Returning Turtles

There seem to be a ever greater number of young Chinese; born and raised in the West; that are keen to return to China and to explore opportunity and a permanent future in the country.

Such people are called "Returning Sea Turtles" or just "Returning Turtles" and this process; fuelled by double digit growth in the PRC and relative stagnation in the West, seems only likely to accelerate.

Are any of you guys thinking about doing this or have you actually done it? If so what are the problems and obstacles you have or worry about encountering?

Is it just a dream for you or a plan you want to turn to reality?

I am very interested in hearing what you think or have experienced.

SampanViking said:

Such people are called "Returning Sea Turtles" or just "Returning Turtles" and this process; fuelled by double digit growth in the PRC and relative stagnation in the West, seems only likely to accelerate.

Click to expand...

Sorry man. I think you got the terms wrong. Those people are not called Returning Sea Turtles... they are simply refered to as Sea Turtles.

海龟-same sound as 海归 (which means returning from overseas).

For me... actually I am borned in Singapore and had always like the Chinese history and novels... But to say the truth, I have never think of going to CHina to live and work, for a short vacation, I can live with that, but to have a permanent home - no thank you.

I think it's boil down to personal preference and I am quite used to the Singapore life...

Well I'm from Canada and I've thought of going back to Hong Kong, or work at a Canadian consulate. I think the biggest obstacles include getting used to Hong Kong's busy lifestyle and working culture. Of course this includes social life as well. What I'm referring to also applies even to those who was born and raised in Hong Kong. As long as you've left the place for a few years, when you go back you'll still have to get readjusted to the lifestyle. That's called cultural shock or something. (learned that in organizational behavior. forgotten the terminology already)

And of course for those CBCs,ABCs who's never been to Asia or don't know the language, I think they'd have to start fresh and learn everything they can first, especially learning the language and the culture. That'd be their biggest obstacle. Even if they're Harvard graduate, they are just fresh blood in Asia, where the working culture is known to be unforgiving and throat-cutting.

SampanViking said:

There seem to be a ever greater number of young Chinese; born and raised in the West; that are keen to return to China and to explore opportunity and a permanent future in the country.

Such people are called "Returning Sea Turtles" or just "Returning Turtles" and this process; fuelled by double digit growth in the PRC and relative stagnation in the West, seems only likely to accelerate.

Are any of you guys thinking about doing this or have you actually done it? If so what are the problems and obstacles you have or worry about encountering?

Is it just a dream for you or a plan you want to turn to reality?

I am very interested in hearing what you think or have experienced.

Click to expand...

I would like to go back but as we all know "sea turtles" aren't worth a damn these days. Things are very competitive in China and I don't think I am to fit to hold the sandals of your average Chinese Engineer (who actually got an education in China). All that I am useful for is going to be translating English documents to Chinese and that probably won't be necessary either in a couple of years once the English ed in China really picks up.

My parents are definitely heading back once they retire. As for me I think it really depends on whether I can find job opportunities back in China. I will go back for visit very often though.

Well, my grand-parents were born in China. They left Fujian province for Singapore about a century ago for a better life. My parents and me are born in Singapore, which makes me 2nd generation Singaporean.

I've been to China on a few occassions, for work as well as vacations.

As a vacation destination, the country is fascinating. There are age old buildings next to gleaming, modern skyscapers. And that's just the architecture. The mix of tradition with modernity is also happening with their cuisine, social norms, values, entertainment, etc. And there is a large disparity between different parts of the country, particularly between the booming coastal cities and the inland cities. Their society is grappling with these issues, and so far it has been largely benign. However, I think this has the potential of becoming a source of social tensions.

Which brings me to the issue of working in China. Their work culture is very different and fitting in will be challenging, to say the least. Working for a foreign MNC in China, however, is an entirely different matter. But, in a country of 1.3 billion people, with a large majority going all out in the rat's race, its incredibly competitive. Which is why they are progressing at an amazing rate.

And the implication for living in China is that the pace of life in the large coastal cities is very fast-paced. In that sense, its not too different from living in Singapore. However, the quality of air, the amazingly crowded cities, etc make long term living there a less than attractive prospect.

Thus, it is unlikely that I will contemplate going to live and work in China. I'm quite happy where I am.

I was in Shenzhen working for 9 years in a factory owned by a New Jersey corp. The factory was later sold to Quebeto Canadian.

ABC, CBC, overseas Chineses, Hong Kong Chinese and whatever Chinese, can easily find good pay jobs in foreign owned campanies due to their multi language communication skills, international trade and work practice exposures. Most important is that the foreign boss tend to trust the integrity of non-mainland Chinese, especially those from Hong Kong, may be due to the low corruption in HK.

Local Chinese companies will pay rather low salaries, unless you possess a highly wanted skill that could not easily found in mainland China, do not expect special treatment because there are millions of fresh job seekers leaving college every year.

To return and apply for Chinese citizenship is not that difficult, especially if you still have relatives living in China. However, you have to give up your current country's citizenship.

I like China, especially the fast changing pace of development is simply fantastic, and you feel like you are part of it.

However, at the end I still like my home near a hiily area in Kuala Lumpur, a bit hot but quiet, fresh air, nice breeze lots of convinience. China is still a home to me though, I still like to go there for few months each year.

Thanks this is fascinating stuff especially as Mrs S is starting to pine for HK ever more these days.

Thank you Rhino for the heads up, the difference in terminology its something that I keep running into, so I wonder if this is the difference between translation and interpretation?

Please keep it coming

It is pretty fascinating reading some of the backgrounds on this thread. I seriously didn't know that Icloo and Spartan weren't native born Chinese since you guys were so supportive of China on the forum! You guys put those bananas and my stupid misconceptions to shame !

There was a time when I frequent China a couple of times a year (not anymore now) for work purposes. My stay there was kind of short though... with a maximum of 14 days per trip. And we went there because just before we give any contract to a vendor... they would promise us sky and heaven.

However when we give them something to do... always towards the end of the scheduled time that they are suppose to deliver... something must slip. This is kind of irritating as we have to go there often to straighten up the stuff. Plus... when we are there... things seemed to flow more smoothly... but once we came back to our country... it became problematic again.

Sometime I feel that it is their attitude and not their skill or hardware that is the problem. So as you can see, handling the Chinese is really not an easy thing to do... I too have vendors in Malaysia, doing the same thing as vendors in China. So far those in Malaysia give us things as promised in the contract with minimum or no hiccups at all.

But I do agreed with Seigecrossbow in his assessment of Chinese engineers. They are REALLY good. I have a group of electronic and software designers in Singapore, and whatever given to them... they fail quite miserably... maybe they are not really gear to do things at today's extremely short timeframe and tight schedule. However when I gave almost the same design to my Shanghai and Hefei's team of designers, they could come out with the design in the given time and with minimal hiccups... well... I am very, very impress.

SampanViking said:

Thanks this is fascinating stuff especially as Mrs S is starting to pine for HK ever more these days.

Thank you Rhino for the heads up, the difference in terminology its something that I keep running into, so I wonder if this is the difference between translation and interpretation?

Please keep it coming

Click to expand...

one more funny translation or wording that the Chinese used regarding oversea chinese returning to China.

海带 - 海外归来，在家待业

The true translation for 海带 is a type of seaweed, quite delicious if you ask me. The Chinese used this to refer to those oversea Chinese that had returned to China and was waiting for employment.

Actually there is one more... this one might be a bit offending (don't flame me later)

土鳖 (a type of land turtle - edible)

This term is often used to refer to those Chinese who didn't go overseas to study and graduate from local university. I think it is a term given to them more as a 'revenge' for calling those who returned from overseas as Sea Turtle.