‘Maybe I shouldn’t have left China,’ Gao wondered aloud to me one day, with a sense of loss in his eyes. The recession has left him unemployed for more than seven months.
Charming and athletic, Gao was once considered in China to be among the lucky few. It was no secret that without qualifications or obvious talents, he was parachuted into a state media corporation because of his father’s position. His inherited good fortune seemed to be completed in the early 1990s when he got a passport to study English in Sydney. This was a ticket to heaven, a privilege that for almost the next ten years was reserved either to those fortunate enough to be awarded government grants or those, like him, with overseas connections. It was also understood that the people who seized this chance would never return to their native land.
After nearly twenty years living abroad, Gao was made redundant in his adopted country. Middle-aged and with two sons in private schools, he decided to try his luck back in China. A senior international tax consultant, he was confident of getting a handsome offer in his native country.
Yet despite the many interviews, the offers never materialised. And now he was broke.
Meanwhile, his younger brother, who has enjoyed none of his overseas training or experience, seems to have everything he could dream of. He is a CEO of one of the largest state-owned international trading companies and his property portfolio is such that his family of three have difficulties in deciding which one of them is their main residence.
Even though his father retired years ago, he is spending his time between a city apartment and a country house.
Only Gao, once the crowning glory of his family and the envy of his peers, hasn’t a clue where his future lies.
His experience epitomises the dramatic reversal of fortune that has occurred in the last two decades between those who have acquired overseas experience and their once envious peers who stayed behind. Indeed, while the former might be envied for their fluent English or international qualifications, it is for the most part the latter who are calling the shots in today’s China. And with the Chinese economy continuing to lead the field, more and more of the latter are enjoying the sort of lifestyle that is punctuated by frequent overseas holidays.
The other day, I heard from my fellow overseas Chinese that those back in our native land have a saying about us: ‘They may speak mightily but they spend humbly’. We are now, indeed, the poor relations. Our overseas passports might still be coveted, but our wallets certainly aren’t.
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