Did China buy the American Dream?

When I called for information about Chinese classes, I got offered a job teaching English.

While admiring a friend’s calligraphy scroll in the university foreign affairs office, a school marketing person asked if she could hire me to pose for pictures holding the scroll.

When I was late to my friend’s TV show appearance and got a nosebleed seat with no view, the director asked me to move to the front row so I “could be seen.”

Many things come with difficulty in China, but jobs and networking opportunities aren't among them. Flocks of Americans are traveling to China for jobs, higher than average incomes and a wealth of foreigner-only opportunities. I’m starting to wonder if China bought the American Dream when it bought two-thirds of our bad debt.

Take me for instance: I came to China to travel with an income. I may stay because the income and opportunities are better than I’d get in the states, especially in the current American economy.

And I’m not the only one. 

Tianjin is a mega-city with a scant population of foreigners. Still, there’s an American style coffee shop that plays Janis Joplin and serves Earl Grey tea. The Spot Cafe is owned by Daygan Sobotka, a 30-year-old Virginian who’s lived in China for three years. Sobotka said he came here to learn Chinese, got hired as a Chinese TV actor, and then wanted to own his own business. 

He stays because no where else in the world could he have so many options in so many career fields.

Then there’s Hank, a gruff, former Chicago stock exchange worker from the Southside. He came to China nine years ago on business and “just never went back.”

He now owns Hank's Sports Bar, which serves real cheeseburgers and Italian sausage, packed by Hank himself. On Sunday’s, Hank opens the bar at 8 a.m. for an American all-you-can-eat breakfast and he does city-wide catering on Thanksgiving with real stuffed turkeys.

It’s not the same story for Chinese, as my Chinese friend Sarah reminded me. 

When she graduates, the best she can do with her English degree in China is work in tourism, Sarah said. Pretty Chinese girls with English fluency look great in front of tourists.

I know my weekly job offers exemplify the unequal playing field, but I’m taking advantage of the American Dream in China as long as I can, lest the bubble burst here too.