China Option: A Guide for Millennials: How to work, play, and find success in China - Softcover

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A few months after her twenty-first birthday and shortly after graduating with an unmarketable degree in modern European history, Sophia Erickson was waiting tables in rural Massachusetts and contemplating years of student loan servitude. After a chance email exchange with an old friend, she bought a one-way ticket to Beijing. The China Option explores her experiences in China over the following two years as she learned to maneuver around Asia, went through various jobs in Beijing, and discovered the rich rewards China offers those willing to take the plunge. Her work experience in China ranged from teaching at China’s top-ranked Tsinghua University to working for a drone company to judging a talent show on China’s national broadcasting channel. She also traveled extensively throughout Asia and learned the ins-and-outs of finding happiness and fulfillment in China. An honors graduate of Oxford University and Phillips Academy, Sophia now lives and works in the Middle East.

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INTRODUCTION

Tired of the divisive politics of the United States, scared of getting shot on your way to the super market? You want to escape, but Canada is too boring and Mexico is too dangerous.

Is it ennui? You’re approaching quarter life and tired of the same old faces, same old bars, same old routines. You’re stuck in a dead end job with a boss you hate and you feel vaguely cheated, slowly discovering society lied when it told you you were special and your future bright.

Or is it a sense of adventure? A desire to see the world? Life’s too short to spend in a country where exotic cuisine is swapping in your white bread for whole wheat.

Maybe you want to learn Chinese. Maybe you have a passion for calligraphy, kung fu, tea, pandas, the Great Wall. Maybe you’ve been reading in the news that China is the up and rising superpower, Asia is the future, and you want to cash in on that.

Maybe you like Chinese girls. Maybe you feel suffocated by your tons of student debt. Maybe you’re just bored. The possibilities are endless. But something made you pick up this book. You want out.

The good news is you’re not alone. Out is in. Every year, thousands of young foreigners just like you flock to Asia to teach English and drink cheap alcohol and take weekend trips to Thailand. And because you’re not alone, the path has been paved for you. China is no longer the mysterious, forbidden kingdom of lore- so let me explain how to make your China dream come true.

FINANCIAL INCENTIVES

Ask almost anyone if they like to travel, and they will say, “Of course I would― if I had enough money.” If they won the lottery they would travel, but otherwise it’s just not feasible. Traveling is seen as the privilege of the elite, like a country club membership or a Lamborghini―duh, everyone would like one of those, but who can afford it?

Since money is the great stumbling block on the path to our dreams of becoming carefree gypsies, let’s start by addressing the financial reasons why it makes sense to move to China.

First, let’s make a straightforward comparison in terms of earning power in the U.S. versus in China. Let’s look at the profile of the average Tim who moves to China: a twenty-four year old young graduate with a humanities degree from a mid-ranked university. According to 2014 data from U.S. Census Bureau, Tim could expect to earn an annual salary between USD 25,000 to 27,000 in the U.S.

If Tim moves to China and becomes an English teacher, he can expect to make between RMB 12,000-15,000 a month in China. In terms of USD, that’s about USD 1,800-2,250 per month, which will add up to around USD 21,600 to 27,000 annually. This doesn’t include the extra benefits he will receive as part of his job package―either free housing or an extra housing allowance of around RMB 2,000 per month.

Tim’s gross earning power is about the same, if not slightly lower, in China as it is in the United States.

Now let’s compare cost of living in the U.S. and in China (with the important caveat that there are wide disparities between different cities in both countries):

Gross Income (Salary): 13,500 RMB

Rent: 2500 RMB

Utilities (electricity, gas, water): 200 RMB

Phone & Internet: 300 RMB

Food: 1500 RMB

Remaining Disposable Income: 9,000 RMB (USD 1,350)

If Tim had stayed in the US, would he be able to save USD1,350 every month while paying rent and living a nice lifestyle?

A SOLUTION FOR STUDENT LOANS

America is facing a student loans crisis. In 2016, the average American graduated with student loan debts of USD35,000. Millennials cite student loans as a reason for delaying moving into their own apartment, buying a car, buying a house, getting married, and starting a family.

Student loans also have an opportunity cost―money put towards student loan repayment is taken away from retirement savings. If a fresh graduate put USD35,000 in the bank from graduation until retirement, compound interest would turn the amount into USD 684,474 by the time he retires. Paying off your student loans young has huge repercussions on your ability to retire early and enjoy a relaxing end of life.

Teaching in China is an excellent way to pay off a large chunk of student loan. Putting USD 1000 towards student loan repayment every month would still allow you to have a high standard of living while paying off your loans entirely within three years! Even if three years seems too long to spend living in China, within a year or two you could have saved up enough to make a significant dent in your loan repayment. This takes pressure off you when you return to the States to immediately get a high-paying job. Even better, you don’t have to move into your parents’ basement. And you get to do all this while living in a fascinating country, enjoying the world’s best cuisine, and exploring the beaches of Southeast Asia. Becoming a teacher in China makes excellent financial sense for a recent graduate, and were Millennials robots motivated by profit they would all be fighting for the chance to teach at New Oriental.

But humans are not robots. We don’t always make the rational economic choice, to the frustration of economists in ivory towers across the world. Moving to China requires a certain amount of sacrifice. It’s a foreign country, with an unfamiliar language and culture. It’s far from home and friends and family and familiar comforts. Teaching English is not an obvious stepping stone on the path to a lucrative career.

LANGUAGE

Yet spending a year in China can help you reap rewards in different ways. For one, there’s the language: Mandarin is the most widely-spoken language in the world. It is the mother tongue of 873 million people, and the official language of the most populous country in the world. China’s economy is expected to surpass America’s to become the largest economy in the world by 2018. As China becomes a global superpower, it is expanding its reach in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Learning Mandarin will unquestionably give you an edge in the world of tomorrow―and even today. China is currently the U.S.’s top trading partner, which means if you have an interest in creating a product you will be working with Mandarin-speaking manufacturers. Steve Jobs once remarked he had no choice but to make the iPhone in China as no other country could produce it at such high speed and low cost. And China isn’t just a country of factories and manufacturers― as Chinese companies become richer, they are starting to expand their portfolio overseas. Alibaba recently invested USD200 million in Snapchat. Dididache just bought out Uber in China.

And this is not to mention the vastness of China’s consumer market. According to Forbes, the Chinese consumer market currently makes up 35% of sales of luxury goods internationally. Alibaba’s TMall and Taobao online retail store have more active shoppers than the entire U.S. population. On a single day in November 11, 2015, Alibaba made USD14.3 billion dollars of sales in less than 24 hour. As China continues to develop at breakneck speed and increase its people’s spending power, the country’s population gives it a centre of gravity which draws the whole world in.

You might argue that many American businesses are successfully trading with China without forcing all their employees to learn Chinese. After all, English is the international language of businesses, and any contract you sign will be in the world’s lingua franca. That might be true, but speaking Mandarin will give you an edge in the hypercompetitive Chinese market.

Chinese business culture rests on the concept of guanxi which can loosely be translated as relationships. Networking and making connections is crucial to succeeding in the Chinese market, and speaking Mandarin will immediately boost your credibility with your Chinese business partners. American companies attempting to break...