Illegal Immigrants in China - Part Two: A Historical Perspective.

China, with a population of over 1.3 billion, has initiated a 100 day crackdown on its nearly 20,000 illegal immigrants. Foreigners have been stopped on the streets and forced to show their passports and residence permits on the spot. Local authorities have performed surprise visa inspections at places of employment. Violators have been detained and fined. Some would say these are harsh actions to be taken by a country with such a burgeoning population and such an insignificant number of illegal immigrants.

Many believe that the current situation is the result of a British tourist assaulting a Chinese woman, the video of which went viral here in China. While many question or deny the connection between an assault perpetrated by a tourist holding a VALID visa and current attempts to rid China of illegal immigrants, a look at China's history would explain why just one act of violence could spur such a harsh backlash towards all of China's foreign nationals.

A superficial look at China would reveal a country that has historically valued well established boundaries. Physical boundaries such as the great wall and walls that encircle entire cities have been erected to keep out invaders. As far back as Confucius, social boundaries have been erected to establish roles to protect families and communities, and even the country itself. Some would argue that this is a particularly Confucian value. China closed itself off from the world behind a shield of political boundaries after a succession of foreign invaders raped its women, stole its national treasures, and took over ports and cities... not to mention managed to hook a significant portion of China's population on opium in order to level out a trade imbalance. Anyone who believes that those wounds have healed underestimates China's enormous sense of pride.

Since the invasions that crippled China, there has been intermittent sentiment that traditional values left the country weak and open to aggression. Many, such as Chairman Mao encouraged complete abandon of traditional ways of thinking. However, China's defense mechanism of establishing boundaries has held fast. The most controversial boundary that China has in place now is the Great Firewall.

Yes, one man perpetrated one crime. Another crime against the Chinese people at the hands of a foreign aggressor. Chinese officials claim that the crackdown was already in place before this crime was committed. It may have been, but with the Chinese already always on the defensive, is it any big surprise that China is protecting itself in the way it knows best... by attempting to shut out foreigners?

Illegal Immigrants in China - Part One: The Need for Immigration Reform.

I'd like to start with a disclaimer. I'm an English teacher in China, and much of this article is in reference to the situation as it relates to a large percent of China's foreign workforce... English teachers. Those who are here working for large corporations doing business as such do not have trouble obtaining valid working visas.

Here's the situation. Only the Z visa comes with a legal work permit. A Z visa can only be sponsored by an individual employer. Working, even part time, on any other visa is illegal in China. Many of the foreigners I know teaching English here in Beijing are working on an F visa, which is technically for those here on business, doing research, or attending conferences. The F visa does not permit a foreign citizen to work in China.

Recently, China has been raiding schools, detaining teachers, and denying attempts to renew F visas. There's debate about what prompted the current crackdown on "illegal immigrants". I think there are multiple reasons for this. I'll discuss one in this article. YES, many foreign nationals ARE working under the wrong visa. It IS a problem, the impact of which is not under debate here, however, it is one prompting the need for immigration reform not punishment and exile for "illegal immigrants".  

The media here in China often places blame on what I would call expatriates, not immigrants, casting them as greedy westerners who are out to cheat the government, getting paid under the table by working on the wrong visa. In reality, many foreigners lust after the coveted Z visa and would prefer it over other visas that require leaving the country as often as once a month. Several barriers exist, however, making it difficult for willing foreigners to obtain the proper visa.

I myself have only been offered a Z visa once in my four years in China. My previous employer confessed that they don't even have the proper license to employ foreign nationals. Without this license, a company can not sponsor a work visa. Such licenses are expensive and difficult to obtain for entrepreneurs without the proper connections and extra cash to "grease the wheels". The demand for English schools in China is so great, they're popping up everywhere to meet that need, but with barriers so high that employers are discouraged from following proper channels in obtaining legal licensure.

The job market is flooded with teaching jobs that, in Beijing, pay between $25 USD and $45 USD an hour! A quick glance at the local classifieds shows that only 1 out of 5 employers are offering to sponsor Z visas. Just this week I was offered a job by an agent who told me that the offer did not include sponsorship of a proper visa and was contingent on the fact that "we" be careful and lay low because "they" are cracking down workers with F visas.

Most employers are up front about offering jobs to F visa holders. Others prey on ignorance. I remember when I decided to come to China, I spent hours online looking for the best school. I chose one that offered to provide me with a visa. At the time, I trusted the company to supply me with what I needed to work here legally. I had no knowledge of the nuances between visas and was glad that someone else had offered to do all the work!  It was only after I arrived and my school was raided by the police (and several colleagues were caught and fined) that I even thought to question the validity of my visa. This happens in Beijing all the time. What's worse than being intentionally misled is that when the police show up, the employers are often given a choice between claiming responsibility and paying the fine themselves or giving up their employees and allowing them to pay the consequences instead, with no further action being taken upon the school itself. Just last month, a friend of mine was detained for two days because his company sold him out.

Does the abundance of available jobs being offered to F visa holders excuse the fact many expatriates are working illegally? No it doesn't. However, the existing job market makes it tempting to take the risk. I think China should recognize the demand for English teachers and respond accordingly by making it easier for willing and qualified individuals to obtain a suitable visa for working instead of hunting violators down like violent criminals. The proper licensure should be made more readily accessible to entrepreneurs instead of favoring those with government connections. Finally, school owners who refuse to offer Z visas and continue to employ workers with F visas should be held accountable and have to shoulder some of the consequences for their actions.

Now that we got that settled... let's get back to this crackdown. YES, foreigners are violating the law. That's bad. I get it. But I've been hearing the media and even people on the street vilifying "illegal immigrants" and worse, foreigners in general. With a mere 20,000 violators in a country with a population of what??? 1.3 billion? The numbers are staggering. So why is this such a big deal? Why now? Next... Illegal Immigrants in China - Part Two: A Historical Perspective.

LOVE in the Butt?

While catching up on Fringe the other day, I paused and an ad for this new movie popped up.

In a case of poor font selection, filmgoers flock to theaters and are disappointed with both the lack of backdoor action and nudity in this interestingly titled flick... LOVE in the Buff.

While cruising the classifieds...

Has "googling" become so synonymous with searching that we can do this now?

Courtesy: http://www.thebeijinger.com/

What's the difference between Chinese and Western Dragons?

Lucky Number 666

I'm not religious, but the number 666 still makes me do a double take when I see or hear it... which is quite often now that I live in China. It's everywhere. People pay extra money to have a phone number ending in 666. I've even seen a fair share of vanity plates sporting the number too.

Well, it turns out that Chinese people like the way the number is pronounced. To the Chinese, the number liu 六， sounds our words zip! or zoom! or something of the like. It has lent itself to the popular Chinese saying liu liu da shun 六六大顺 which literally means "6 6 big lucky" but carries the connotation of "zipping right along" or "easy going"... or as my favorite student likes to say "easy peasy lemon squeezy".  It essentially means that things are gonna go your way. As for the triple sixes? When it comes to lucky numbers, the more the better!

Last week, I asked Jason how much money to give his sister for Spring Festival and without thinking he said, "Six hundred and sixty six, of course." Just yesterday, my roommate came home with a gift of the same amount.

So what's up with gifts of 666 RMB? Interestingly, six is the first significant lucky number. (Numbers 0-5 aren't really auspicious.) With that being said, you can't give 66 RMB. That won't even buy you a pizza. 6,666 RMB is more than a month's rent so 666 wins out as the cheapest yet meaningful amount for gifting. Other popular amounts are 888 and 999. We'll get to those numbers another day!

Son of a Dragon

Jason and I both admit that we're bad at saving money. What can I say, we're both Capricorns and appreciate spending our money on expensive stuff when we can. However, right now we're tightening our beltloops in a push to move to the states before we get hit by another sweltering Beijing summer.

So what could a good Capricorn propose we do to help save money? Jason jokingly suggested that I let him buy me one of these.

He's a Pixiu (pea-show), the dragon's ninth son. He has a big mouth (and consequently, no anus) so he can gobble up and store as much silver and gold as he can get his greedy paws on. You can sometimes find statues of him in front of Chinese banks and other businesses.

The Chinese often wear jade Pixiu as lucky charms to draw in wealth. We've decided to save money the old fashioned way, by not spending it, but I did appreciate becoming acquainted with yet another of China's interesting mythical beasts.

Cool Funerals?

The most intriguing part of my holiday this year was a glimpse of Chinese funeral traditions. My mom's aunt died on the first day of Spring Festival. We went to her village on the 4th day for a feast.

In the hustle bustle of Spring Festival feasts and parties, everyone forgot to tell me that there was a death in the family. I just thought we were going to my uncle's house to visit. When we got out of the car, there was a guy outside the village with scraps of white sheet tied around his legs and waist. He also had one scrap fashioned into a hat. When we got to the entrance of the village, he got on his hands and knees and bowed to us... similar to how Muslims pray to Mecca. I assumed he was Chinese Muslim and was following some cultural rite for the new year. (Jason later told me it was his mother that died.)

When we got in the courtyard though, everyone in my family was dressed the same way and they were passing out bundles of white cloth to my mom and her sisters as we walked in the door. I'm like, ok honey, what's going on here? Jason says that in China, white is the color of mourning. Village people are normally poor laborers and the bits of sheet are a substitute for white garments. In city funerals, you would likely see people dressed in nice white clothes.

After chatting a bit and drinking some tea, we all moved outside to the courtyard for the feast. I noticed something colorful around the corner and dragged Jason behind me for an explanation. Chinese pinatas???

There were life sized paper machet horses, bulls, and lions. The alley was lined with nearly a dozen of these giant beauties!  Jason said the people in the picture will be servants to help in the afterlife. And that wasn't all, he said that over the span of the day, they would bring in colorful life-sized versions of EVERYTHING you would want in the afterlife... including a refrigerator, TV, and microwave. All this stuff cost about $500 USD and will be paraded out to the field on the day of the funeral and burned to be received by the person on the other side.

I wish I had gotten to see it all. I really wanted to go to the funeral but didn't dare ask. Most of my Chinese family thinks I'm weird enough already.

Tricycle Debacle

Two days ago. I was in a tricycle wreck. Jason always told me not to take tricycles to work because they weren't safe. I should have listened.

I was about a block away from work when it happened. We had stopped for a second because the woman in the VW in front of us had stopped. All of a sudden, WHAM, tricycle sandwich. The Honda hits us and we hit the VW.

Everyone gets out and starts yelling. I'm in the back of the tricycle crying and people off the street are crowding around the tricycle looking in at me like I'm a panda in the zoo.

I pulled myself together and called my boss and my hubbs. To make a long story short... We stood out in the cold for two hours as various authorities came and went. At some point the old lady in the VW yelled at me for being dumb enough to ride in a tricycle then she slipped away quietly before the traffic cops arrived. The cops confiscated the guy's tricycle because he was providing taxi services without a permit. Then they yelled at me for riding in a tricycle. We exchanged insurance and contact information. Hondaman got a ticket.

Then things got super interesting. Tricycles have no back bumper so Hondaman technically ran his car straight into my backside. I wanted to go to the hospital to check things out... just in case. Conveniently enough, Hondaman's wife worked at the hospital around the corner and could get us right in to see the doctor. Even better, Hondaman wanted to drive us there! And my husband saw nothing wrong with either! Only in China.

Once at the hospital, the doctor asked me what I wanted him to do. He said I looked fine and if I had any type of serious injury I'd be feeling dizzy. A car crash veteran, I politely asked for x-rays and muscle relaxers. He had to look up muscle relaxer in the computer and apologized saying there's no such thing in China. I was scolded by three different nurses for riding a tricycle. Jason was scolded twice for not teaching me better.

I'm sore, but I'm alive, and from the way everyone talks about tricycle accidents, I'm lucky at that.

The moral of this story... DON'T RIDE IN THE BACK OF A TRICYCLE.

It's so cold your ears will fall off!

Spring Festival begins in less than a week, but today I would like to introduce you to a lesser known Chinese festival - Dongzhi ("Dong" has a long o and "zhi" sounds like the Ger in German.)

The celebration of Dongzhi has its roots in Taoism. It coincides with the winter solstice and is a sacred turning point when the cold and dark elements of yin give way to the brightness and warmth of yang. In the north it also signals the coming of the six coldest weeks of winter.

On this day in Beijing, people get together and eat jiaozi - Chinese dumplings. In the south, where its warmer, people snack on tang yuan... sticky rice balls often filled with sweet black sesame paste. It's a really yummy treat!

Curiosity #6:
I've always been told, "If you don't eat jiaozi on Dongzhi, your ears will fall off." What's up with that? Well, jiaozi look like ears and it really does get cold enough in Beijing to make you think your ears will fall off! The story goes: A physician during the Han Dynasty noticed that some poor people were suffering from frostbite on their ears. He made a special soup of hot dumplings and gave it to the poor to help them warm their bodies. I guess it was some really good soup! Now, nearly 2,000 years later, we still eat dumplings on this day.

Jiaozi are tastier than ear muffs, I'll bite!

Hello Kitty

Ever seen this little guy up on the counter at your local China Wok Supreme Buffet?

He belongs to a special category of curiosities I call "NOT CHINESE". You wouldn't know that though, as he prowls the countertops of restaurants in both China and America. He is actually popular throughout Asia. This money snatching kitty from Japan is thought to bring luck and fortune. His name is Maneki Neko "The Beckoning Cat" and you can read more about him here.

I propose a toast!

In China, alcohol often flows freely during business parties, and toasting your superiors properly can be serious business.

Curiosity #4:
If you want to impress your boss, make sure your glass is lower than his when toasting. Here's how it works: So we all know what it means to save face. In China, it's just as important to give face too. Lowering your glass shows that you recognize your position in the organizational hierarchy and that you respect your superiors. Westerners naturally tend to raise their glasses higher, unknowingly giving the Chinese an impression of arrogance. In more casual situations, individuals may compete to have the lowest glass until the glasses touch the table or sometimes even the floor.

Cheers!

The bob haircut is not a Chinese fad.

So what's going on? An interestingly large proportion of young Chinese girls have really short, androgynous hair. I first assumed that, like school uniforms, it was a parent's way of enforcing the idea that they are students and not fashion icons.

A couple of years ago, my Chinese friend Debra told me that parents often shave their toddler's heads in the summer because it's cooler and it will make their hair grow back thicker and more beautiful. Even though that technically only covered three year olds in the summertime... I was content with that theory until last month.

So my 8 year old student Linda had the longest, THICKEST hair. Last month she came in with a haircut that can only be interpreted as a punishment. Of course, because I'm a westerner with an underdeveloped sense of face, I blurted out, "What happened to your hair?"

Curiosity #3:
Why do Chinese girls have such short hair? Here's the truth: Linda said, "My mom cut it off because long hair isn't healthy." I asked around about what that really meant. I've discovered that many parents believe that long hair takes more nutrients from the body, specifically the brain. Mothers will cut their daughter's hair in hopes of making them smarter.

I knew it had something to do with school!

"I can see by the way that you hold your chopsticks...

that you'd make a great wife."

No, it's not a Chinese pick-up line. But someone did say that to me once.

There are many taboos and superstitions regarding chopsticks, from how you hold them to where you stick them. I've learned two variations of an old wives tale that connect chopstick etiquette to mate selection.

Curiosity #2:
How you hold your chopsticks illustrates what kind of spouse you will be. Here's how it works: So, a chopstick has two ends. The fat end is the tail and the skinny end is the head. The traditional belief is that if you hold your chopsticks close to the tail, you will marry someone from far away. Inversely, if you hold them near the head, you will marry someone from nearby. My friend Julia believes that the closer you hold your chopsticks to the head, the warmer you will be to your spouse. Well, since I married someone from across the globe, I can't vouch for the accuracy of the traditional wives tale. But if you ask my husband, he'd say that Julia is spot-on!

So, what do your chopsticks say about you?

Giving Birth to a Two Year Old?

It's my birthday so I thought I'd relate a personal story on the topic.

Not long after getting engaged, a discussion with some friends led to the shocking discovery that my fiance Jason was two, yes TWO, years younger than he said he was. How could that be? His answer: he was born two years old and didn't think anything of it.

Curiosity #1:
In China, you can almost give birth to a two year old. Here's how it works: You spend nine months in momma's belly, so when you're born you're technically already a year old. Many Chinese people, especially older people and those from the countryside like my husband, only celebrate their birthday during the Chinese New Year. So, if you're a winter baby like my hubbs and your birthday falls right before Chinese New Year, you can be celebrating your second birthday in the SAME week you were born.

Does that mean double the cake?

Cultural Curiosities

Chinese culture is as deep and rich as its 5000+ year history. It's intriguing and at times seems confusing, contradictory, and impenetrable. Drawn in by China's unique philosophies, I scraped the surface as a Religious Studies major in college. I've gotten my feet wet over the past three years living and working in Beijing. And last year, I opened the floodgates when I married into a Chinese family from a rural village outside of Beijing... which is about the closest an outsider can get to a VIP pass into the strange and exciting world of Chinese customs and traditions.

Despite the fact that my hubby is Chinese and offers a great deal of cultural input and support, I still don't "get" the deep significance of the Beijing Opera. I haven't memorized the dynasties or unraveled the secrets of Confucianism. What I do have is a Chinese family with a big heart. Arising from that and three years of life in China, is a wellspring of cultural curiosities that I'd like to share with you... Recipes, home-remedies, superstitions, customs, traditions, and the like.

Enjoy!