CONVENIO DE INTERCAMBIO DE INFORMACIÓN

5.4.1 Social Interactions within the University Settings

One of the most important factors that had shaped Western expatriate teachers‘ life styles in China was the localities of their social interactions. Most of the respondents in my sample had been living on or around university campuses. This was partly because the universities offered the option of arranging nearby apartments for newly arrived expatriate teachers, and partly because of their tight work schedules that required close residencies. It was reported that most teachers had to teach 12 to 16 hours a week and basically spend the rest of the time preparing for those lectures. Living on or around the campus was considered highly convenient for their work. Their daily interactions, therefore, had mostly been with colleagues and students within this educational environment. It was further noted that the university campus was an enclosed self-contained and self-sufficient environment that provided everything from food to leisure facilities, which made them less likely to interact with people from the outside. The professional locality of university campuses and the immediate vicinities had thus become the major base for their social interactions.

It is believed here that a linguistic factor is underpinning the formation of their social interactions in China. The majority of the population on university campuses is able to at least understand English, and very likely to communicate in English. This suggests that there is a certain level of comfort in social and professional interactions on university campuses; while on the outside, the situation can be quite difficult as the general level of English language abilities of the people is generally much lower. One British teache r

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commented on how difficult it was outside of the university:

(Before I came) I got the impression from friends that in China nobody spoke English, which is probably true once you are out of this little educational environment, or if they are not university students. So outside of this area, you cannot speak English. The other thing is nothing is written in English, as a matter of fact.

(Nick, October 2011)

However, it was considered rewarding on the other hand to live in the local Chinese communities away from campuses with social interactions being predominantly with local Chinese people who understood little English. One teacher had lived in Harbin (northeast part of China closed to Russia) when he first arrived in China, he described the experiences he had in an environment where little English was spoken:

Where I was first based (Harbin), literally just outside the door, there were lots of different little markets selling things, lots of tiny little restaurants. You know, you go in and you HAVE to speak Chinese. They didn‘t speak any English; they spoke some Russian. You know, it was good just speaking to people, making friends, and also bargaining… going out and buying your vegetables and food, unsuccessfully sometimes. But it‘s good. It‘s part of the culture, isn‘t it?

(Adam, October 2011)

He continued to comment that the current environment of a self-contained, self-sufficient campus had made it much easier to live in but lost the essence of experiencing a different country. It was indicated that his identity as laowai was not as prominent on campus as outside of the campus; on his university campus, people were quite familiar and used to interacting with foreign people. They were thus not necessarily a population that would stand out; whereas when he was based in Harbin, because he was living off campus and there were much fewer foreigners in general, the local people would be curious to them and actually take the time to talk to them, most often very patiently, because foreigners were quite a distinct social group there. These previous experiences had given him a rather deeper insight into the local cultures. This suggests that the locality of social life potentially had a significant impact on cross-cultural experiences.

5.4.2 Three Example Categories of Expatriates’ Life Style

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There were three different types of expatriate life styles revealed in my sample. It has to be noted that this categorisation did not only come from Western expatriate teachers when talking about themselves, but also from comments based on respondents‘ observations of other expatriates‘ social lives. There were, however, no clear boundaries between each group; characteristics that were displayed by one group were not necessarily exclusive but rather likely to be shared amongst other groups. This is best seen as three interconnected categories along a spectrum rather than three distinct types. What defines these groups was their particularistic social relation with Chinese people and the ways in which they actively formed their cultural identities in China in general.

5.4.2.1 Outsider

Type I is what I term as the Outsider. On this side of the spectrum, Western expatriates often did not have much interest in learning the Chinese language. In terms of cultural experiences, they tended to look at Chinese cultures from a tourist‘s perspective. Most of such Western expatriates would ask their Chinese friends or colleagues to write down certain notes in Chinese exhaustively for practical purposes. For example, they would ask their Chinese friends to write the names or specific addresses of their destinations so that they were able to show them directly to the taxi drivers without the need to communicate; in restaurants or supermarkets, they would have different notes written down in Chinese of the names of specific food they would want to order, or they would go particularly to restaurants with menus presented with pictures of the actual dishes so that all they had to do was to point their fingers. In one word, the Outsider had minimal encounters with Chinese people; they had little initiative to learn the Chinese language, or to communicate with the majority of the population who did not quite understand English, or try to better understand China. One teacher commented on how he considered such Western expatriates in China:

Their social life generally revolves around going to restaurants and bars, which cater for the expatriate population, and you tend to call them smokers and drinkers, because their life revolves around restaurants and bars.

(James, October 2011)

These expatriates often lived in the ‗foreigner bubble‘ where all their social activities were based on shared native language and cultural background. They had spent the least effort to

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try to adapt to the local environment; their social interactions were most likely confined within their original cultural groups, and their contact with Chinese people had been the most limited. This thus indicates that they separated themselves and were separated from the Chinese society. Such expatriates often tended to blame the host country for the difficulties they encountered. A British teacher narrated the extreme case he had met:

Every year from here, two or three people leave because they just can‘t live in China. They blame China for it of course. But it‘s about how much they are willing to give to China. They were quite happy being the foreigner; they didn‘t want to join in. It‘s quite sad though.

(Ian, October 2011)

5.4.2.2 Chinese-Westerner

On the opposite side of the spectrum is what I term as the Chinese—Westerner. This was the smallest group amongst all. Such Western expatriates had often been in China for a relatively long time (at least 5 five years, some for over 10 years), and had extensive knowledge of the country. To most Chinese people, they were barely foreign and almost Chinese. The most important feature of them was that they were all in long-term relationships with Chinese partners, whether married or not. The relationships were a major factor that had kept them in China. These particular respondents noted that as an intermediary, their partners were of significant help for them to better understand local rituals, customs and social institutions as well as to establish close contacts with a large number of Chinese people. It has to be noted nonetheless that not all Western expatriates who had long-term Chinese partners were in this category.

Another significant feature was that most of them barely spoke English outside of work; they were able to function quite well as a Chinese person. One teacher narrated a lively story of his own experience in the local grocery market where he fluently spoke Chinese with a Chinese seller:

Yesterday was hilarious. I was doing a little bike riding to get some stuff at the market, I stopped to talk to this woman and she wasn‘t really looking up. She was talking to me and then she looked up and was really shocked. She said ‗You are not Chinese!‘ I said ‗No, I‘m not‘. She said ‗Oh, I heard a bit of accent but you are just speaking so fluently‘.

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(Alex, October 2011)

The Chinese-Westerner had been the most willing to learn Chinese language and customs, and more importantly they had the initiative to put it into practice and made efforts to adapt to the local Chinese contexts. Certainly they kept frequent contact with people who shared their cultural background, but they had spent much more time with their Chinese partner, friends and family. For this group of Western expatriate teachers, the identity of ‗laowai‘ was the least prominent. One British teacher narrated his long-term experiences with the local football team and described the ways in which his identity shifted through this period:

When I first came, I played in a football team where everyone was Chinese. It was good for my Chinese because I learnt all the football phrases in Chinese. Three years later, we had a party and there were some new players coming in. They asked ‗who‘s the one over there?‘ And I was introduced as the goalkeeper rather than ‗Oh, this is Ian, the foreigner‘. You know, I was one of the team! It was a great moment for me! I was like ‗wow! I‘m not the foreigner any more. I‘m the goalkeeper‘.

(Ian, October 2011)

As discussed previously, the identity as Laowai was the most prominent one for them, this narrative reveals that after a long period of interactions with the local environment of China, it was quite possible for the Western expatriates to establish close contact with local Chinese people, and more importantly for their identity as ‗laowai‘ to take less prominence while their socio-cultural identity as an equal individual in China to become more significant. This was much more likely to occur within this group.

5.4.2.3 Adapter

The Outsider and Chinese-Westerner reflect the extreme ends of the spectrum; anyone who fell in between is what I term as the Adapter, and it was the largest group amongst the three. Such Western expatriates presented certain characteristics from both Outsider and

Chinese-Westerner. They certainly had interests in the host cultures and were willing to

learn the language, understanding rituals and customs, and were keen to extend their Chinese social circles. However, the process of learning and adapting had been slow. They were nonetheless able to manage their life in China quite easily on their own, but lacked

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the initiative and commitment to further adapt to the local cultural environment.