China's rise named decade's most read news story

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - The rise of China as an economic superpower was the most read news story of the past decade, surpassing the Iraq War and the attacks of Sept. 11, according to an analysis by a U.S.-based media tracking group.

The Global Language Monitor, which uses an algorithm to search printed and electronic media and the Internet for trends in word usage, said there was strong interest in the Asian powerhouse, which is the world's third biggest economy.
A dragon used in traditional Chinese dance is seen at a residential community in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, September 13, 2009. he rise of China as an economic superpower was the most read news story of the past decade, surpassing the Iraq War and the attacks of Sept. 11, according to a U.S.-based media tracking group.

"It is with little surprise that its ongoing transformation has topped all other news stories in a decade bespotted by war, economic catastrophe, and natural disasters."

 Well I should hope that one isn't too surprised to hear that China reached the #1 spot, simply due to the fact that next to the search term "terrorism", there probably hasn't been as much of an influx of a type of people into world consciousness as there has been of this decade's entry of the Chinese. While all of these events are ongoing, one can really see tha while wars and terrorist attacks affect a localized population, China's economic rise has delivered a significant impact to many ordinary people's lives.

Another important thing is that when it comes to learning about China, it is doubtful that one could just hope to find all the information one would need on the subject in a single, or even a dozen, articles. It would take quite a lot of research, investigation, fact-checking, and comparison of various analysts opinions to just gain the slightest of understanding of what contemporary China is today on the world stage. This discounts the entire element of required history to learn even a bit of why China where it is today.

Finally, there is the huge cultural element. People are going to want to understand not only what China is and its history, but what the people are about and interested in. To learn this is a vast undertaking that will inspire many people to look into countless articles and even venture into foreign language areas to just get a sense of what 'Chineseness' is and how it is creating local culture and preparing to affect international trends as well. It is with little doubt that the Chinese are going to be sculpting a considerable amount of cultural identity in the coming decades, and people are going to want to understand it so they can be a part of it, and profit from it.

Read the full article here.