The New Mercenaries

It is the Chinese New Year, and every year at around this time, the Chinese company for which I work for invites all its foreign employees to a special dinner. The Chinese food is excellent, and the festivities include singing, dancing, and other entertainment provided by the staffers. The foreign staffers are required to perform on stage in front of the group, each contributing some of their country's unique cultural flavor.

It is a cute throwback to the days when China was so thoroughly closed off from the rest of the world, that the people were desperate to see what was happening in other parts of the planet. They marveled at how the Spanish wore colorful outfits and fought bulls inside massive stadiums. They were amazed how, in Germany, men and women enjoyed drinking beer at meeting halls every evening. The Americans gave the world the gift of jazz. All these aspects of international society and more were to be provided by the entertainment portion of the New Year's dinner program, as narrow and stereotypical as it might be. For Chinese citizens at the end of the 20th century, it was more than enough.

These days, such displays are at best, anachronistic. The reality is that fewer foreigners who come to China are interested in sharing their culture. They are here to make money. They are the new economic mercenaries, traveling in search of opportunities that will improve their lives. It just so happens that, in the second decade of the 21st century, those opportunities are in China. It was the same way for immigrants who showed up in America during the second decade of the 20th century. Ironically, people from the United States are coming to China to help the Chinese build computers in 2011, just as men from China came to the United States to help Americans build railroads in the 1800s.

This development must seem particularly disappointing to intellectuals who still hold on to the quaint view of foreigners enriching Chinese culture through social exchange, but the economic realities of the modern age are rather blunt. People must go where the jobs are. Many workers who have patiently watched their jobs outsourced to Brazil, India, and China have no choice left but to follow them there, and there's little use for a culturally-enriching lunch, dinner, or spot of tea when they arrive.