"Why don't you go back to the US?"

It is certainly a reasonable question and one that I even ask myself when faced with another smoggy Beijing morning. When friends or acquaintances pose the question in real life, the query is often followed by a string of America’s positive attributes; good air, medical care, education system, etc. This list is punctuated by an expression of disbelief that I choose to stay here in China. Other times the question appears on Weibo as the precursor to a stream of xenophobic insults: ”foreign devil,” “you don’t understand China,” “you don’t belong here….get out!” Interestingly, both versions of the question presuppose that I should not be in China. But after many years, I’m still here and I don’t have any immediate plans to leave.

Kim Lee

Before I can begin to answer the question, “Why don’t you leave China?” I first have to answer its familiar counterpart, “Why did you come to China?” In my life B.C. (Before China) I was a teacher in the US. My first trip here was for a research project on teaching English as a second language. Although I was only in China for a very short time, it was long enough to see the profound value that Chinese people place on education. This deep impression stayed with me after I returned to the US and eventually motivated me to come back and accept a job offer that I had received on my first trip. I know that stories of foreigners being mysteriously drawn to China or fascinated by its culture are well-received. I know that traveling across the world for romance has an exotic and appealing air, but I can’t honestly claim either of these popular myths as my own. The truth of my story is actually very simple: I loved teaching and Chinese students loved learning. I was fascinated by students who were willing to fill entire notebooks with English words, or use their limited spending money to buy English learning magazines. In 1999, the Internet was just starting to take off in China. Students didn’t have as much easy access to information as they do today. Eager faces peeping from behind skyscrapers of books questioned me on everything from nominative pronouns to the NBA. I fell in love with their enthusiasm and I shared their belief that the future depended on how much and how well they could learn. I never imagined that one day my own beloved daughters would be sitting in book-strewn Beijing classrooms learning about Chinese culture from local teachers and that the question I most frequently encountered would no longer be “Why did you come to China?” but rather, “Why don’t you go back to the US?”

There is no escaping the fact that growing concerns about the environment and education have shrunken my social circle as Chinese friends emigrate and friends from other countries return to their various “motherlands.” I occasionally come across “My Goodbye Letter to China” or “Why I Left China” articles in the media. These farewell addresses often cite the challenges of raising children here as a reason for departure. In contrast, I’ve found that concern for my children is precisely why I choose to stay.