To Live and Die in Beijing: The China Expat Narrative

There’s an interesting debate going on among the expat community in China these days. The conversation is focused on the merits of living in this country and its ebb and flow is a great example of how people in small communities (there are only about 250,000 expats in Beijing & Shanghai combined) speak with themselves and how trends evolve and change as a result.

Back in August of 2012, a longtime expat with a great story (and friends in the media) opined in an essay, “You’ll Never be Chinese,” that he was leaving China because he was fed up with, among other things, economic roadblocks put up in front of foreigners here.

It bounced around the expat social media sphere and got mentioned by Western media outlets (it even got some traction in Chinese media), causing quite a stir.

More blog posts popped up. It seemed as if somebody had spoken about a dirty little secret, but now that word was out others felt safe coming forward with their reasons for leaving. Over on Lost Laowai, writer GabrielC titled his piece, “On the ‘Exodus of Expats from China’” and in it he lamented that people seemed to be giving up on China as a place where they could achieve their goals, even though it still has many great qualities:

It also seems to me that many long-term expats in China become so frustrated with their surroundings that they are no longer able to recognize some of the perks of life in China, for instance the fact that Chinese cities remain eminently safe to walk around in late at night, in contrast to many other cities around the world.

Then, in January, the Air Quality Index in Beijing, which measures the amount of pollutants in the air, reached well over 700. Some surrounding areas even reported measurements of near 1,000. For reference, anything over 100 is deemed as “unhealthy”, while anything over 25 is seen as unacceptable by the World Health Organization.

Almost overnight the exiting expats seemed vindicated. It felt as if more and more people were tweeting and blogging about how the record pollution levels of the winter were the final straw. They were packing their things and heading for greener (or less gray) pastures.

The story had new legs and the media ate it up. Instead of covering a regular cycle of exit lambasts, there was now a narrative that readers around the world could relate to: It’s dirtier in China than in the (developed) West, so all of the people who have been flocking there to take advantage of the endless economic opportunities there were now heading home.

The problem with this narrative? It wasn’t true. Not by a long shot.

Sure, people were leaving, but more still were coming. In droves. Shanghai’s expat population alone jumped 6.7% in 2012, just when all of the media hype about people leaving was gaining steam. If anything, being able to call yourself a “China Expat” was becoming less of a special thing, as Tea Leaf Nation lamented in February:

China’s expat population has grown every year since 2000… [Expats] are less and less a novelty. Once upon a time, they were asked to pose for photos wherever they went. While this is still true in most areas, they are now hardly given a second glance in the trendier areas of big cities. With more of them around, expats have been demystified – and more opportunities for interaction have perhaps led local Chinese to a startling revelation: that many foreigners are poor students, or are struggling to make ends meet, while China’s middle class is only growing more and more wealthy.

More and more, the voice of people who were choosing to live in China – and loving it – started to come to the fore. There were backlash blog posts and podcasts. And with stagnating employment numbers in the West, the media could not ignore the draw of an economy that is growing at rates around 7% and still needs foreign help.

The most effecting arguments, however, have come from some innovative teams who have put their words into action and produced some very memorable media to try to explain their decision to stay.

In March there was this tribute to Xi’an:

And just this week a new video went viral among expats. Set to Jay Z’s “Empire State of Mind” it is a touching love letter to Beijing:

The discussion has come full circle. Within the space of a single year the story has gone from one of expats leaving in droves, to more than ever coming and loving it here. This blogger will keep reading intently to see what twists and turns the narrative has in store next.