Dear 'Guide in China' & other 'Expat Media' 🐉
Channel: 白猪猪🐷ExpatRights
Date: 2022-01-13

I have encountered some insightful articles such as important laws that affect my life. I’ve also read some entertaining stories, such as about the disgruntled, neutered dog who got revenge on the veterinary clinic. Because of such insight, I’ve kept your subscription.

However, I have noticed a new trend of narrative in the Media that I didn’t notice even last year. The foreigner behaving badly narrative. Every week I see a new article about an expat who did bad things. In 2020 it was actually crazy stuff like some infected man who bit nurses. He deserved the full penalties of law. Then in 2021 it went to foreigners having angry tirades while being filmed, but not actually breaking laws. 

The most recent noteworthy case was that tall guy that got deported for his rant during a nucleic acid test and said abusive clauses towards this country. It was a good example of bad behavior. Also couple of weeks ago, a belligerent expat called an NAT volunteer a “psycho” and spit on the ground. Rude, but I see people shouting at each other and spitting on the ground every day. The pattern is of decreasing severity. These two stories were confused by your news agency for about a day BTW while your muckrakers were sorting out the facts.

I’ll get to the point finally. On the subject of decreasing severity, this week’s foreigner behaving badly article is about exposing one’s nose on the subway in SZ and putting one’s foot on the pole… is that even newsworthy? I guess it is newsworthy of an outside country person does it. Furthermore, people have been unable to comment on these recent “examples” articles and they clearly state “comment below”. 

I get it. We’re all sick of the barely literate person who got in trouble at home and had to get out of town fast and then learned they can be comfortably drunk and frequently laid without needing to learn Chinese and/or travel the wonders of the world this country has to offer. Sexpats, or deuche-pats or sleaze-pats or ex-convict-pats or “oily foreigners” as some locals call them aren’t liked by anyone.

Most of them went home after recent Visa restrictions BTW. For those oily expat stragglers who are still here, their days are numbered. This is most likely because the Z-Visa’s days are numbered in many cities. Most of us expats still working here after all of the craziness around the world of the last two years are 1) on good behavior and/or 2) trying to learn the language and/or 3) trying to see the wonders of the middle kingdom if we have the freedom to do so.

I sincerely hope what is motivating this trend is just some writhers following algorithmic and just not thinking. I fear it’s perhaps with the closing of the 40-year opening and reform policy, perhaps there’s a subtext of yearning for purity again. In certain cities, English on the subways is intentionally being covered by stickers so people don’t have to see English. If you don’t want English on new signs, make the new signs without English, it’s OK. But to buy possible kilometers of stickers to cover up existing signs… is not what I’d call a good sign no pun intended. I know you have nothing to do with covering signs, I’m just connecting possible trends here.

This trend is enough of a concern that people at my work, a pretty decent tier 1 university, have brought up these incidents in the news and informed me that if I essentially make any mistakes in public such as jaywalking or cutting the queue (which I NEVER DO, yet see people doing it daily), that I could risk being in the news as the next example. They actually informed me of this narrative trend that I suspected, so it’s not just my imagination. To conclude my long-winded rant: GICexpat, I can’t tell you what to publish, but if you’re going to push this foreigner behaving badly narrative, it’s better for everyone if it’s about foreigners actually doing bad stuff like biting people. Thank you.

Sincerely,

A foreign friend who subscribes to your news channel.

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