I Be Pimpin’ For The China Law Blog
November 29th, 2007
Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson at the China Law Blog have been good supporters of our program and students. They are also kind enough to allow me to cannibalize items from their blog into our blog to promote student learning. They are smart, they work hard, they are successful, they have common sense, and they are also practical realists. In short, they are damn good and ethical business lawyers who understand China, business and provide outstanding value to their clients.
Now it’s time for some quid pro quo Guanxi.
Dan and Steve’s blog is up for a best law blog award with the American Bar Association, but they need our votes to win.
Click HERE and vote for their blog.
They are running neck and neck with the Patent Law blog. And if a friggin’ patent law blog can win a professional popularity contest like this, I may give up on the human race and become a monk.
Guanxi, baby. You gotta give it, to get it.
Entry Filed under: China, Pre-Departure
7 Comments Add your own
1. Simone Michel | November 29th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
they got my vote. It’s really a great blog! Very informative and has brought me many new interesting insights.
2. Eric Kvilhaug | December 2nd, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Got my vote, good reading and finding someone to support a school is getting harder to find when there are no ulterior motives at work.
And besides, after taking a patent law class they can’t win, talk about a snooze fest.
3. Lonnie | December 3rd, 2007 at 8:34 am
China Lawn Blog? I don’t even have a yard….
And Eric I called your patent law teach and got him to re-grade your final…
4. Pierre Michael | December 4th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
From the latest post on the China Law blog:
“…only those who have lived in China forever should be writing on China” -Paul Midler
I think this is a somewhat high standard but I can see this person’s argument. If you aren’t from or live in China then when you write about it you are simply speculating, copying, or making obvious observations.
This post compares the writing styles of two journalists who often write about China. Paul Midler is of the view that only experts that live in China, or people who have always lived in China should write on the subject. James Fallows is a newcomer and admits it but is a good writer. People criticize Fallows saying that his posts might as well have been titled “James Fallows Looks Out His Airplane Window.” Harsh. Although his posts seem cursory and “…read like letters sent home by a foreign exchange student,” they and others like them provide insight to millions of westerners who have never set foot in Asia.
The author posted this final question:
“I want to hear about China from more than just those with Doctorates, MBAs or JDs who have been there forever. What about you?”
I have to say that…both audiences exist. Both types of journalists also need to exist, one to cater to each. Those who know nothing about China will need the James Fallows of the world to provide an introduction, while the heavy hitters who need harder facts and are already dealing with business in China will have to rely on a more technical source for news.
http://www.chinahearsay.com/?p=383
Interesting observations at the bottom.
5. Chris Carr | December 4th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Midler is being a gadfly.
There is no such thing as a China expert, in my view. Be very, very suspect of anyone who holds themselves out as one. Any reasonable, humble, open-minded local or expat who lives there will tell you that. One of my friends, who is Chinese, was born and raised, and still lives in China, and who I consider to be one of the wisest, smartest and most decent people I have ever met, says that even he does not fully know or understand China anymore — it has too many faces and changes too darn fast.
We are all running as fast as we can trying to keep up with what is happening there and understand it. Enjoy the ride and don’t worry about what you know or don’t know re: China as you head into this.
Fallows is a really, really good writer. Maybe that’s what Midler is subconsciously bitter about. For example, I never really “got” Macau until I read a piece by Fallows in the Atlantic, “Macua’s Big Gamble.” A really, really good article.
Dan Harris is right. The purported old China hands do not have a monopoly on China knowledge. A number of them love to attack China newcomers because they view them as “fresh meat.” Maybe their mommy and daddy did not love them enough as a kid.
There’s lots of room for China newcomers to contribute new things, ideas and perspectives.
And it goes both ways. Remember Alex de Tocqeuville’s, Democracy in America? He was a Frenchman, whose first visit visit to America nearly 150 years ago resulted in this book, that even today, is and remains the best description I have ever read of who and what America is. The dude was a genius.
6. Idetrorce | December 15th, 2007 at 9:56 am
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
7. Chris Carr | December 15th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Idetrorce,
Because _________?
Hard to dialogue if you don’t list the reason(s).
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