Expat: Senior manager leading cushy life on fat salary package, with modern housing and hired help to appease wife, international school tuition for kids, and perhaps even a hardship allowance?
In China today, the stereotype has never rung less true.
Introducing the "halfpat" -- a term coined by international business consultancy, China Strategic Development Partners (www.chinasdp.com), to describe the rise of young foreigners finding their own way to every major hub, and also increasingly to China's smaller centers.
Lured by either, "a sense of curiosity", or "a strong belief in China's potential", the halfpats come without a set career path, invest time in learning the language and becoming acquainted with the culture, then use this background to find new opportunities.
In an industry report titled, Halfpats: the New Expatriate, CSDP managing director Richard Brubaker discussed the market implications of this new class of professional.
Halfpats do not require expensive relocation packages or language training, and their rate of retention and overall success is impressive. Typically, they are aged under 40, bilingual, and accept salaries of less than half that of the average expat.
Amena Lee Schlaikjer set her sights on China as far back as 1997, while in Hong Kong, watching fireworks over the harbor to mark the city's handover.
"I thought, 'well, this is one chapter closed for Hong Kong, where is the next hub going to be and how will I get there?'" the 28-year-old tells China Daily.
She landed at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport in 2003 "with two suitcases containing my life and no real place to go", and describes her path since as, "a mosaic of great experiences".
Schlaikjer had lined-up neither job nor accommodation, having "consciously decided" against immediately joining a company, lest she, "[get] caught up in one circle or one world".
"I decided to observe and meet as many people as possible to get their take on how things are really going here. You can only read so much, the rest is experience," she says.
The daughter of an American diplomat and his Taiwanese aboriginal wife, Schlaikjer moved constantly as a child, attending schools in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Taipei during her "impressionable years".
The Columbia University Asian Studies and Economics graduate also took a marketing course at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, and now works as a connections agent.
Schlaikjer worked on several high-profile local launches, including for Vogue Beauty and M.A.C cosmetics, before last year helping establish the Shanghai office of a global company called ?What If! Innovation, where she still works.
Brubaker said the halfpat presence was mainly in areas like business development and sales, but now cuts across industries, including quality control, law and logistics.
"I see the move towards halfpats increasing," he tells China Daily.
"They are getting more and more attractive -- the various reasons why expats fail to finish their contracts, halfpats don't have that."
Traditionally, an expat was a western-trained senior manager with at least 15 years industry experience, undertaking a 2-3 year overseas contract. With an established family life in their home country, many find the China move difficult, particularly when exacerbated by a lack of language skills or understanding of social nuance.
Some 60 percent of these managers fail to complete their assignment, whereas many halfpats stayed for between five and eight years or longer, Brubaker says.
"I also think it is because five years ago, business wasn't as developed, but now there is opportunity at every corner, none wants to leave that," he says.
"For sure people are staying longer, part of the reason is if you're a young person coming here, you might meet someone and start a family, you kind of see it all together and base yourself here because this is what you have in common.
"A lot of new start-ups are being set up by halfpats China is definitely not a place to come for one year," Brubaker says.
Dutch architect Oki Alexander moved to China soon after graduating from university in the Netherlands. He spent the first few years building experience, before establishing his first company, AMOD, with Chinese Jack Wang.
"[Living in China was] just something I knew I wanted to do in my lifetime, so I made it happen," says Alexander, who also majored in East Asian Studies at Harvard University.
Growing up in Amsterdam, Alexander practiced kungfu for 15 years, and was lured by the prospect of further studying martial arts in China.
Arriving in Shanghai, he found work with a local Dutch architectural firm, allowing him to become familiar with the market before setting out alone.
Alexander has since found, "adventure, love [and] chances that are not available in Europe".
Looking forward, Brubaker predicted the number of foreigners working in major cities would begin to drop off as these markets matured, and regulatory measures to cool the economy took effect.
"We haven't seen anything yet, what is going on in Shanghai is not what it is about. Second-tier cities is where the future lies," Brubaker says, whose clients include manufacturers looking to invest in projects in cities such as Chengdu and Chongqing.
He traced the emergence of the halfpat to the US economic slowdown of 2000, which spurred both westerners and overseas-born Chinese to leave in search of better opportunity. China saw an influx of fresh graduates, or professionals with up to five years experience.
"Many had already studied China's language, culture and business environment for one to three years while in the US, and sought opportunities that leveraged these assets in China," he says.
Arriving in Beijing about six years ago, Brubaker said most foreigners were either on assignment from major multinationals, working as English teachers or studying language.
But on moving to Shanghai, he found more young professionals opting to "come to China and give it a shot", with a view to boosting their credentials. Since the slump of America's silicon valleys, Shanghai had become, "the hottest thing right now," the St Louis consultant says.
By Viva Goldner
(China Daily August 3, 2007)
