{"id":6099,"date":"2017-07-30T04:00:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=6099"},"modified":"2017-07-30T13:39:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-30T20:39:56","slug":"the-expatriates-why-do-they-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/the-expatriates-why-do-they-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Expatriates. Why Do They Do It?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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at the airport–leaving home, heading for Manila<\/p><\/div>\n

Expatriates. Why Do They Do It?<\/h3>\n

Why do they leave family and friends and a country they love to live in a place that’s foreign to them? A place where they in turn will be considered foreign?<\/p>\n

The answer is seldom simple, even in a single person or family. It may be a job opportunity, a transfer, the search for adventure and challenge, curiosity about the world, or the desire to be on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n

In our case, it all started when my husband’s company closed during the great economic downturn of 1971 for engineers in Seattle. Eugene went months without work. Even then, he probably wouldn’t have considered a job with the Asian Development Bank in Manila if he hadn’t been Asian and if I hadn’t had a sense of adventure and an interest in Asia. Besides, we thought we could always move back home in four or five years. We never dreamed we’d be expats for the next twenty-two years<\/p>\n

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In Hong Kong to meet my father-in-law on the way to Manila … Tired<\/p><\/div>\n

Expatriate bloggers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In my blogroll (to your right), you will find quite a few expatriates in the “Asian Connection” section. You’d have to visit their blogs to get a true sense of their motivation. But I’d like to introduce you to a few of them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jasmine Tea & Jiaotze<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The author of Jasmine Tea & Jiaotze<\/a>, is a “trailing spouse.” In other words, she’s someone who moved abroad for the the sake of her husband’s work. (In my day, we were just “expat wives.”) An ex-magistrate, Herschelian is from South Africa. She spent her 30s, 40s, and 50s in London, and now she and her husband live in Beijing. A smart observer with an obvious fondness for Chinese culture, her posts are always full of fascinating insights and details.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Life, the Universe and Lani<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Lani<\/a> is an American from Hawaii. She moved to Thailand in 2009. Before\u00a0 that, she lived in Ecuador. Now she and her boyfriend live in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Lani is one of the most thoughtful people I know. She obviously doesn’t believe in living the “unexamined life.”<\/p>\n

Why is Lani an expatriate? According to her she’s “looking for adventure, answers and an alternative lifestyle.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My Hong Kong Husband<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Lina<\/a> is a lively Polish woman married to a Hongkonger. She and Sing live in Ireland now, but they’re preparing to move back to Hong Kong, a place she seems to love every bit as much as her husband does.<\/p>\n

Lina, who is only 26 years old, is wise for her age. See her post on rules of arguing<\/a> and also her post on when your uterus becomes family business. <\/a>She always leavens her wisdom with some humor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Susan Blumberg-Kason<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Susan isn’t actually an expatriate. She lives in Chicago with her second husband and children. But she has the mentality of an expatriate. She spent her childhood “dreaming of the neon street signs and double-decker buses of Hong Kong.” When she was old enough, she moved there to study. Her first husband was a good looking young Chinese from the mainland.<\/p>\n

In her memoir, Good Chinese Wife, Susan describes the five years she spent trying to adjust to Chinese family life and to an emotionally abusive husband. You can read my review of the book here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite a problematic marriage, Susan hasn’t lost her love for Hong Kong and China, and her blog reflects that love and interest.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Other expatriates<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In last week’s post, Are Online Friends Really Friends?<\/a>, I wrote about some other expat bloggers:<\/p>\n

Jocelyn Eikenburg of Speaking of China,<\/p>\n

Marta of Marta lives in China, and<\/p>\n

Constance of Foreign Sanctuary.<\/p>\n

If you visit any of the blogs I’ve mentioned, let me know what you think.<\/p>\n

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Expatriates. Why Do They Do It? Why do they leave family and friends and a country they love to live in a place that’s foreign to them? A place where they in turn will be considered foreign? The answer is seldom simple, even in a single person or family. It may be a job opportunity, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[317,343,13,1340],"tags":[128,1556,1557,1558,1555],"class_list":["post-6099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-book-reviews","category-china","category-expatriate-life","tag-asian-development-bank","tag-jasmine-tea-jiaotze","tag-life-the-universe-and-lani","tag-my-hong-kong-husband","tag-why-expatriate-leave-their-home-countries"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-1An","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5120,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/culture\/reverse-culture-shock-ptsd\/","url_meta":{"origin":6099,"position":0},"title":"Reverse Culture Shock & PTSD","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"May 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0When we lived overseas, we didn\u2019t talk much about culture shock. 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