Dilemma of Chinese Returnee

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During my travel to the Greater China Region, I was often asked the question "Are you a Chinese?"

The question puzzled me as much as it hurt my feeling. Often, a lengthy discussion and healthy debate ensued as to "Who is a Chinese".

In my view, there are four definitions:

1. Chinese Nationals who are citizens of People's Republic of China (PROC). In this definition there are over 1.3 billion of Chinese (as of July 07), and I include the 6 million Hong Kong 'citizens' in this category.


2. Chinese Nationals who are citizens of Republic of China (ROC) a.k.a Taiwan, in this definition there are over 23 million Chinese (as of July 07). This includes a small percentage of aborigines such as the Ali-shan tribal people.


3. The Chinese Diaspora - those who have left both China's and reside elsewhere now. This includes the descendants of those who left China during the Gold rush era to Americas and Australia. According to Wikipedia, there are about 40 million of Chinese in this category.


4. Han Chinese, which is the most common and oldest reference to the Chinese people used in the Western press. The Han 'tribe' is one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the PROC as of May 2007.

By these definitions, I qualify as a Chinese under definitions 3 and 4 even though I have a small percentage of ethnic Thai blood flowing within me.

Invariably, the next question raised during these discussions was "Do you speak Chinese?"

The official Chinese language is Mandarin (as is commonly known to the West) or Putonghua as it is now increasingly referred to. With some exception, this is the language that almost all Chinese understand and can converse in. However, there are some among the Chinese Diaspora who cannot speak this language, particularly those born and residing in Western countries and some parts of South East Asia.

To complicate matters, there are various 'dialects' spoken among the Han Chinese. Those that I have encountered include Fujian (a.k.a. Hokkien, Minan, Taiwanese), Cantonese (spoken widely in Hong Kong and Guangzhou province), Chiuchow (a.k.a. Teochew), Hakka, Hainanese, Hui Chiew, Hock Chiew and Shanghainese. Most if not all of these 'dialects' employ the Mandarin character set in their written form. Apart from this commonality, the dialects are so different as chalk and cheese that I wonder if they were at one point a separate language.

I often wondered if Hong Kong had not return to China in 1997 would the version of Cantonese spoken there evolve into a distinct language? Reading the local newspapers there, I struggle occasionally with the colloqualism that has crept into the written language. The development there reminded me of the existence of the Japanese character set - Kanji and Hiragana - the latter of which can be used without the earlier but yet both co-exist in most written text.

At the height of its power in 87 B.C. the Han Chinese empire included the northern part of Korea, and right up to the 14th century, Koreans were using written Chinese as part of their language. The 'aristocrats' of South Korea today have a Chinese name often given to them at birth and most are proud of it. In essence, during the first century the Korean language could be considered a 'dialect' in much the same way as Fujian is today. By extension, Koreans (at least those in the north) in those early days could have been technically classed as 'Chinese' by the fact they were subjects of the Han Chinese empire. However, through a stroke of historical intervention, Korea's King Shila decided to create a totally new form of the written Korean language - thus Hanggul was born.

Labels: Chinese Returnee, Cultural adaptation, Dilemma, Who is Chinese

Labor Shortage Pushes Mining Companies to Recruit and Pay More
October 2007

Western Australia needs 40,000 skilled labors to maintain its resource boom
October 2007

Labor shortage hits labs in Western Australia
12th October 2007

Labor shortages hit WA shipbuilding industry
22nd September, 2007

NSW caught in worldwide nurse shortage: Minister
14th Oct 2007

The amazing streak of economic growth in Australia continues for another year. In its more than 15 years of continuous growth, the Australian economy is experiencing an unprecedented squeeze on its small labor force.

Meanwhile, Australia’s success in forcing its work force to save for their retirement has created a huge superannuation fund totaling over AUD 1 billion. Some of these funds are invested in high-growth assets and the boom in the Australia’s equity market has created tremendous wealth for the funds, prompting an earlier-than-planned exit from the workforce of the better-off baby boomers.

The low fertility rate of 1.8 children per woman is way below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman.

These two factors have the potential of slowing down of stopping the country’s economy growth as unemployment rate reaches record level, e.g. 2.7% in Western Australia.

In response, the federal government is investigating all options including increasing the number of 457 visas and intake of skilled migrant from English speaking countries in particular.

However, emigrating to a foreign country even one that shares a common heritage of the Commonwealth can often result in a nightmare for some professionals.

I am personally aware of failed emigrants among successful professionals from India and South East Asian countries.

Is there a magic formula that can help alleviate the pain or increase the success rate?

While it is a case of horses for courses, I’d be very interested in your success recipe so that it can be shared with potential migrants.

Labels: Cultural adaptation, Migrant Success, Migrating to Australia

The Chinese economic juggernaut has been one of the miracles of the 21st century. Since its liberation in 1979, the Chinese economy has grown at annual rate of 10% and according to Chip Goodyear - ex-BHP Billiton CEO - is expected to continue at the same rate in the two decades.

Foreign investment is pouring in at an unprecedented rate, fueled by the multinational companies looking for higher return for their capital, and the wealth of the sixty million overseas Chinese eager to be part of the resurging motherland.

A rigorous and transparent business practice of the West is required to maximize the investments by the multinationals. To achieve this, overseas Chinese – those educated in the West but with an assumed capacity to integrate into China - were recruited and returned to China.

These professionals are often decendants of Chinese emigrants - those who left the poverty of their motherland after the Opium war robbed the Central Kingdom of its last vestige of pride and pluged the economy into disarray.

Despite their apparent cultural advantage over non-Chinese expatriates, some found the going tougher than they had anticipated. The degree of success was at best mixed as the following news headline illustrates:

Returning Chinese Find a Tough Market

They have skills and know the culture but face the same hurdles foreigners do. A hotelier learns that the hard way.
By Don Lee, Times Staff Writer, Los Angeles TimesMarch 5, 2006

The article described the frustration of a Chinese American who returned to China in 2003, which was best summed up below:

Since coming here three years ago to start a chain of budget hotels, the 41-year-old Chinese American says he has run into a maze of regulations and permits that, by comparison, makes California look like an easy place to do business. He says that he also has been pressured to pay bribes and that in one city his employees were beaten by thugs.

Instead of capitulating to work with the local system, he stood firm on his western business ethics and bided his time. The result had been a slower than planned growth of his business.His experience is quite typical of the returnees – or Returning Chinese – as I call them. In 1987, he left China to study in the US and stayed to work there after graduation. He had made his fortune in the US and wanted to return to his country of birth to help it grow.

Is his experience typical of the experience of the Chinese Returnee or 'Hai Qui' (sea turtle) as they are sometimes referred to?

I'd like to hear from those in a similar predicament as this Chinese hotelier.

Labels: Chinese Professionals, Chinese Returnee, Dilemma, Who is Chinese