Expatriates in China: expectations Vs experience

20 07 2009

Experimento de OerstedI have recently published:

These two letters are part of a psychological experiment. I would make a comparison between the two letters in order to make some conclusion about the expectations of those who come to China and their experience when they depart. This is an interesting experiment because it was not intended to do like this when I wrote the letters.

Topics of letter N1. (before China in 2006)

  • China as an exotic country
  • China as an ultra-modern country
  • China as a huge country
  • China as a an impressive culture
  • China as a fast changing country

Topics of letter N2. (after China in 2009)

  • China deep in my heart
  • Unforgettable experience in China
  • Now more familiar with China culture
  • China helped me to challenge my own assumptions

Interpretation of the topics

The letter I wrote before coming to China reflects most of the stereotypes foreigners have about China. This means that at that time (2006), I did not really know China very well. I do think that, like me, most expatriates make the mistkae to identify China with the image of it that we get in the media. By the way, one of the stereotypes that was not in my email was “China as an evil dictatorship”. This topic deserves another post that I will try to write in the future. (But I have some posts about democracy in Hong Kong: post 1, post 2)

The letter I wrote after coming to China does not have any stereotype at all. The theme of the letter is that China helped me to see things from a very different point of view and now I am familiar with that, feel China deep in my heart and care about it. This was my experience and many colleagues agree with me. I think this is probably also the experience of most expatriates.

Result of the experiment

Expatriates expectations about China are mainly related to stereotypes; expatriates experience is more connected to personal development.

Image: This image of Oersed’s belongs to the Universidad de Oviedo


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Expectations before arriving to China

19 07 2009

The other day I published the farewell email I sent to my colleagues in China. After publishing that, I read again my farewell email from France, which I wrote to my colleagues in France before coming to Asia. (You will notice that farewell emails is a genre I particularly cherish because I think that the last impression is the most important one and most times is not the last but the “second last” time)

While my farewell email from Asia focused on my experience in China, the farewell from France focused on my expectations about China. Later in another post I will make a comparison between the two letters and, above all, between the expectations of those who come to China and their experience when they depart.  This will be just an psychological exercise.

France and ChinaAu revoir L’Europe

… comme disait Herbert Groenemaier, “les jours étaient comptés et il n’en reste aucun”. Quelques-uns en restent mais mon étape parisienne est en train de s’éteindre comme celle en Allemagne s’était épuisée auparavant.

A partir du mois de Mai, le destin m’amène au “Port Parfumé”, à l’extrême Est de la route de l’opium, à l’ancien bijou de la couronne Britannique, au Hub commercial et financier le plus libéral du monde, à la ville la plus cosmopolite de l’Asie, à celle qui était la seule porte de la Chine jusqu’à 1978 … A Hong Kong, je serai chargé de l’évolution de l’architecture informatique dans toute la zone Asie-Pacifique (Chine, Japon, Corée, Thaïlande, Nouvelle Zélande et Australie) chez un important groupe Français.

Je ne peux ni rater la métamorphose de la Chine, ni reporter encore plus longtemps la conquête du pays-continent qui commence sur l’île de Hong Kong. Rien ne m’avait jamais fait sentir aussi humble que la culture imposante de ce pays infini. La dernière fois que j’ai été en Chine, je suis parti en larmes ; maintenant je rentre pour y rester.

Mon expérience à France Télécom R&D a été très positive : dès mes premiers pas en tant que stagiaire jusqu’à la création du projet coopératif [...] avec l’Union Européenne en passant par le projet [...] et notamment par les expérimentations à [...]. Je suis très heureux d’avoir travaillé avec vous et je souhaiterais que nos chemins se croisent un jour prochain.

Vagabond de patrie en patrie, je ne m’enfuis de personne mais je me cherche moi-même. Très bientôt à Hong Kong, les jours commenceront à être comptés encore une fois mais le moment arrivera ou il n’en restera aucun et le vent me soufflera ailleurs.

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China for the Chinese?

26 05 2009

Chinese Terracota“American for the Americans” was the slogan of the Monroe doctrine, which basically said that Europeans should not interfere in American politics… Replace “America” with “China”, “Europeans” with “Expatriates” and “Politics” with “Business” and you will get what I want to discuss today.

I would like to discuss about the role and the opportunities of expatriates in China. Is China only for the Chinese? What can expatriates contribute with doing business in China? How will the situation change in the foreseeable future?

From my point of view, the knowledge of a foreign culture and, in particular the language, is the main asset an expatriate can contribute to China. The second asset is the knowledge of the company culture of the mother company of a firm established in China.

A local Chinese manager is not only cheaper but more productive and understands better the local environment than a foreigner. On the other hand, a local Chinese that has graduated from a top university  in America or Europe, may have as high managerial qualifications as a foreigner. As a result, a good Chinese manager may be prepared for both local and global business, while a foreign manager is unlikely (but not impossible) to be productive in local business in China. I know all generalizations are a big lie. But as an expatriate, with a good command of Mandarin, I really feel much less effective in China than local Chinese, when it comes to local business.

It is not only that foreigners feel at disadvantage in local business, even overseas Chinese do sometimes feel like that. I have several Overseas Chinese friends, who speak perfect Mandarin, but they still tell me that they also feel certain disadvantage when competing with local Chinese. The reason is that their way of thinking is absolutely different from a local Chinese (here I have a post in which I describe Chinese working culture according to me experience).

There are currently many expatriates in China, but in many companies thy are already being replaced by local managers, who are cheaper and more effective. This is the normal process, however. When a company first gets established in one country, it usually needs to rely on expatriates, because setting up operations requires somebody who knows the company very well and because companies getting established in a new country do not usually know local managers in which they trust. After some years in the country, operations will be more stable and they company would have had time to establish local contacts and train local managers to take on the local subsidiary in the future. This is a very sensible HR strategy for internationalizing a company: expatriates first, locals later. As a result of this, we can say that the future of foreign companies in China will depend more and more on Chinese managers and less on expatriates.

Being an expatriate is not doubt very profitable and also a wonderful intercultural experience. But there is one disadvantage from an career development point of view. It is very difficult for Expatriates to change jobs. Expatriates usually have much higher salaries than local, but it is very difficult for them to find another job if they want to change. This means that many expatriates are usually blocked inside  their companies. And the reason is obviously that expatriates are much more expensive nad much less effective when it comes to local business.

IMy opinion is that a foreigner in China can contribute in:

  • Interfacing between headquarters abroad and operations/sourcing in China. This is what usually expatriates do most in China, and this is what I was doing in China. I think in the future there will continue to be opportunities in this area for expatriates.
  • Working in sales for Chinese companies that want to become international. This is a relatively new phenomenon. Chinese companies want to sell abroad but Chinese salesmen are usually not fluent in the culture of some foreign countries and will probably not be very successful. Chinese students have traditionally gone to study to Anglo-Saxon countries. As a result, it is much easier to find Chinese salesmen who speak English and understand the culture in the US, UK or Canada, than to find Chinese salesmen who speak French, Spanish, German, Italian or Russian. Now many students go non-English speaking countries and this is going to change very soon. In the meantime there will be great opportunities for foreigners here.


Image: the image belongs to me. It is a fake terracota warrior I saw in a Hong Kong restaurant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine

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