--- SEARCH ---
WEATHER
CHINA
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS
CULTURE
GOVERNMENT
SCI-TECH
ENVIRONMENT
LIFE
PEOPLE
TRAVEL
WEEKLY REVIEW
Learning Chinese
Learn to Cook Chinese Dishes
Exchange Rates


Hot Links
China Development Gateway
Chinese Embassies

More Chinese Work Abroad
Meng, a 34-year-old Chinese software engineer working in San Francisco, has been living apart from his family, who live in Dalian, a port city in eastern China, for more than three years.

In spite of the physical separation, he remains on very intimate terms with his wife and son. After work, he routinely logs into a chatroom to speak with his wife or listens to his son playing the piano over the telephone.

"We will continue this lifestyle for a while as I find it difficult to get a well-paid job in China, and my wife enjoys her job in Dalian," Meng said.

Families such as Meng's, separated for professional or economic reasons, are on the rise in China.

According to government statistics, a total of 210,000 Chinese went abroad during the 30-year period preceding 1979, which marked China's opening its doors to the outside world. In contrast, the year 2002 saw 16.6 million Chinese citizens going abroad for study, work and sightseeing, an increase of 36 percent over the previous year.

Families with members working abroad are increasingly common in China.

Mrs. Han, a university professor in Changchun, in northeast China's Jilin Province, was dispatched by her university to the Republic of Korea to teach Chinese a year ago. Her husband, also a university professor, stays home to take care of their six-year-old son. Although she regrets not being able to take good care of her husband and son, she is reluctant to give up her well-paid job.

To compensate for her absence, and due to her love for her husband and son, she returns to Changchun for every winter and summer vacation and has promised to return for good when her contract expires.

Nearly all the families surveyed said they plan to settle in China. Working abroad is merely an opportunity to make money, set up future projects or broaden their perspectives.

In this age of the Internet, the visual-telephone and other modern telecom facilities, husbands and wives can still communicate. It thus makes no difference that a husband and wife live in different cities within China or in other parts of the world.

Globalization has brought China closer to other nations, and the Chinese people have become more pragmatic, said Chinese economists.

(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2003)

More Chinese Going Abroad for Private Reasons
Overseas Study Spells Success
Chinese Doctors Popular Aboard
Print This Page
|
Email This Page
About Us SiteMap Feedback
Copyright © China Internet Information Center. All Rights Reserved
E-mail: webmaster@china.org.cn Tel: 86-10-68326688