I wonder about it too. In the past year or two while the crackdowns on freedom of movement have gotten especially intense, some of my former colleagues have contacted me - mostly to ask for help in finding ways out of the country. There is definitely a "brain trickle" going on, but at the same time it seems there are enough people from the Chinese diaspora being tempted back to balance it out. I don't know if it's the lure of high salaries for "sea turtles" (a pun for "overseas returners") or perhaps appeals to ethnic identity (sif ABCs and CBCs have anything in common with PRC citizens, but what do i know...) but whatever it is, it's not nothing.
At the same time we in the democratic world are victim to our own freedom in some sense. A statistic came out recently saying there are still tens of thousands of Chinese students studying in the US - a big drop from pre-COVID era, but still nothing like the drop that happened in the opposite direction. US students studying in China is now just a couple hundred, down from ten or twenty thousand. So there are far less Americans being exposed to the culture over there - specifically because of the Chinse government's own racially-oriented nationalist policies - and that's only going to create more and more animosity and misunderstanding, i think.
The couple of former Chinese colleagues who aren't trying to leave invited me back to visit "now that you're so close" don't seem to understand just how isolationist their own government is. I can't just visit China on a whim because they canceled my visa when i left. I would need to apply for an entirely new visa just to visit, and i can only do that in Canada, definitely not in Taiwan, which from the Chinese government's perspective is both legally China but somehow also impossible to actually visit from without having previously gotten a mainland China visa in another country. It's Kafka-esque. And then i'd have to quarantine for 7 days anyway, and undergo PCR tests every 48 hours, even if the QR code health apps allow foreigners to register (which when i lived there they didn't). Why would i bother?
I still think that visiting China will become a viable option again, once their zero-COVID policy is over, and before they invade Taiwan. I am sure a lot of people will do it, because there's still a great appeal for tourists seeking a variety of experiences. It's a great country to visit, and as long as you aren't involved in the media or some higher level government or corporate chicanery, the worst the police will do is nose about in your business and then wave you on. It's not like you visit and immediately get thrown in the gulag. So perhaps it's still worth it to do? I would definitely recommend to try find that sweet spot in between post-zero-COVID and pre-2024 (next Taiwan presidential election), though.
At the same time we in the democratic world are victim to our own freedom in some sense. A statistic came out recently saying there are still tens of thousands of Chinese students studying in the US - a big drop from pre-COVID era, but still nothing like the drop that happened in the opposite direction. US students studying in China is now just a couple hundred, down from ten or twenty thousand. So there are far less Americans being exposed to the culture over there - specifically because of the Chinse government's own racially-oriented nationalist policies - and that's only going to create more and more animosity and misunderstanding, i think.
The couple of former Chinese colleagues who aren't trying to leave invited me back to visit "now that you're so close" don't seem to understand just how isolationist their own government is. I can't just visit China on a whim because they canceled my visa when i left. I would need to apply for an entirely new visa just to visit, and i can only do that in Canada, definitely not in Taiwan, which from the Chinese government's perspective is both legally China but somehow also impossible to actually visit from without having previously gotten a mainland China visa in another country. It's Kafka-esque. And then i'd have to quarantine for 7 days anyway, and undergo PCR tests every 48 hours, even if the QR code health apps allow foreigners to register (which when i lived there they didn't). Why would i bother?
I still think that visiting China will become a viable option again, once their zero-COVID policy is over, and before they invade Taiwan. I am sure a lot of people will do it, because there's still a great appeal for tourists seeking a variety of experiences. It's a great country to visit, and as long as you aren't involved in the media or some higher level government or corporate chicanery, the worst the police will do is nose about in your business and then wave you on. It's not like you visit and immediately get thrown in the gulag. So perhaps it's still worth it to do? I would definitely recommend to try find that sweet spot in between post-zero-COVID and pre-2024 (next Taiwan presidential election), though.
Reply
Leave a comment