So you don't like your prospects in post-crash America, and you want to come to China to get on the corporate fast -track? Great! But please don't. Nothing personal - OK, something personal - most of us foreigners came here to get away from the likes of you. Not you, exactly, but what you believe in, that moldy Eisenhower version of the American Dream: a TV in the bedroom, two cars in the garage, and casual Fridays.

It's just that things are so interesting here, there are so many fine paths that don't end up at a managed care facility in Florida, that it's a shame to come to China looking for a 9 to 6 in a respectable cubicle in a respectable glass tower. Here are three old-school expats who prove it.

Dominic Johnson Hill

Dominic, or Old Jiang if you know him, shows that real success in China involves rebirth. When he got here in '95, he played the traditional role of accidental colonist: living in the all-foreign compound, playing baseball at the embassy, and staying close to the bosom of his English pub with the other Brih-ish. He even did the "sick of China" bit, flying the cuckoo's nest back to the UK, only to find he no longer belonged there, returning to China to stay.

Committed to going native this time round, he moved to the Gulou area of Beijing, shared an apartment with Chinese roommates, and making friends with Chinese painters and artists. Submit to win - few understand the strategy, but the gods smile on it. Fortune relocated him in Naluoguxiang Alley before it became a tourist mecca, and Old Jiang opened a shirt selling witty t-shirts (witty to people who know China, anyway), and all sorts of PRC memorabilia. A humble shop, Plastered 8, but he loved what he was doing, and success soon followed - international attention, long-tail projects and ventures, the whole selfish fantasy all of us laowai lock away in our hearts.

Belen Cliadra

It seems so simple: go to a new country, learn the language. English-speakers haven't had the need for such common sense, thus the decades-in expat who can't write his name in Mandarin. The younger expats are getting it right, many getting a solid Chinese-grounding before even getting on the plane. Often, they're hoping to leverage those language skills for some serious bucks.

Ironic, then, that one of the most respected foreign Chinese language students only began learning on a whim, in Granada, Spain, a city she never left until graduating college, and where she had never encountered a fluent speaker. Something about Chinese characters simply compelled her to begin studying them.

Curiosity led to passion, and after college she enrolled at Beijing Foreign Studies University to master the language. A combination of talent and limited supply landed her on Xinhua's Spanish-language team, which counts her that rarest of intercultural treasures, a naturally gifted and committed translator. She has recently completed the first Spanish translation of Lao She's Teahouse, and looks forward to specializing as a literary translator. Her language mastery has granted her a passport to the worlds of other great authors: Lu Xun, Ba Jin, and Su Tong, among others. She enjoys traveling to the cities where their works are located.

Johan Bjorksten

Then there's the guy who came here for business and ended up a TV celebrity. But Johan Bjorksten is one of those types that would start a coconut concern on a desert island, a Scandinavian dynamo who smashes through obstacles like a battering ram through a rickety English monastery.

He already spoke English, French, German, and Russian before getting to China, little surprise, then, the sickening ease with which he mastered Mandarin, getting the gig as translator for ping pong god Waldner's China tours. When, oh when would he find the time to use his Master's in molecular dynamics? Never. At least, not yet. A kind as well as a cunning linguist, he penned several well-received books on Mandarin study, then authored PR, Chinese Style. Zhongguoren say his book reinvented the industry here. They should know; it was written in Chinese.

But Bjorksten came to China to do business, not bandy words. He started three successful companies: in golf equipment, music recording, and PR. The latter, Eastwei Relations, counts IKEA, Sony, and GM on its client roster. Under-stimulated, he found himself hosting foreign cooking and music shows on CCTV. Vice -Chairing the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, and lecture tours soak up the rest of his excess energy nowadays, although he certainly doesn't show it. The only physical clue is his shiny dome. Nothing can grow on a brain burning that hot.

Ernie's blog

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