The Benelux Chamber of Commerce in China is delighted to invite you to a Young Professional event on February 17:
How to pop the expat bubble?
The world is full of ‘China experts’. People who have lived on the Chinese mainland – and beyond - for years, gathering invaluable experiences and enthusiastically tell people at home how this country works, how the Chinese think and other fun facts.
Little do these engrossed listeners at home know that many ‘China experts’ just changed the location of their favourite Pizza Hut from Europe to Chaoyang and their preferred drinking place from the bars back home to Sanlitun. Direct contact with the local population is often restricted to the tiny and not very representative minority of Chinese people who speak foreign languages while conversing in Chinese mostly start and finish with a taxi drive.
The most surprising fact though, is that many people who came here never planned it to be that way. They wanted to experience China and Chinese culture beyond the stereotypes, find out how the average Beijinger really lives, what he worries about and hopes for and if they really drink baijiu for breakfast. We take language classes and study characters, travel through China and drink moutai. However, somehow we often tend to get stuck somewhere along the way and despite all curiosity and desire to explore, we often end up watching Chinese life from the outside in, without really taking part and understanding what drives people to behave the way they do.
Without claiming to ever having fully understood China or the Chinese (nor believing that anyone ever will), this seminar hopes to give a few pointers on how to leave the expat bubble and dig a little bit deeper into what lies below the surface of polite phrases and official banquets. Participation and suggestions during and after are very welcome.
Andres Laimboeck
Fascinated by the mysterious world of Chinese characters and the speed at which China is changing, Andreas Laimboeck (Austria) moved to Hong Kong and later to China as part of a university exchange program in 1999.
Mr. Laimboeck studied Mandarin at the Beijing Language and Culture University in 2002 and then obtained an MSc in Chinese Management at the University of London (SOAS). Since then, he has been - with a brief stopover in Singapore - living in Beijing.