Editor's note: The following article, translated and edited from a report that appeared on huanqiu.com, discusses the recent, very public announcement by one of China's most well known sinophiles, Mark Kitto, that despite his multi-decade love affair with the country, due to recent developments in China  (and the lack thereof), he can no longer live here. From there, the article examines additional factors that are noted sources of "dissatisfaction" among Chinese, and which, in the most extreme cases, have been identified as the leading causes of Chinese emigrating overseas.

On August 8, 2012, Mark Kitto—a one-time metals trader in China, former owner of the That's Shanghai magazine empire, and most recently, the manager of a coffee shop guest house complex at the top of Moganshan outside of Shanghai—published an article in the British-based Prospect Magazine, entitled: "You'll Never Be Chinese: Why I'm Leaving the Country I Loved." In the article, Kitto clearly explains that despite having studied, worked and lived in China for the past 16 years—and with the original intention of staying here for good—fundamental changes to the country he once loved, or perhaps more accurately, increasingly constraining problems associated with trying to make a living here, have ultimately led to his decision that he and his family must leave China.

And according to an article published on August 24, 2012 in the Chinese edition of the New York Times (entitled "为什么他们要离开中国?"), Kitto is far from alone. Recently, it seems that an increasing number of China expats have been reaching the same conclusion: it's time to leave.

But it's not only foreigners like Kitto that have been considering leaving China: Chinese themselves have been emigrating for years now. According to a 2011 survey conducted by wealth researcher Hurun Report, more than half of China's millionaires (worth more than 10 million RMB) have already emigrated or applied to emigrate (14%) or are currently considering emigration (46%). While it's impossible for a single survey to offer a definitive take on China's status quo, at the very least, such findings suggest that there are problems back home that simply cannot be ignored.

Number of dissatisfied and unconfident Chinese growing

By most accounts, three decades of economic reform and development have greatly benefited a majority of the Chinese population, raising the average standard of living to levels that were simply unimaginable to the previous generations. Yet, at the same time, China's primary model of development—heavily focused on state-led modernization and institutional mechanisms from the onset—has been increasingly questioned and challenged by various social strata and interest groups within the country, while the number of "dissatisfied" in each social strata, believing that the government is not doing enough to take care of them, has been increasing as well.

While there's no doubt that a majority of China's "dissatisfied" come from either the disadvantageously positioned grassroots groups or the urban middle class, it's a bit more surprising to see that there's a substantial proportion of China's rich and powerful who lack confidence in China's system of social contracts as well. For the former, the torrents of injustice witnessed on a daily basis are the single greatest source of dissatisfaction, with their only real options to voice such dissatisfaction being through individual or group petitions and protests. As for the latter, they're most apprehensive about the numerous "uncertainties" in China's future, and they voice their dissatisfaction through the alternative means of simply leaving the country—colloquially referred to as "voting with one's feet" (用脚投票).

"Unwritten rules"

Such uncertainties stem from the shocking prevalence of the so-called "unwritten rules" (潜规则), which run Chinese society behind the curtains, often greatly obscuring or perverting its "formal rules" in the process. To witness such "unwritten rules" in effect, one must look no further than trying to deal with one of the basic administration processes seen in pretty much any government department, viewed by most of the population as shockingly arbitrary, despite whatever the formal rules may mandate.

Take for example Mark Kitto, whose attempt at living a quiet, secluded life on Moganshan running a small coffee shop and several guest houses (after having his multi-million dollar magazine empire seized by the government in 2006) was plagued by the constant fear that officials from the local government would show up, arbitrarily refuse his business license and take over his operation. For businesspeople in China, Chinese and foreigners alike, this kind of investment and business environment—which is costly (especially when hongbaos come into play), time consuming, bothersome and incredibly unstable—is a constant source of headache-inducing paranoia.

Unscrupulous materialism

Fundamental changes to the social system resulting from China's rapid economic development have lead to much dissatisfaction (and emigration) as well. One major consequence of the improved standards of living has been a growing focus among the population on materialism, as well as a more mercenary attitude ("money over everything"), which has directly led to massive environmental damage, inferior quality (and dangerous) goods and a plethora of other social problems.

We don't need no education...

Any investigation into the factors leading Chinese (or foreigners) to emigrate must inevitably mention the quality and nature of China's education system. First, despite reforms, primary education opportunities in China are still incredibly unequal, with many children, particularly those in impoverished and rural areas, still unable to regularly attend school for a variety of economic and organizational factors.

Second, the quality of schools and the teaching styles are sources of concern for many parents in China. In his "You'll Never Be Chinese" article, Kitto is also critical of China's education system: "The domestic Chinese lower education system does not educate. It is a test centre. The curriculum is designed to teach children how to pass them." Each year, a new batch of students, who've already spent a majority of their lives taking "admissions tests" to move up the educational ladder, push themselves even further to pass the gaokao test needed to attend a Chinese university. And for those students fortunate enough to get in to a university, most quickly discover that the quality of teaching at the university level is simply unable to match the quantity of students. Hence the reason why those with the financial means often opt to send their children abroad… or just emigrate themselves.

Source: oversea.huanqiu.com
 

Related links
"Sweep Out the Foreign Trash": Is Anti-Foreigner Sentiment Trending in China?
The New Immigration Wave out of China: A Sign of China's Failure?
China Fails to Retain Scholars in Spite of Economic Growth

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Keywords: Mark Kitto leaving China Chinese emigrating overseas “You’ll never be Chinese” quality of education in China quality of life in China