Expats in China

I was speaking with an acquaintance yesterday and the subject of my undergraduate grades came up. I'm not sure what it is with undergraduate grades. They seem important for about 5 years after you graduate. It has been more than 5 years since I graduated. I'm sure my thinking would be different if the answer was Yale, 3.8.

My undergraduate institution recently renamed itself (the mark of any good university) and my friend retorted, "alumni would be far less concerned it they rename it Harvard".

It's like high school. Where did you go to high school is a frequently asked question in my most recent home in the States. Hum. I can't imagine why that is relevant.

My undergraduate grades: 2.27. Impressive, I know. I was rock bottom of the bell curve of my incoming graduate class. Graduate school was impressed too; so impressed they struggled for several months about whether to let me in. I guess you could say I'm a late starter.

Which gets me to the expats in China. There are two classes: the exceptionally bright, super-charged CEO types who are over here because they are capable of adding a few zeros behind their Fortune 100 MNC's net profits, and there are the misfits. The slow-starters, the no-starters, the individuals who might blossom "in the right environment". Very few fall in between these two categories.

The two classes are easily distinguishable. The misfits often have difficulty describing exactly what it is they do for a living. "I bring companies together and I have a HUGE deal going on right now and I've got to get to this meeting." Huh? You're wearing cut-off sweats and you have an earring through your eyebrow. "I teach English right now, but I'm talking to a couple of guys about starting a new company here". Dead giveaway.

The older misfits are "Mr. China" and speak fluent Chinese. They can't wait to tell you what it was like in the good ole' days and how Shanghai isn't really China and how China is set to take over the US and the world within the next 5 years. Of course they haven't left China in the last 20 years, so they aren't aware that people in the US have microwaves and cell phones.

The folks in the CEO/CFO class don't say much of anything. When asked, they respond "I work for _____ (fill in Coke, Pepsi, GM, whatever). If pressed you might get their title. They are personable, they are involved in business and community events (instead of the bar scene) and they all know each other. They are low key, but they drive this place and they are typically down to earth.

It is not terribly surprising how either group managed to find its way over here.