Being only part chinese, I can tell you unless you are full han chinese, you will have a hard time on the mainland, regardless of how much chinese/mandarin you know.

Edit: Im not going to share personal stories, I dont want my relatives there to suffer for anything that gets reported back.

I heard the other side of the story that ABCs could have a hard time in China, because they look just like full han Chinese, but when people find out you are not really "Chinese Chinese", attitudes/expectations/behaviors change.

Edit: I guess I should say "attitudes/expectations/behaviors change, for the better or worse"

This doesn't seem super true in my opinion, but I could be wrong. I think that a lot of native Chinese actually lower their expectations around ABCs and are pretty interested in asking questions about American culture.

I think what you said just confirmed my point: Is "Lower their expectations" necessarily a good thing? Especially when we are talking about under a professional environment. "He's really an American, he doesn't really understand how to be a good manager for a team of native Chinese" doesn't sound like an advantage to me.

I can attest to this.

Unless you are a 6 foot plus black guy with a wicked three point shot... do not go to China to make your fortune if you are not Chinese. Go to China to ASSIST someone ELSE in making a fortune instead. You'll be a good deal more successful.

Well, unless you are dashan maybe, but even he went back to Canada eventually.

i am completely ignorant of why you said this. care to expound on why you'd have trouble?

Do you have any enlightening stories to share?

Eh, if you think there is a bamboo ceiling in SV, there is a corresponding foreigner ceiling that is much lower in china. Most of us who worked in china shuffle out after 2 or 3 years, long timers beyond 5 years are rare.

Given the habits of the Chinese government, do you think Chinese software and information services will be popular outside of China?

I think that's a little unfair to characterize the Chinese government as uniquely nefarious. NSA's Prism gives the US Gov't free reign over troves of information held by US based software and information services companies.

I didn't set up any kind of false choice. It's possible that Western Europe, for instance, decides to stay away from both.

> I think that's a little unfair to characterize the Chinese government as uniquely nefarious

It's not at all. We can still criticize the US government for their actions.

You actually couldn't do that in China.

They do not need to be popular. They can just buy shares or even fusion with their EU/US counterparts.

The problem is we are too damn stupid to realize that we cant allow chinese protectionism anymore

I'm not. I want no part of living under totalitarianism.