Job Discussion Forums

[voodikon]

call me jaded, call me bitter, but i'd guess your girlfriend and you are going to be on very different trips--especially if you're staying for an indefinite period of time. (i have known the odd young couple here and there who have decided to come to china just for a a semester or two with definite plans of returning after that time who tended to remain quite insular, not interacting with the outside world much, who the following doesn't apply to.)

this is particularly true due not only to your difference in gender but also visibly different race/culture. whether or not you guys survive as a couple will be up to you (plural), but i gotta say, after three years here i've seen enough that i think chances are good you'll develop a ... wandering eye, or other body part(s).

[voodikon]

upon further reflection of your situation, in terms of applying for jobs, i wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea for you to submit the initial applications and then once they've accepted you, bring up the fact that there's actually two of you, one of whom has a master's in education. schools often have more than one position open for english teachers. also with a master's in education she should possibly be able to get a higher position than teacher, especially if she can speak mandarin and has some work experience and is self-starting--once you find those employers who overlook the whole non-white-face issue.

when i was applying three years ago with my then-boyfriend (he, vietnamese-american with a master's in english; me, mixed chinese/white american with a bachelor's in english--both with teaching experience), it was a lot more difficult than it's ever subsequently been, applying on my own, to find a satisfactory position. (most people do not know i'm part asian upon looking at me, nor does my name belie that fact.) at the time i thought it was due to lack of qualifications, but now that i see all these fresh-grad (or even non-degree-holding) white boys running around with Y10,000/month jobs, i guess it was something else.

anyway, interracial couples are pretty commonplace. they're just usually between a local and a foreigner rather than two foreigners. of the full-blooded asian foreigners (most have been male) i've known they tended to date locals, other than one girl, who always went for white north americans and was constantly getting her heart broken.

[william wallace]

nil

[SnoopBot]

[China.Pete]

Marital status is not all that relevant if you are both foreigners. Visitors, partners, all are usually welcome in employer-supplied housing. The marriage certificate really only becomes important if your partner is a Chinese national. Then, the rules can change.

I agree with TW, who has had first-hand experience, about the potential for discrimination against Chinese-foreigners. Nevertheless, your whiteness and the chance to get a "two-fer" may just about trump the Asian partner's perceived deficiencies as a marketing ploy.

But I still think your partner could have the rougher time of it. Locals are apt to be much harder on her--perhaps unconsciously expecting a higher level of language proficiency or showing less tolerance for cultural faux pas. Also, she may initially tend to view their differences in a more critical light.

[voodikon]

@SnoopBot: to be sure, i wasn't intending to imply that ALL "white boys" have a free ride or are taking advantage of the system.

[Bethverde]

Geez, I hope the cynics on here didn't scare this poor couple off teaching in China....

My boyfriend is half-Asian and I am Caucasian. We are both native English speakers. We've been teaching in Guangdong Province for about a year, and traveling everywhere else in China that we can. People stare at me more than they stare at him in rural places; in urban places (Beijing, Guangzhou,) nobody bats an eye. I'd say for your interracial couples, people are used to seeing a white guy with an Asian girl than they are seeing a white girl with an Asian guy, so maybe we get some stares because of that.

We taught in Europe for three years and received far more unfriendly glances as an interracial couple there than we have in China.

My boyfriend does have the burden of expectancy; usually when we go into a situation where Chinese must be spoken, they look to him first. But that's not to say that people are rude to him or unpleasant when they find out he's not a native Chinese speaker. He does sometimes ask me to wait around the corner while he bargains for stuff in the market; he generally can secure a better price with gentler bargaining; I as a visible foreigner must bargain harder and speak as much Chinese as possible to get the same prices.

People also often ask where he's from, but they'd ask him that even if he was white. They tell him "oh, you look Chinese" after he says "Australia" and he tells them something about his grandmother being Chinese or something and then they nod happily and the day goes on.


When we were applying for work in China we sent both our resumes and information with a single cover letter signed by us both. The letter brought up the fact that he "looks" Asian because we also had to submit photos with the letter and resumes and there was no point avoiding the issue. It was good that we did too, as there were several schools that wrote back and said they only wanted "natural English speakers," meaning white-face only. This left us with a bitter taste in our mouth but we were happy that we found out about it in the first step of the hiring process and not after we'd put more work into interviewing, etc.
Who wants to work for someone who's racist anyway? There are so many English schools in China you can rest assured that with your credentials and a laid-back attitude you can get a job at a different school.

The other issue that I think was brought up by the other posters is the wife/girlfriend issue. No one has ever even questioned our relationship. They all assume we're married, and we never correct it. (The school knows; we share a two-bedroom apartment and all is fine) People just ask when we'll have kids, or why we don't already. Whatever.

Moving to China is hard on any couple; a lot more interpersonal stress than we've had previously in our three year relationship, but I'd say we're much closer than ever before and I wouldn't have changed anything.

I hope you come to China and I hope you enjoy it.

[voodikon]

^that was a nice post. i'm interested in hearing more about the experiences of other mixed chinese living/working in china.

[peepertice]

[btkong]

Interesting info about mixed people in China. I haven't taught English in China yet (I'm going to Shanghai to teach english/study mandarin next year), but I've been to China twice the past year. I am always keen to hear how our lives will be in China.

I'll share a bit of my experience in China.

I myself am mixed (dad is 3rd generation Canadian chinese, mom caucasian).

In my experiences, I found the locales would stare and stare excessively. The first time, I went with my white looking relatives. I got more stares than my blond haired, blue eyed uncle, which was surprising.

My second time (last week), I went with a half Japaneses, half Korean friend. I thought that since he didn't really look "Chinese" people would treat him like a foreigner, but people always expected him to speak mandarin. In fact, I was surprised to find that when I was with him a good portion of Chinese people would speak to me in Chinese!

This could be because I was traveling with an Asian looking friend, so maybe they thought I was Chinese, albeit a different looking Chinese, too; it also could have been the fact that I always tried to speak mandarin (well, I was pretty much forced to speak what little mandarin I knew. I went to China on a photo tour and signed up with a domestic Chinese tour group that spoke no English!) Regardless, people still continued to stare at me.

I've been to about 15 cities in China and this has been the case in most cities; by far the worst was Beijing and Huangzhou, though most have been pretty bad. I have to say that it's really starting to make me uncomfortable when I go to China. I suppose it's something I will just have to get used to.

In Shanghai some of the people at least pretended not to stare at least until I would pass them on the street, then they would do a double take. Chinese people were not racist to me by any means, but their fawning attention I find annoying to the extreme. And whenever I would go shopping, a group of giggling girls would usually harass me.

From what I understood (I have been studying mandarin in University, so I can understand some things and make basic conversations, though I can probably speak as well as a 2 year old...), these people have never seen anyone mixed before. They seemed positively elated and as soon as I tell them in my broken mandarin that my dad was Chinese, start proclaiming me a "zhongguo ren"

For the most part, I try to ignore this unwanted attention. I'm hoping when I do go to Shanghai, I will blend in somewhat, but considering my past two experiences in China, I'm not optimistic.

[Mei Sheng]

Wonderful Beth.

If it comes to it, keep them up!!

Yunqi

[Lorean]

[chaseed]

Is it just me or all of you seeing too many,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,???

Go to Shanghai and have a great time.. Do not ask others just learn yourself. They don't bite...