In China we learn to adapt, to go with the flow, to lie. Take for instance, your professionals here. Tom may say that he is practicing law in China and that advising foreigners on the intricacies of chinese contract law is a far better way to say “my job is to watch the ill educated Chinese locals as they try to comprehend a fractured legal system which oxymoron that it is, should rreally be a violation of any code of ethics that a lawyer may have, ie to use the words legal system or law in this country. Tom will talk about late night strategy sessions and have the girls on edge with his talks about practicing law in china, but in reality he cannot practice law here, that is the law. So basically he spends his time oggling buck toothed secretaries, falling asleep in meetings and counting the days till he returns to sanity. Or what about T, the guy who says he does business development, but merely takes Japanese businessmen to places like Dongguan for cheap hookers or Foshan for golf, does he tell anyone that? No, T calls himself a director and that is what his business card says.
See, China is smoke and mirrors, the place itself is built upon false perceptions and deceit, and if we really told the truth about this place, the rest of you would not believe it, and or would not respect the great job we do, so we lie. If and when real business people come to this place, after witnessing the shenanigans and bullshit, they usually wait for the ktv lady to wipe them off with a new kleenex and then shake their heads wondering how in the fk normal people can function in this place, with all the lies, the deceit and outright injustice. They wonder how chinese business function where there are no ethics nor morals to guide them.
You may think I am exaggerating, but sadly enough I am not. After working and studying here and even doing some teaching at a ‘good’ chinese university, I think it is pretty obvious that this place is far more backwards than anything you would find in latin america, but to say that is politically incorrect and would look negatively upon us, or so we think, so we propagate the lie. Dont feel badly, its not just China. for instance, my mba is from one of the best in the states, but in reality the U of I where I also studied was much cheaper and probably almost as good, but we dont tell people that, as if we did, the number 1 ranking of my school would lose credibility.
Political correctness sucks.