The Chinese word for “sea turtle” (海龟, hǎiguī) is a nickname for Chinese who have returned to China after having gone abroad, usually for education. Ever since the financial crisis began and led to the current global economic downturn, many overseas Chinese have been considering returning to China. After all, their mere education and experience abroad make them more marketable for the opportunities back home. However, this decision is not an easy one to make with pros, cons, and plenty of different circumstances and opinions.
This is the second of three posts (first here) that Min and I have translated from the Wenxuecity.com discussion forums where overseas Chinese and Chinese returnees are discussing whether or not to return to China. Each post relates the experience and thoughts of a Chinese returnee, often comparing the differences between China and elsewhere. – Kai
Wall Street Chinese Returnee: If You Just Want To Get By*, America Is Still Better To Get By In
Author: wint
“Issuing visas until my hands were weak”, was how a visa officer at the Chinese Consulate General in New York described the current wave of Chinese returning from abroad.
Amongst these returnees, there are no shortage of high-level executives. They are the talent and minds that many Chinese enterprises dream of, and now [with the global financial crisis] both sides finally have a convenient opportunity. But are Chinese enterprises really their safe harbor?
Russell Reynolds Associates [an American executive search company] has, through years of observation, found that the survival rate for returnees does not exceed 50% , with a similar amount of managers choosing to leave six months after joining Chinese enterprises, and sometimes even sooner.
A returnee who returned to China from Wall Street three months ago said: “If you just want to get by, America is still better to get by in.” The reason is because he feels the teamwork in state-owned enterprises is really poor, respecting but excluding “sea turtles” with good work experience. Department managers and colleagues are hostile to these “sea turtles”, sometimes even to the degree of hiding basic work/assignment details. The adjustment process is very painful. The so-called “adjusting” means to continuously lower one’s expectation: State-owned enterprise treat returnees as merely a consultant or technician, and it would be best for returnees to not take themselves too seriously and think they can accomplish anything upon returning to the country.
Zhou Lian claims to be a failed example of returning from abroad to work for a Chinese company. She is now the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for the ABB Group Asia-Pacific Region. In 1982, after graduating from university, she had gone over to the United States to study and work but, according to her: “At the end of 2006, filled with enthusiasm, I purchased a one-way ticket and choose to join a Chinese company.” Before returning to China, she successively was responsible for human resources in Cummins and was a senior Human Resource director for the Wal-Mart Asia Pacific region. She, possessing abundant human resources training and project management experience, started having regrets within a year of working at the Chinese company. Afterward, she chose to go to ABB.
She says: “To this day, I still think that Chinese company has prospects. This kind of “break-up” is not an issue of who is good or who is bad, who is better or who is worse. The most important thing is the match. Although we were both speaking Chinese, I actually did not understand what my boss was saying, and much of our logic is also not very Chinese. At the end of meetings, I often heard the conclusion: ‘Let me think about it.’ I would ask, ‘Okay, when you will be done thinking?’ Later, I realized: “Let me think about it” equals to “I disagree”. Back in the US, when we were brainstorming solutions, we would say look at how Microsoft, Dell, etc. did it. But the Chinese company I worked for would talk about how some general in the Qing Dynasty or some businessman in Tang Dynasty did it. At that time, I had no choice but to buy a lot of history books to read [in order to understand them].”
This kind of situation may be familiar with many returnees. Successfully transforming [a company] probably takes at least one year’s time, and requires going through 3 related yet different stages: First, enter [the company], then be accepted by the company, and then finally have the ability to bring change to the company. These three stages occur in the first 3 months, first 6 months, and first year, and the first 6 months are the most vital.
* 混 hùn is a difficult Chinese word to translate. As a verb, it mixes notions of drifting aimlessly and not living up to your potential. Think of it as wasting your time and life, being lazy and just “getting by.”
This is sad. Though I think this is a case of not being adapted well enough to the business culture of a country. Six months should be enough. Maybe the sea turtles are the ones pulling themselves?
Most Chinese companies are disasters. I am very happy that I moved to China, but the idea of working for any kind of local enterprise is just madness.
I have direct experience of only several “sea turtles”, actually four, and another locally educated in English, each having the same arrogant attitude towards their charges, an attitude that more than one expressed as, “I studied abroad and know better than you do”. I also note each of these asses insisted on speaking in English to their Chinese employees and Chinese clients; the guys from Taiwan (many of whom spoke good business English) would just shake their heads at this, knowing it was one more madness they had to deal with.
The greater problem is that all of these “sea turtles” believed they were unique in understanding both Western and Chinese culture, and so their position was as a necessary intermediary. Each of them believed their position was secured not by their ability to profitably manage a business (events showed they could not) but to control and manage the foreigners. Those of whom I had experience saw themselves as a class apart, and all but one was fired more or less within two years for incompetency to be replaced by foreign managers; the exception still has about a year left.
I wonder if these sea turtles who insisted on speaking in English did so because they thought it was cool or because their Chinese sucked. Were they Chinese who only went over for secondary/tertiary education or were they foreign-born-Chinese? The former should not have an excuse for not speaking Chinese for expediency (not to mention propriety).
Arrogance towards mainland Chinese is common amongst non-mainland Chinese (those from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, FBCs, etc.) and foreigners alike, not just sea turtles. In many cases, there’s good cause for them to think they know better, but the arrogance is a big stumbling block. I think what Zhou Lian said in the translated post is a sufficient conclusion: it’s all about putting the right people together, the match. Office politics stumble a lot of people, so cross-cultural politics can only be worse and more ripe for misunderstanding. Both sides need to humble themselves and remind themselves to respect each other enough to do their part towards their greater company mission.
But maybe that’s a foreign way of thinking? Heh.
I see I did not make myself clear enough to avoid misinterpretations.
Those sea turtles were native mainland Chinese, otherwise they wouldn’t be called “sea turtles”, and again by definition were educated in mainland China but had received some graduate schooling abroad, mostly the US or Australia.
The attitude of the sea turtles I described is surprising enough to me who speaks and reads Mandarin (college major Chinese language, graduate school in Taiwan), despised by those from Taiwan who speak and read English as well as the “sea turtles” but are obliged to suffer through their English, resented (and quietly ridiculed) by the mainland Chinese staff in the offices. Even the foreigners who come through every once in while finally come to see and understand this attitude is not only pretentious but divisive. Also, as I said and will emphasize again, the sea turtles failed to profitably the business, mistakenly seeing their primary role as some sort of gatekeeper between the mainland Chinese staff and the foreign principals.
Additionally, these sea turtles had prior work experience abroad after graduate school so these were not their first positions of responsibility.
Okay, Scott, what was misinterpreted?
You assumed they spoke only English because they thought it was cool (yes, and to show their superiority of education) or because their Chinese sucked (no, they are native speakers), based on the possibilities that they “were Chinese who only went over for secondary/tertiary education or were they foreign-born-Chinese?” but we’re talking about “sea turtles” who by definition cannot be foreign-born-Chinese and must be mainland Chinese who have received some higher education in the West.
Scott, didn’t I say “I wonder…”? I’ve seen the term “sea turtles” used slightly differently before, despite what we know the definition to be. What I asked was to solicit more information so I could be sure I was on the same page as you were. I did not intentionally misinterpret you.
Fair comment.