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So it looks like IKEA has done downsized to a tiny boutique clothing shop in China….err….or the shopowner thought they’d just ‘borrow’ the IKEA name, with the full intention of returning it of course.
Posted in Pics
Well, given that the Thailand Tsunami was a big catalyst to Youtube, I thought I’d do my part to help out the youtube copies in China like , , etc but you know what I realized? citizen journalism just isn’t there yet. Which means across these top video sites in China, I can’t find a single good video showing the big storm making landfall…maybe that wenzhou just isn’t the tourist spot that Phuket is, thus not an army of people with videocams handy?
So the best I can do is pass along a few pics from → Leave a comment
…oh the irony
Maybe I’ve been lucky or maybe I’ve been oblivious but I’ve never once felt like I was at a disadvantage in the US because I looked Asian. But yesterday, I finally knew what it felt like to be discriminated against for something that you have no power to change. I am not so naive as to believe that it doesn’t go on in the world, but nevertheless, it doesn’t lessen the indescribable frustration that you feel in pondering that such injustice exists in the world.
So here was the situation: a month ago at this expat networking event one Russian girl (with a noticeable Russian accent) told me that she just moved here from Siberia and got a really nice gig teaching english. She was like, yeah, I signed up at this website and got tutoring gigs right away at like 200 RMB/hr. (Keep in mind the avg college grad makes a little over 100 RMB PER DAY!). So in light of me doing my entrepreneurial thing I was like, hmmm….maybe this is a good way to spend a few hours to make some extra dough on the side. Plus, I can teach business english, which would be even more money.
Fast forward to yesterday. I saw an ad in the Shanghai Daily (english newspaper in shanghai）that said they are looking for english teachers. I called and spoke to them in english (so they knew that I was a native speaker) to arrange an interview. The lady was quite accommodating on the phone and said “How about saturday?” I said fine, no problem. Then she paused and said, “actually we’re really in need of good english teachers, can you do today?” Sure, no problem.
I venture over to this company’s office and immediately the people look at me like I am some alien. The receptionist goes to the ‘boss’ and notified him that I had arrived. He looks over and says to her and says “what’s he here for?” she promptly replied, “to teach english.” Then he said “WHAT?!? but he’s chinese“
So after 15 minutes of him dilly-dallying around, he comes to meet me in the interview room. I introduce myself and he writes down my very common english name (misspelled, might I add) on a piece of paper as if to pretend to take some notes and then point blank says “actually, sorry, but we’re looking for white people only”
I was livid.
“I know that native english speaking chinese people like you are responsible and likely better teachers, but our clients want white people”
He went on to say all this about appearances of white people at schools or as teachers at an institute is what gets students in…blah blah blah.
anyway, let’s just say that I didn’t stay for very long afterwards.
I knew that there was nothing I can do. I am obviously lucky in the way that I don’t *need* this gig but nevertheless it doesn’t take the sting out of being discriminated against – for being Chinese in China no less.