中国通。Old China Hand. There are not a great deal of these people, often single white males, so called China-Experts. And there won't be all that many more in the future, either. When you've been here long enough, you can start to divide the foreigners you see. And they often divide into four groups. Tourists are obvious. They're loud, they walk in packs and take pictures everywhere, they eat at McDonalds in groups, stabbing at picture menus. Short term workers are obvious too. Often young males who have come to establish factories or advise projects, their expressions demonstrate that in two months they've learned everything about China there is. Ask them if they can speak Chinese, they slaughter the phrase "I want beer now," and grin. They eat at McDonalds too, not alone but in pairs or threes, again stabbing at the menu. The third variety is Long term workers. They've been in China, or the East, for years and you can see it in their eyes. They move slower, they flow with the crowds, and they eat at McDonalds, but they're alone. They often have a sort of quiet control, because they know that the tide will just wash over them anyway. I'm not sure what a China Hand looks like, I've never met one.

By far the most damaging is the short term worker. He comes to China on a foreign salary, giving him loads of cash to fling around. In addition, he comes on his own terms looking for what he wants. The second most common response his Chinese level is, "I Can speak to her..." and he points at some girl wearing an outfit a Chinese prostitute might wear, except the STW thinks it's normal. So not only does he come and harm Chinese society by bludgeoning his culture upon it, but the stereotypes these men create also damage the reputations of other foreign workers in China. And ripples move on to America and beyond, until the only possible reason a man is interested in Asia is because he is obsessed with Asian women.

I would like to congratulate the short term foreign beer drinkers of the world! Quite an accomplishment you've made.

Above is my campus in the spring, a plum blossom tree.