Forgotten foreigners shanghaied in Shanghai

The biggest problem which now besets these beleaguered teachers - apart from imminent eviction from their homes, prosecution for unpaid bills and how to feed themselves - has become the cultural divide between East and West.

Despite the lessons learned from the bad press and demonstrations which also accompanied the congratulations and euphoria of the Games, it seems that efforts to try to understand guests in the Middle Kingdom are not high on the list of priorities of the average businessperson in China.

While the government and diplomatic envoys call for understanding and harmony, many Chinese remain oblivious to the West - other than acknowledging the stereotype.

In this scenario all Westerners are wealthy and privileged. The company now forced to deal with an anxious group of foreigners is neither as uncompassionate nor as uncaring as their actions - or lack thereof - appear to Western eyes. It is not that they don’t care about the problems of a handful of broke and out-of-work strangers in their midst, they simply do not believe there is anything worse than inconvenience happening here.

At one of the interminable set-pieces which comprise Chinese negotiations, one teacher burst out that a decision in 60 days was useless: they needed to eat now. The Chinese negotiator merely stared unblinkingly back for a full 20 or more seconds.

This was neither contempt nor disregard. It was simply utter confusion.

Not for one minute would it have entered his head that this was a statement of fact. Instead it would have been regarded as merely another step in the sequence of choreographed events that is the negotiation round. A step however, that found him left-footed and of which the Westerners are oblivious. It was not in the script.

Why would anyone demean themselves with such a statement? What was the purpose behind it? Why would a white collar worker deliberately court Loss of Face by giving the impression that they, like some indigent beggar, lacked food? With a look similar to that of George Bush when told America had been attacked by terrorists, not a muscle in the man’s face twitched - he was out of his depth.

Even public opinion, at first shocked and mainly sympathetic, is no help to the foreign teachers caught in this deadlock. In a country of 1.6 billion nationals where the gap between rich and poor, peasant and princess, yawns wide and seemingly impenetrable, foreigners problems are not taken seriously.

Although all of the teachers now left behind consider China their home, with most having Chinese partners, it is inconceivable to the average Chinese that they are not in transit. The most common question asked to Westerners in China, after “how much do you earn?”, is “where do you live?” Experience soon dictates that answers such as Shanghai or Beijing - even if one was born and raised there - are not acceptable. A giggle or guffaw then accompanies the next question: “no - but where do you now really live?”

To the thrifty Shanghainese the idea of any adult who does not have a hefty bank account behind them is risible. To try to explain that some in this group - with unpaid bills and rent - do not have money even for airline tickets nor means of support on arrival at their new destination, is to risk being held in contempt rather than compassion. It is beyond comprehension.

Others maintain that, when coming to live in a different country, one should be aware of the rules and regulations. An opinion that doesn’t take into account the fact that even lawyers, with years of specialist study behind them, do not have laws for every contingency memorised, but must make use of copious research and precedents.