I have been reading your blog for a while. I gather you had a rough time in China. I have been here for over two years now and on the days when I am not willing to accept it for what it is, I have a rough time too. The best days are when I just let it wash over me and accept that, like so many things in the world, I cannot change the way 1.3 billion people think. Sometimes I rant and rave but, as my Chinese boyfriend has wisely pointed out on a few occasions: "No one gives a shit but you. You are only upsetting yourself." Of course he cares, but it is never my intention to upset him, simply to trash the way his country works (oops, error in thinking alert). Richard, I hope you are happier back home. I have met many expats in China who claim that they simply cannot stand it. But they never leave. I am glad you had the common sense to bow out. That being said, you should really drop let it go, whatever IT is.
Fair comment but I do wince at the word 'expat'. I have never felt like an 'expat' in my life - I think it implies a determination to see yourself first and foremost as a foreigner in whatever foreign setting you've chosen, and to encourage others to see you in the same way, along with a constant hankering for 'home' - and when I thik of expats, I think of rugby-playing English people who crave Sky Sports and and other, for me, very boring and exclusive aspects of 'our' culture. A think a very large proportion of teachers in China regard themselves as 'expats', which I suppose is natural given that it is very difficult there to avoid your foreignness being seen as the unique interesting thing about you - after all, it is the only reason people are able to go and live there.
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