many people would be interested to know the steady economic growth every year in a huge Asian country? And who cares that China not only survived the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis but also played an important role to stop it from further rippling? By contrast, Japan might have been more under the spotlight of western media because 1) it's more familiar to westerners, and 2) Japan, although not affected much by the crisis, was going through its own long-term economic difficulties.
Yet, the fact is China's economy has been steadily developing at a high speed over the last 20 years, but only after a painful decade of inside-out reconstruction. Today, with GDP growing consistently around 10% each year (see chart)and hitting US$2.68 trillion in 2006, an overview of almost any of China's economic sectors becomes out of date before the proverbial ink dries. That means any books about China's economy become outdated by the time it's published. To westerners, who often lack access to China's media or the language capability to understand what is really going on in China, the Internet seems to be the only high-speed medium that can keep up with China's the super-fast development.
To prove our point, here is another important change going on in China you might not be aware at all. To those of you who would be surprised to see a NOT "Made in China" tag attached to the items you purchase from Wal-Mart or other 
department stores, you might think everybody has outsourced their production to China due to its cheap labor. Well, you are only half right. Nowadays, realizing China has gradually become one of the world's largest consumer markets, including luxury goods and services, many Fortune 500 companies have established their sales and marketing forces in China, not just their manufacturing divisions.
We are not here to idealize China or anything close. China certainly has its own many challenges ahead of the road, including an over-heating economy, a growing labor shortage (amazing for a country of 1.3 billion pairs of hands), appreciation pressure on the currency, an imbalanced industry structure, rife corruption in the government, an over-sized population and shocking wealth disparity. What we are here to do is to help westerners communicate with Chinese, familiarize the local business environment, go through culture shock, and overcome various barriers when dealing with the country and its people.
So, who are we and what we are going to do? We, a westerner who has lived and studied China in depth for more than seven years and a Chinese who has lived and worked in North America for seven years (plus another three working with westerners in China), are going to help you understand China with an unbiased and balanced view. From culture to economy to politics, from major cities to rural areas, from "lao bai xing" ("average Joe" in Chinese) to government officials, we can tell you about the real China with real stories, real studies and real pictures. We have the resource, both in China and western countries, to prepare special reports, including digests of the most recent research on China, that will open your eyes to China, enhance your China knowledge and enrich your China experience.
Special reports on specific topics can be put together as fast as in one to two weeks, a speed only bested by newspaper and the Internet. But they are more in-depth and comprehensive than most articles people can find in the fast media. Therefore, the reports are synchronized with China's development. What we need from you is your participation. Why not tell us about your experience with China: what you liked the most, what frustrated you the most, and what you'd like to understand better. We'll do our best to help you.
You have the desire to explore an amazing market, and we have the passion to connect people, not only business people, in both China and North America, and beyond. It's important. It might be the basis of understanding, and (who knows?) even peace between two peace-loving peoples. In any case, the time is beyond ripe to do so.
Top photo caption: The emblem of China's former-emperors is a lion with its paw on the globe symbolizing the anciently-held belief that he was the ruler of the world, a view that has begun to reassert itself in the minds of many as China reemerges on the world stage as a major economic power, political and military.
Bottom photo caption: A documentary film by CBC Television in partnership with US and European media networks: Go into the heart of a country that's experiencing the most remarkable transformation in the history of the planet, as the oldest civilization on earth becomes the world's dominant superpower. China will host the world at the 2008 Olympics, and is already affecting almost every country on the globe.
