Lyric Hughes Hale

Lyric Hughes Hale is an accomplished China analyst and speaker. Her research focuses on the challenges faced by China as a result of the world economic downturn, Chinese monetary policy, and the role of China in the media. 

A broadly based Asianist, Ms Hale has lived in Teheran, and attended high school in Sendai, Japan as a Rotary exchange student. She studied at Northwestern University and graduated from the University of Chicago, with a degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. She first visited Iran and Russia in 1964, Japan in 1969, and China in 1979. She has traveled to more than 50 countries. Her global network reflects her many interests in the worlds of media, technology, academia, and government policy.

In 1998 Ms Hale founded China Online, a pioneering website for English speakers based upon original Chinese-language sources. China Online was named one of the “Top Ten New Internet Companies” by Inc Magazine, “Top Ten Website” by CNN, and was included in Forbes “Best of the Web” in 1999 and 2000. Ms Hale was included as one of the “25 Women of Small Business” by FORTUNE Magazine in 2001 for her visionary efforts utilizing new communications technologies to cross national boundaries and meet the growing need for information about the Chinese market.

Ms Hale and her husband are the editors of the most comprehensive volume on the global economy available today. The book, “What’s Next?” to be published by Yale University Press in May 2011, presents up-to-date research on Russia, Australia, Europe, sub-Saharan and South Africa, the major Asian economies, North America, and the largest economies of Latin America. With unsurpassed expertise, the authors explain what's going on in individual countries, how important current global issues will impact them, and what economic scenarios they most likely will face in upcoming years.

Born in Denver, Colorado she now lives in the Chicago area. She and her husband have a combined total of five children and a grandchild, ranging in ages from 26 to 4 years old. Personal interests include figure skating, Japanese art, and the music her children listen to. She is a life-long student of linguistics and foreign languages, and has studied Japanese, French, Farsi, Russian, Chinese, Italian and German.