Oh and those PRC "academics" who are SO humble and virtuous that they accept jobs far beneath their skills, oh, they wouldn't be doing any OTHER kind of work in America. Like assisting China's spy network. Oh of course not. Because, well, this article (and China's Propaganda Department) doesn't mention anything like that, and we can always trust whatever China's Propaganda Department says.

Another example of Ivan not knowing what he's talking about. Routinely I meet former PRC academics working menial jobs in Vancouver. Even doctors, lawyers, etc. many of them work menial jobs after having immigrated because

a.)No one hires you when you don't speak English well.
b.)You need to obtain new licences/degrees to practice.

There's even a page called http://www.notcanada.com/ which details the fate of professionals who immigrate to Canada.

Even if you speak English well you can't always get a good job after immigration. I have an uncle who formerly was a orchestral conductor in Hong Kong. After he immigrated to Toronto, he spent years working unskilled labour in a factory until he became a math teacher.

As for allegation of spy rings, being a practical man I doubt if any country do not make use of spys. However, false espionage allegations can only bring about broken lives and careers. If someone accuses you of being a spy, there really is nothing you can say by which you can defend yourself.

"Nickel And Dimed, On (Not) Getting By In America"

Information about that book - and an exerpt from it - are available at Barbara's own site, at:

http://barbaraehrenreich.com/nickelanddimed.htm

And Barbara Ehrenreich has earned a hell of a lot more credibility than the CCP's Propaganda Department who concocted this lie, this made-up story which Sonagi has been promoting.

Not to mention that they wouldn't have to clean other people's toilets.

Since they will (presumably) be leaving the US after one year is up, it's not really about Chinese diaspora.

This British website has some information that might interest you, Ivan:

http://aupair-visa-uk.greataupair.com/support.cfm/topic/FAQ/faqID/61

As for the wages of US household help, a Mexican scrubbing the floors of a 3,000 sq. ft. McMansion might earn only $5 an hour, but the women in the story worked for very wealthy families. One of the women made $350 a week plus room and board. It's also fair to point out, Fat Cat, that two of the women immigrated in the early 1990s. Presumably, their salaries weren't anywhere near 8,000 rmb a month.

Bullshit.

1. "The women in the story...made $350 a week". Good God, how can you rely on assertions made IN that story for proof of the story's authenticity?
The wages asserted in that story are as unlikely as the story itself.

2. Most "wealthy families" in America do NOT pay their domestic servants much more than minimum wage. But those who DO pay higher wages, almost without exception prefer to hire NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS, because they can afford them, and because it's just easier to have an English speaker working for you.
Why, WHY the hell would any "rich" American families hire a Chinese maid who doesn't speak excellent English? Answer: They don't.
This is bullshit. It's a lie, a made-up story (made up by some propagada agents who don't know as much about America as they think they do.)

3. Chinese professors' salaries were lower in the 1990s. But the 1990s were not the 1970s. The salaries supported a comfortable middle class lifestyle - quite unlike American maids' salaries of that time.

This...story....is...a...lie. And so I still wonder why Sonagi has been working so hard to promote it and rationalise it, and to defend the indefensible.

A Chinese grad or post grad in these subjects can earn more than a white grad in another subject can earn.

If all else fails, Chinese restaurants will deliver to places that most other takeouts can't get enough insurance cover to go, so there are pleanty of jobs for delivery crews that require only enough English to read a street sign (the job does suck though)

LEAVING CHINA: Media, Migration, and Transnational Imagination. By Wanning Sun. Lanham (Maryland), Boulder, New York, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002

This is an up-to-date piece of research. Very well written and easy to read.

As for the wages of US household help, a Mexican scrubbing the floors of a 3,000 sq. ft. McMansion might earn only $5 an hour, but the women in the story worked for very wealthy families. One of the women made $350 a week plus room and board. It's also fair to point out, Fat Cat, that two of the women immigrated in the early 1990s. Presumably, their salaries weren't anywhere near 8,000 rmb a month.

This story resonated with me because of my experiences meeting the Filipino math professor in Korea and Korean small business owners in the US. These Korean immigrants didn't all come to the US with the intention of spending twelve hours a day hiding behind bullet-proof glass in a convenience store located in a rough neighborhood. Often, skilled immigrants turn to physical labor or self-employment when they are unable to find work in their field.

I respect your skepticism and supporting data. The story probably is one of those recycled themes in the Chinese media, but I have met people like Li Hua in Korea and the US.

You can also find plenty of good reference in most libraries in the US.

I have an impression that your knowledge of China is not very up-to-date. I don’t live in China either. But I have several friends who are working in universities in China. And I communicate with them on a regular basis, like several times a week. There are some basic facts and figures that I’d like to point out to you.

-The remuneration of academics in China, in real terms, is very different from that of professors in the Philippines. So it’s very misleading for you to quote the experience of Philippine illegal workers in Korea and then claim that the experience described in that article is genuine.

-A friend of mine who is teaching in a university in Beijing has supplied me with the following information: “the salaries for full professors at state universities in China are around 6,000-8000 RMB, with very little tax. The purchasing value of that salary is about equal to an income of around $50,000 US dollars a year. So you can live a very comfortable middle class lifestyle on a standard Chinese professor's salary.�

-Another friend of mine, who is an American, also pointed out: “in America, domestic servants typically get around minimum wage, ie, just over 5 dollars an hour, equals around 10,000 US dollars per year...which is exactly what a Chinese professor earns. But being a professor is far nicer work than cleaning toilets for the same money - and the money goes a lot farther in China."

Now you can see what kind of problems I have with the article that you translated. You can also understand why I place very low value on make up stories like that in Chinese media. They don’t give a true representation of genuine migrant experience.

Last year, I taught a newcomer from Vietnam, who emigrated with his sister and parents. Nobody spoke a word of English. They were sponsored by the father's sister, who had arrived almost twenty years earlier. She had sponsored her elderly father and two other siblings, too. The student's family was the last to work their way through the system.

As I recall, one of the other two women came on a visiting research visa and overstayed, becoming an illegal worker in the underground economy. She likely had some English education but may have lacked oral skills.

I asked him, "Do you miss it?"
"Absolutely not!"

He made far more money as an illegal factory worker in Korea than as a math professor in Korea.

Many of the Koreans standing behind the counter of their dry cleaning and corner grocery shops used to be white collar workers in Korea.

A couple of corrections:

He made far more money as an illegal factory worker in Korea than as a math professor in the Philippines.

Many of the Koreans standing behind the counters of their dry cleaning and corner grocery shops in North America used to be white collar workers in Korea.

And I'd like to add:

I don't know if Li Hua really exists, but people like her exist. If you ever go to NYC and catch a cab, chances are the driver will not be a native speaker of English. Ask the driver what kind of work they did back in their native country. A middle-aged immigrant with poor English skills is likely to be stuck in a low-wage job no matter what professional skills they might have. That's not propaganda; that's the truth, yet they come anyway. I did not notice anywhere in the story that the three women expressed regret about their decision to emigrate.

Many of the Koreans standing behind the counter of their dry cleaning and corner grocery shops used to be white collar workers in Korea. For the same reasons as cited in the story, these Koreans could not continue in their same fields owing to language difficulties and age. Their greatest hope is that their children will have better opportunities in the US than back in Korea.

I do not view this story as propaganda because the tone was not "stay in China." Fat Cat, did you read the original? These women work hard but they feel they are better off in the US. Li Hua's story was especially uplifting near the end, where she described the feeling of release after looking up at the blue sky. I am a few years younger than the women in the story, and I just went through a big transition moving back to the US. That's why I found the story interesting.

And, again, there is really nothing "informative" in reading junk stories. Millions of racists out there read disgusting hate-blogs all the time. Does that mean that it's "informative" to waste any more than a moment or two reading racist hate-blogs? No.

They are made up stories. Full stop. They are not even very good propaganda techniques. So there is practically, well, nothing to reflect on.

And to cite an extreme example of how such made-up propaganda stories are NOT worth reflecting on, consider the great fraud perpetrated by Russia's intelligence agents around 100 years ago, the slanderous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", which was presented to the world as evidence of a vast Jewish conspiracy.

Well, all it was, was a huge lie, created and spread around the world by some evil spies and propagandists. And yet, for a long time, many people thought it was worth talking about. No. The only thing which was ever worth talking about, vis a vis that propaganda made-up story, was the fact that it was a lie. And thus not worth reflecting on at all.

And not worth translating and spreading around for further publication.

PS, Uganda's insane dictator, Idi Amin, read "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and took it very seriously. Which just goes to show you what kind of company you're in if you think made-up propaganda stories are worth reflecting on and discussing.

I thought that, as a "legend" that has been told and recycled a number of times in the official media, it was worthwhile looking into and reflecting on...

No Kevin, there is nothing profound here to reflect on because these are not true stories of real diaspora experience. They are made up stories. Full stop. They are not even very good propaganda techniques. So there is practically, well, nothing to reflect on. Therefore I'm curious and want Sonagi to give a bit more background. Because she may have a particular reason for choosing that piece of writing.

Whoa, I didn't mean to say that there was no need for it to be translated! .

Speak for yourself. I really have to raise an eyebrow about the point of volunteering to translate dispatches from the CCP's Propaganda Department.
And no I don't see how the mere fact of such a story making the rounds lends it any particular value or warrants giving it even more attention.

I saw this "you know where" yesterday and was quite surprised, because I am almost 100% sure that I had seen and heard this story before. It had come from my favorite nauseating reading materials, "Global Times." It seems like a story that gets picked up in cycles, I guess in an attempt to constantly "remind" everyone that they should "stay in China." Seems to be the general gist of the story...

Ditto to what Kevin just said. Sonagi, no offence, but could you elaborate a bit more about why you choose to translate this piece of writing. My general rule of thumb when I'm doing translation for fun (as against for money) is that if it's not worthwhile reading, then it's not worthwhile translating. So a bit of explanation from you might help me see the point of this exercise.

Yes, yes, China's Propaganda Department needs MORE help.

Oh and those PRC "academics" who are SO humble and virtuous that they accept jobs far beneath their skills, oh, they wouldn't be doing any OTHER kind of work in America. Like assisting China's spy network. Oh of course not. Because, well, this article (and China's Propaganda Department) doesn't mention anything like that, and we can always trust whatever China's Propaganda Department says.

(insert another sarcasm emoticon of hydrogen bomb magnitude)

http://www.chinanews.com.cn/other/news/2006/09-05/785099.shtml