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Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

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Re: Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

#91

Post by JoelTheSuperior »

rwmj wrote: post #73
intellix wrote: post #11

Haven't moved my career here but am working remotely for a couple of months. All of my work is European and I'm on the verge of leaving due to how bad the internet gets at night. Throughout the day you've got ExpesssVPM and Shadowsocks but at around 7pm every night there's a huge crackdown on foreign traffic where even obscure sites fail to load. It's probably fine if your work is 9-5 but outside of then the internet…

Is there some reason why this only happens from 7pm? I would have thought that the net would either be censored all the time and nothing would ever work, or else a VPN would work always.

If I had to guess, they reduce the censorship during the day to lessen the effect on businesses. In the evening it's primarily going to be people using the internet at home, which they'll want to control more tightly.

Re: Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

#92

Post by sparkie »

I don't have personal experience living in China. I've followed SerpentZA and laowhy86 on youtube for many years, who share and film their own experiences living in southern China. They have a shared channel, ADVChina, where they ride around on motorcycles and discuss often controversial topics related to China and the upsides and downsides of being a foreigner there. They have some great content and a few good documentaries too: Conquering Southern China and Conquering Northern China.

[1]:https://www.youtube.com/user/churchillcustoms

Re: Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

#93

Post by pthomas551 »

rlglwx wrote: post #5

To be honest, don’t don’t it. Unless you’re of Chinese descent and speak the language, you won’t be able to advance in most companies. The work culture is alien to most westerners and the benefits to your career are negligible. Mostly depends on what you want out of your career but speaking as someone that lived in China and worked in Chinese tech companies for seven years, including being the first foreign hire for…

IMO, unless you really need to live in China for whatever reason, you should focus on starting a career in the States and getting an expat assignment in China. You will have a much more comfortable lifestyle and have something at home to go back to if things don't pan out.

Re: Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

#94

Post by maxxxxx »

JoelTheSuperior wrote: post #88
maxxxxx wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"- pollution can be a big problem." This would already be a showstopper for me. I have spent a week in Mumbai and never want to be in such an environment again.

To be fair I've heard it varies a lot depending on the season in Mumbai. I was in Mumbai in December and it was honestly fine, at least in my opinion.

I am sure it changes but I wouldn’t want to live there for sure and I feel sorry for the people who have to put up with it.

Re: Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

#95

Post by educationdata »

refurb wrote: post #67
educationdata wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to add: Even if you are ethnically Chinese and speak the language, don't go back to China unless you really cannot find a decent job in the west. Especially if you are young and educated in the west, here are the things to consider: - It is not very hard to find a STEM job in the west, and the pay is good. - Your parents are healthy now, not much to worry. It's better to get a green card before they get…

Care to expand on your last point? I haven’t heard that before.

A) Parenting. You will mostly have no parenting on your own in China. Tech companies will make you work long hours. It is not uncommon that when you finished work and back home, your kid is already asleep. When you leave home early to catch the train, your kid is still asleep. It is not a joke but many Chinese young couples only see their kids during weekend, even they live together. You think leaving your kid to your parents 5 days per week is good? Noooooooooo

B) Medicare. Every time your kid gets fever: IV. Your parents just love it. They think it is the best. Chinese people love to have their kids get blood test, X-ray for just cough... Children's hospitals are crowded by (grand)parents and kids who simply have cold (see pictures and story http://www.sohu.com/a/212568582_407108). Most Chinese people (including educated middle class) do not understand get cold is not because of cold, it is because of virus.

C) Also everybody knows: the highly competitive education system is a huge burden on kids and parents. It is common to spend lots of money to purchase apartment at good school district (xue qu fang). And many parents do this for kids going to elementary school, middle school, high school... Middle class life is not easy.

Re: Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

#96

Post by koala_man »

j_shi wrote: post #50
koala_man wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it was the money and opportunities. I turned a blind eye to the power abuse, human rights violations and corruption, and moved to the US anyways.

lmao. kernel of truth to be sure but in fairness American legal system and democratic governance do strictly result in more liberty and security for individuals by and large, corner cases notwithstanding

Definitely. The fact that I can even make such a joke strongly supports that.

Re: Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

#97

Post by ralph84 »

sabujp wrote: post #46
paulsutter wrote: post #3

A warning for folks considering working in China (love to hear this debunked if untrue): https://www.chinalawblog.com/2016/09/the-china-stock-option-... > no foreign person can own stock in a Chinese domestic company not already listed on a stock market. So any such option or stock transfer is void from the start. Foreigners are not permitted to be shareholders of Chinese domestic companies, nor does China recognize…

you can via ADRs, at least for large companies they usually follow the market. However under the hood this seems unfair. Why does China get to be protective but the the west does not? Just greedy non-chinese companies that don't care where the investments are coming from?

> Why does China get to be protective but the the west does not?

The short answer is the west was seduced by access to the Chinese market and was willing to do one-sided trade deals to get that access.

Re: Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

#98

Post by jasonbarrah »

bdamm wrote: post #51
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you're going to get away from this. By living in and working in China, paying Chinese taxes, and supporting Chinese companies, you are directly supporting an authoritarian regeime.

As a Canadian living in and working in America, I have a similar although less dramatic moral difficulty. The fact is that the American government is curiously abusive compared to your average developed national government.

One of these things is not like the other. You lack much perspective.

Re: Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

#100

Post by presentation »

zhte415 wrote: post #37
koala_man wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>for lower pay How is it when adjusted for cost of living though?

What adjustment for cost of living? Assuming living in a Tier-1 where the tech-hubs are (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen), rents for a 2/3 bedroom apartment somewhat centralish (these are vastly larger, more populous, and higher density than most American or European cities) will be at least USD 2000, possibly 4000 depending on taste (apartment, not house). Pension may need to be privately paid, and tax-band will be abov…

It sounds like you never really tried to integrate, so here’s my experience living in Shanghai, the most expensive mainland city - eating mostly Chinese food I would eat stuff like jianbing with chicken and pork for breakfast for about $0.80, lived in a studio apt in a shikumen building 5 mins walk from IAPM/陕西南路站 (I would consider, quite central) for about $400/mo that I actually found on Airbnb, not even using local apt finding services (bc I was there relatively short term, 4 months, and didn’t want to sign a lease) where I could have found one even cheaper probably, and was eating out for dinner at an average cost of maybe $5 to $7 per meal, or around $20-$30 if I wanted to splurge.

Then again, I took time to learn Mandarin against the advising of expats who reassured me that I’d never get any good and therefore should just not try, so maybe that’s where my perspective differs.

Sounds like your problem is trying to replicate western lifestyle in China, if you do that everyone sniffs the blood and will find ways to rip you off on everything. Though yeah, schooling probably would be a pretty big expense - no way I’d send my kid to Chinese schools either.

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