The weather has got really damn hot over the last few days, and for the first time this year It’s uncomfortably hot and i’m finding it hard to sleep at night.  I have finished my job and are now free to do whatever I want, which is great as last month I didn’t have one day off.

I have now moved to another place – and with the help of a few friends – it was surprisingly easy.  My new place is cheap, very cheap. For only 500元/30pounds a month it’s a decent place – I don’t plan to stay there long it’s primarily for storage.   and so I have no net access at home, which is a bummer as I’ve become so reliant upon it over the last few months and I hate the smoke in the internet cafes.  Here’s the rest of the post:

Written in the heat of the moment, might annoy some people.

Almost finished the semster, just one more day left.  Been busy marking exams and getting all the final grades sorted out, ready to hand to my boss in exchange for my last salary. 

So I arranged to meet the landlord on Saturday, for him to give me back my deposit and to sort out exactly when I will leave etc… 

This proved to be troublesome, and  soon bacame a shouting match – well more of one sided match, I wasn’t going to stoop to his pathetic level. As a race the Chinese are loud (just go to any busy restaurant), and when they get angry they shout even louder and the the Chinese language is a great argueing language.

Essentially he wanted ME to give him the remainder of the deposit (2100yuan); in what could only be considered an attempt to steal the money from me.  Of course this shocked me, afterall I was expecting him to pay me back what I am owed since –  the contract is about to end. 

  The problem is that I am forgetting where I am, and that I am gageing things from a Western perspective. I must remember that whether a persons actions are right or wrong is not important; I should have been more cynical in dealing with the landlord, as the more he said, the more clear it became that he is not going to see 1 fen of my deposit back. 

What can I do? 

Nothing, zero, nil, zilch.

However I have a plan.

 I will take measures into my own hands, by siezing assets roughly equlavent to the value of 900yuan.  Unfortunatly there isn’t much worth taking, most of the stuff here is a few years old or too big or heavy to move.  So to recoup my losses the only thing woth taking is the washing machine, worth 1500yuan new (now worth 200yuan second hand re-sale value).  I believe this tactic will give me leverage – I don’t want a washing machine anyway – and the landlord will have no choice to give me the deposit back.       

This keeps on happening to me here.  Maybe it’s my own fault , maybe I’m just unlucky.  But whatever the reason, there have been three constants to all of my troubles: 

1. I am in China
2. I am a foreigner
3. Money

 It is now clear to me that some Chinese believe it is their duty to cheat the foreigner.    Many exercise double standards – one for us one for them – sadly,  of course, this is still being propogated through mis-education and furthermore,  is perpetuated by the government. This does work both ways, sometimes the foreigner is given unwarrented special treatment – it should be a level playing field.
I also beleive that many Chinese think from the assertion that foreigners are plain stupid and don’t understand. (i’m not just talking about language).   That we are incapable of doing things for ourselves, without (Chinese) assistance – hense the shock from my students when I actually tell them that I don’t have a translator and that I can do things for myself. University students – not uneducated people unexposed to other influences – I’ve lost track of the amount of times i’ve been asked ‘ when you go out how do you buy things?’ ‘what do you do?’ People asking me if ‘I know how to get home’ after i’ve told them i’ve lived here for over a year – the list goes on. Maybe it’s a lack of a way of thinking, not joining the right dots together to get a complete picture…

Furthermore, I have come to the rather stark conclusion that China is a nation of  many racists.  I am not usually a fan of such sweeping statements, but I believe this is the only explanation.  I used to think it was a question of curiosity, interest, and nosiness.  I think I was misguided (too considerate, too naive) it’s not about interest or curiosity, it’s about mockery, sneering,  to make fun of, and maybe even disdain or contempt.  This does not apply to everything, but i think if money is involved then it is safe to assume such.  In the western sense of the meaning, there is much discrimination or prejudice based on race, in transactions that involve money.

Another thing I have learnt is that being the nice guy here gets you nowhere.  If you are polite and honest the Chinese think you are weak and so will try to screw you; unless they are a good friend or family. You will be taken advantage of.
On the other hand, if you are firm, loud and obnoxious, and insulting (by western standards) people will pay respect to you, because they think you are tough, and strong willed. 

As much as this may seem difficult to believe,  It is the conclusion I have come to.  One may say it’s a cultural difference, I used to think this too, but I don’t buy it anymore. 

Wrote this the other day, and posted it in the wrong place, so here it is now. 🙂

What is it with the Chinese and digging holes. I remember people complaining about road works back home, but you need to come here to truly appreciate holes. Every day is a guessing game. What way can’t I go today? Which road is closed? Can I get home?

The other night I was walking back to my apartment and found that there was no possible way for me to get across the road (and to my home) as mechanical diggers had dug a huge pit; where the road once was, is now a mountain of earth -building rubble and dirt.

 It’s the same with buildings too. You never know when a building might just disappear. Workers with pick-axes and sledge-hammers taking each brick apart, one-by-one, ready to be re-used elsewhere. Such labour intensive work would never exist in the West – it’s just not economically viable. Where as here it is viable, wages are so low, and there is no shortage of labour.  However the work is shoddy, (like most construction in China) the work is often unfinished and the ground left strewn with bricks and various other bits of debris.

It’s amazing how things change so fast, but also disturbing.

No doubt, digging holes is a superb way of over-employing, just give everone a spade and that’s it. When there’s hundreds of millions of migrant workers looking for work, creating jobs becomes a priority.
Afterall everywhere has the potential to be dug-up, the options are almost endless.
Due to the extreme weather conditions in Changchun, nothing much gets done during the winter and spring. Then come May, construction starts again.  There are hoards of migrant workers who come to Changchun during the summer months, they provide the labour that is needed if all of the projects are to be finished.  They must have a very tough life, they follow the work, if this means travelling 1000s of miles then so be it, they have little choice (600million of them! ).  The workers are put up in refugee camp like tents, that are erected at the side of the road or near to a construction site.   It shows just how messed up this country is, when the workers are building thousands and thousands of new apartments,  and they live in tents with no sanitation or electricity.  In Changchun there are thousands and thousands of new apartments being built, most remain empty.  Where I live many of the apartments are empty, and the price of them is too high for most to afford. Maybe they will become more affordable in the future, though I doubt it.  It seems that the Chinese property developers would rather leave an apartment empty for years than allow it to be rented or lower the price and make a lesser profit, i don’t think they really understand the basics of demand and supply.

  This is a problem all across China, many of the tower blocks in the major cities (Beijing Shanghai etc…) are empty – there is not significant enough demand for so much office space – yet they continue to build.  To the outsider, one would think that this is an amazing rate of progress, and that China is expanding at a rapid pace – But personally I think a lot of it is based on a false economy, and that it only a matter of time before it all starts to crumble in on itself.  A common trick made by developers is to get bank loans to complete a building, and to not finish the building (pocketing most of the cash) then declare themselves bankrupt and or disappear.  Then do the same thing in another province, and so on.  There is no credit system in place, so loans are often given based on social status or relationships – guanxi  关系.    That’s one of the reasons why there are so many unfinished projects and half-completed buildings in Changchun, and all over China.

One of the great things about China is that you can buy pretty much anyhting, for a really decent price. Today, I stocked up on my already extensive computer game collection and bought a few more DVDs.

Here I ‘collect’ computer games/DVDs, like a person in the UK collects stamps or antiques.

Of course they are dirt cheap (6yuan for DVDs, 3yuan for CDroms), and the quality of the copies has become indistinguishable from the genuine thing. I remember when I first came to China, sometimes buying a dodgy copy; but the pirates are getting better and more sophisticated with their methods.

Which is probably a bad thing, but it doesn’t bother me much.

The Beijing government often trumpets about how it is clamping down on copyright and intellectual property infringement. Personally I think that Beijing has little control of what happens outside the major cities.

It is very seldom that the DVD shops/stalls will only sell ‘genuine’ copies and the pirated 6yuan ones are hidden away from view.

I once went to a local electronics market and noticed that the shops were empty, apart from a few token items such as CD cases/dust covers. I was told that the vendors sometimes have to hide all the DVDs/Computer games at certain times/dates. This is because someone from Beiijng/Copyright Ministry is going to be performing ‘spot checks’, and if they are caught they face serious consequences.
The local police (who are of couse bribed by the businessmen, tip-off the traders beforehand) Those that dont pay the bribes I guess are the ones that get caught and are paraded before the media as a testiment to the success of the Chinese authorities actions.

The thing is, everyone knows that this goes on. The copyright ministry people know that the shops that are empty usually sell pirated DVDs. It’s a very Chinese solution to a problem, that is, if you can’t see it happening, it isn’t happening.

I’m not ‘supposed’ to divulge any information about the particulars of the contract that I had with Star Education, however, when they disregard the contract and refused to pay me – any legal or moral authority they had, or may have had in my eyes, vanished.

12. Party B hereby pledges to keep to keep the content of this contract only known by party A
and Party B. If party B was found letting out content of this contract, 2000RMB will be punished from the tickets reimbursement.

So I signed a confidentiality agreement attached as part of my employment contract, of course this is totally uninforcable and is basically a way my former employer can keep 2000元 back from my final salary.
This is not a standard clause and I have never seen it before in a teaching contract in China. And normally with a confidentality agreement, the employer pays you to be quiet not the other way around. This raised concerns for me at the time, but I foolishly thought it would be okay

So stuff what the contract says, and if they want to try to enforce it – BE MY GUEST (like I said it was them who didn’t pay me).

Anyway this is China, contracts are not like the ones we have in the west. Here they are more like guidelines, or better still a promissory note between employer and employee. Here the employer is king – the Foreign exit/entry dept at the PSB will not help you (even though it’s supposed to be their jobs) and as i’ve experienced it will probably backfire onto you.
The chinese don’t like it when a foreigner blows-the-whistle (loss of face) and this is a culture that does not welcome individuals speaking up for themselves – especially outsiders.

Arbitration is also worthless (in Changchun at least) and could and probably will backfire on the Foreign teacher.

It’s all about relationships or guanxi (关系). Who you know, a friend of a friend – can they help you – can you help them. And of course, Company bosses inevitably have more guanxi than the Foreign Teacher- who probably isn’t even sure how guanxi works.

So you can forget doing anything about it legally.

Huge multinational companies reguarly take their Chinese competitors to court for copyright violations.
A good example of this is GM, who unsuccessfully sued SAIC (they people who were going to buy Rover) for copying design patents for their QQ car.
In a country with a free and independent judiciary this would be a cut and dry case – some parts of the QQ were identical and interchangeable with those on the GM model – now if that’s not copying then I don’t know what is!

My point being the Chinese tend to side with the Chinese even if its obvious that they are in the wrong, it’s just the way that it is.

The Chinese legal system is chronically underdeveloped compared to a western country. There are quite simply not enough courts, not enough judges (no juries here!) and cases are taken based on their importance. Infact there is no right to go to court in China, you have the right to petition that is ask to go to court. To do this, takes time and money, lots of time and money. I have heard the backlog for some cases can run up to 10 years.
So a contractual dispute isn’t going to be at the top of their priorities, even if a petition were granted and both parties were around long enough to see the trial.

Here’s a breakdown to some of the more interesting parts of the contract that I had with Star Education. I hope anyone who is considering working for them (or any other teaching company in changhcun) reconsider now!

With a 1 year or 2 semester contract (September-July) you have to expect return airfare paid. At 长师　i was paid 5000 yuan once i arrived (one way) and the other 5000 yuan at the end of the contract in July. Sometimes they will give you the one way money once you have finished your first semester- to stop those rogue teachers that take the cash then vanish.

Star offers a poultry 525 yuan per month payable at the end of the contract. I had a 10 month contract with them, and so they would pay me 5250 yuan come the end. 5250 yuan is not enough for a return ticket to the UK even if you buy your ticket here.

Of course there is no guarantee you’ll get this, and based on their prior dealings with me, it’s pretty bloody unlikely you’ll even see 1 fen of it!
Afterall once you’ve completed the contract, you’ve lost any quid-pro-quo you might have had.

When I signed, I signed assuming that I would never see this money – even if i completed the contract.

Another little scam they have is to pay you on the 10th of every month but only pay you for the last calander month.

4.3 Party B will receive wages of the classes he/she has taught in one month ( 1st to 30th or 31st)
4.5 Party B will be paid on the 10th of each month

I though nothing of this at the time, but i now know this is a common tactic used with chinese workers. It means that you will have to work 10 days in the month before you receive your pay for the previous month.

Which translates : if you want to quit after payday (why would you do that????) , you will lose out on 10 days pay. But more malevolently it means you may never see your last months 10 days pay. It is a classic retention clause on the part of the employer and totally unfair and illegal – but as you probably grasped, that doesn’t mean much!

There’s some more good information on Chinese teaching contracts here and here

Dinner time, i’m hungry.

More on the contract to come later…..

I can’t sleep, it’s 3am.

Saw a fight on the bus today. A woman and a man came to blows over a seat, the woman who had a young child was unhappy that the man took the free seat from under her nose. This is not the first time I have seen this on the bus, however this time, the driver stopped the bus and got involved.

The man was basically being an arsehole, yet nobody was willing to help the woman and her child.

I felt sorry for the woman and her child, if the man had an ounce of decency he wouldn’t have pushed them out of the way to get the seat. Anyway a fight of sorts ensued, lots of swearing and bad words exchanged. Strangely – and I have noticed this diference in China – everyone (about 25 people) on the bus just stood back and watched, as if nothing was happening. As if you turn your back and you can’t see it, it’s not happening – so there is no problem. Like how a 5 year old child thinks.

Naturally, I felt as if i should do something, but i refrained from getting inolved. This is because I have heard some horrible tales of foreigners getting involved in disputes like this and ending up being rounded upon by the others. So I will never get involved in any sort of dispute that doesn’t initially involve me, even though it is against the way I would normally do things.