Por Josh Gartner

Como expatriates inundaram em China em anos recentes, bolsos do país desenvolveram uma sensação distintamente colonial. Nas partes as mais trendiest de Shanghai o nightlife é dominado pelos estrangeiros que vivem a experiência semi-Chinesa, muito como alguns Ingleses fizeram em África e em India durante os anos idos perto. Verdadeiro, o colonialism traz para ocupar-se de um imposition militar, algo que falta decidedly de China moderna, mas há nonetheless uma realidade incômoda que seja lisa ver.

Muito foi feito dos swaths enormes da carcaça tradicional que demolished para fazer o quarto para ascensões elevadas em Beijing (e em outra parte), mas quanto daquele é dirigido pelo mercado para carcaça do ocidental-estilo do `do upscale'? O dinheiro grande está sendo pelos investors chineses (muitos de quem começaram empréstimos shady), mas frequentemente os estrangeiros são esses que descascam para fora o yuan para ele. Meu edifício na área de Dongzhimen de Beijing é provavelmente 10-15% extrangeiro, quando o complexo neighboring (e um tanto mais novo) for mais perto de 50 ou de 60%. Justos fora de minha 15a janela do assoalho são os restos de o que era uma vez um hutong maior, mais vibrant (vizinhança tradicional). As fileiras puras das casas single-story sentam-se apenas ao leste, significando que pelo meio-dia ensconced literalmente em nossa sombra. Justo além deles é um bloco dos edifícios do assoalho do comunista-estilo 7 desarrumados com o 拆 do caráter, que porque todos para fora sabe aqui, denota que um edifício estêve escolhido para o demolition.

Mesmo em algumas segundas cidades do tier o domination extrangeiro está ajustando-se dentro para melhor ou mais mau. In Dalian dozens of Japanese companies have established call centers taking advantage of the foreign language skills of local Chinese there as well as the city’s proximity to Japan. Certain neighborhoods are lined with Japanese restaurants that do not even have Chinese menus. Call it economic colonialism if you will.

And that’s just what you could argue is happening in the western half of Sichuan Province’s Chengdu. There are estimated to be more than 100 Fortune 500 companies with offices in the city, including Intel which invested nearly 400 million dollars there in its last round of China-binging (the deal now pales in comparison to its Dalian project). With that increased foreign presence, so too has the selection of bars, restaurants and hotels serving the re-located employees. Once one of the most traditional cities in the country, it now has one of the larger expat communities.

You may well argue that the good coming out of all of these developments far outweighs the negatives. And you would almost certainly be correct. Noted economists like Joseph Stiglitz have been extremely impressed with China’s ability to tweak the free market model to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Yet I am not arguing that FDI is bad, but rather using it to point out a broader overall trend. The inflow of investment, even as it reaches the point of irrational exuberance is undoubtedly a good thing.

The real question I am trying to look at is how well foreigners have integrated into a generally homogenized society (although one that is not nearly as much so as people generally believe). Think about the immigration debates in England, Germany, France and the US. Xenophobes have often cited the reluctance to learn the local language and customs to justify anti-immigrant sentiment.

In China efforts to ‘sinofy’ the foreign population is rarely given a second though. There is little push on either the side of locals or Westerners. Instead, most expat life in China takes place within the confines of familiarity. Even those who have made the effort to learn about the country and its culture often retreat to their own world of comfort, with western DVDs and bars, their Chinese ayis cleaning up after them, and local waiters and waitresses bringing them food.

Does that make us bad people? Certainly not. However the comfortable expat lifestyle in China still clearly hints of colonialism. Certainly it is less overt than what we have seen in years past around the world, and cultural hegemony has still not set in the way some might believe. And yet despite everything that rationally tells me nothing is wrong, there is nonetheless a lingering feeling in my mind that something is not quite right either. Perhaps the real problem is that I am apt to mistake liberal guilt for colonialism.

Josh Gartner, China Expat’s Daily Tea Leaves
ChinaExpat.com, ChinaExpat.com/blog/josh