My China Kanfa.....China on My Mind

I cannot sit here with a straight face and profess to know what Trump will do.    President Trump that is, as regards China.   China on anything and everything. We now have a Secretary of State that has proclaimed China’s possession, armament and simple militarization of islands as illegal.   China of course calls the above nothing more than defense.    Regardless of how it all turns out, History will show that China grew not Strong, but Bold on Obama’s Watch.    This Trump fellow is something to look at.   There he is folks, a President actually doing what he said he would do, one executive order after another(learn the phrase, tremble with each swirl of the hand).    Methinks Trump is simply high on emotion.   High on the fact he won despite perhaps his own internal disbelief.   But as I’m sure even Trump understands, the devil is in the details and it is the quagmire of turning commands and orders and edict...

(I'd like to ask you to write a post for 20-somethings who start their career in China or for other age brackets as well. Below I send you two links to some articles (one is from 2015 and another from 2008. You could also compare the data with any "china salary report". I'd be really curious to hear your say about this topic. http://www.chinalawblog.com/ 2008/12/young_educated_and_ bilingual_a.html https://www.linkedin.com/ pulse/why-expats-china- endangered-species-r%C3%A9my- cimadomo ) First of all, thank you for the reader request.   My apologies for having taken this long to reply. I can sum this up in one medium length sentence: “Going to China is still worth it, but you need to speak Mandarin and have a skillset built up over time.” While it helps to have a skillset that foreign companies appreciate, all the same one should do what one wishes to do in life, and not what market demand dictates.   Be happy with what you do, Future China Expert...

One wintry day in Hangzhou I decided I needed a haircut.    I walked behind the dorm, past the pile of coal dust to what apparently was the campus barber.   My cut was rather cheap.    I think it was 5 yuan.   But having lived long enough in China, and coming from a society that just doesn’t brag about how cheap haircuts are, I simply sauntered back to my dorm room.   Upon reaching the top of the stairs I came to our gentlemanly “gate keeper”.    He who ensured our guests were all signed in.   As well as responsible for our comings and goings. Unlike my previous year in Guangzhou, where I was constantly trying to sneak my girlfriends in without having to sign away their educational future, there was nothing of the sort like this in Hangzhou.   I was already in love with a local girl and though we must have had close to twenty or so male laowai students on that campus not a one had a Chinese lover.    No one to...