As I prepare to return to Canada for a bit this summer some of you might be wondering if I’ve now made Beijing my home. The truth is that Beijing is home for now, but no, beyond work, I don’t think this city is a place I’d call home just yet. Most folks I’ve met or heard of around here usually stayed for about five years before going back or moving somewhere elsewhere. There are a few, usually married or in some sort of long-term relationship (often with a Chinese woman), that stayed longer, but I’d place that number at about 1 out of 10 people who come through here. In others words, it’s certainly not common.
So why isn’t Beijing home?
First, being an expat has some drawdowns. Namely, you see many people come and go all the time and so it’s not uncommon to meet someone, strike up a friendship (or whatever) and then wave them goodbye as they move away the next semester. Further to the point, those conversations with people are often dominated by work or by travel, the former is because you often work together or have similar work experiences, the latter because we get these long vacations and it seems silly not to get out of Beijing when you can. And that’s the key, everyone seems to want to get out of Beijing if they don’t have to be there.
Following closely behind that point, if you ask others what they think about Beijing, their typical response is “people everywhere”. And it’s true. Beijing is a city of some 23 million people of whom only a third (I guess that’s only 8 million) actually call Beijing home because they were born in the city while many others are classified as “migrant workers”, including yours truly. People come to Beijing to work, not live.
And that leads to my plans for the future. Originally I came to China with the idea that I’d try it out for a year or two (similar to what I thought about South Korea before moving there) but, once here, I quickly changed my mind to three or four or, gasssspp…. five years before I would start planning my next move. That being the case, my next kinda-plan is looking toward the Middle East, but there’s no guarantee and no real planning going on just yet. (Why the Middle East? The important thing is to know that Middle Eastern universities often required teachers with 3 to 5 years of post-certification experience before they’ll consider your application.)
Furthermore, I’m given quite a bit of freedom with what and how I teach. I do follow a few textbooks (I have a few posts coming up on what I actually do here, but if you want to have a peek, you can find out here) but, other than that, I’m free to supplement my classes with whatever I deem necessary and important for the students. That may include seemingly non-academic topics (dating, money, planning a trip, living abroad, etc.) in addition to job and research skills. So, overall, it’s not a bad place to be.
In regard to living conditions, travelling has spoiled me in that living outside of Canada I’m so used to not understanding everything around me and having a rather restricted friend circle of friends that going back to Canada seems almost too crowded. There are times that I wonder why I’m in Beijing but the thought doesn’t linger too long. Although I’m in Beijing, in China, in the Far East, it all seems pretty normal to me now, or at least not as strange.
Finally, for all the talk about China’s government and how they do this or that or whatever other thing, China, the country and its people, seem to be pretty free to do as they please. The thought struck me the other day that China is sort of opposite the United States: In the US, you can say whatever you like but you can’t do whatever you like, whereas in China you can do whatever you like but you can’t say whatever you like. I realize that’s an oversimplification but it kinda fits as far as I can see.
Anyway, summer plans are being made and I will return to Canada for a few weeks to visit family and friends. But come September, it’s back to Beijing for at least another year. And I’m okay with that.