Bexley Houses in Beijing

I had a meeting in a Beijing suburban house with 3 stories and 3 maids. It was a Bexley house airlifted to Beijing. It was the house of a couple of expats with cushy sofas and wine books littering the den. I was very agitated as I recounted the house to a friend. Being a reasonable person, he asked why I was so agitated.

I stammered out a response on how I lived in similar houses in Peru (as a guest). In them, I saw the house divided into that of foreign masters and native servants, which easily led to “us” vs. “them” language:

“You need to be firm with them because they do not have the work ethic that makes us Americans self-making men and women.”

“They don’t appreciate what we do for them.”

This attitude that began at the household level moves at frightening speed towards a national level of seeing other service workers (and sometimes other natives) through a sloppy servant’s lens.

On my way to the meeting, the taxi driver asked me if I were going to see a foreigner as that neighborhood is full of foreigners, the ones with cars as that area is out of range of subway stops. The neighborhood is its own national, socio-economic, racial enclave in a new country. But isn’t the point of living abroad to immerse yourself in a new place, tongue, worldview? Those who proclaim themselves world-travelers, are implying that they are public diplomats –furthering an exchange between peoples and goods– that theirs is a noble cause. But a house divided does not allow for genuine exchange between cultures.

For enclave, live-in-maid lifestyles, I have heard the following explanations:

“It is a major benefit to be able to move around easily in English-speaking areas of the city.”

Have you considered living in an English speaking country?

“Purchasing power here is more than in my home developed country.”

Then do not try to claim you are doing people here a favor.

“I’m giving jobs to locals by employing maids and employees.”

Seen through another lens, you are also taking the job of a national.

Also, don’t view yourself as a nobleman furthering cultural exchange.

In the Wealth of Nations, Smith said that it was not the altruistic, but the self interests of the butcher, the carpenter, the shop keeper who provided others with meat, furniture, goods. So don’t try to make any claims on nobility.

These claims on the good that you are doing for the Chinese economy also blind you to the ills you are doing to the Chinese psyche. Living in such an ostentatious manner in a foreign country, you are reinforcing the idea that white=superior and wealth=foreignness, contributing to the internalized racism at which China is an expert.

The taxi driver said knowingly: “Foreigners are the ones with the money to live in an area of bungalows and cars.” Your lifestyles scream to the natives: “Look at us. Don’t you wish you can be us?” And you cannot hide behind the argument that it is not your fault people look at you with envy. You have a responsibility for how your actions are received, foreign or not.

To give you a concrete example, why do we call big businesses “heartless bastards who only care about their bottom line” when they close down factories in southern Illinois to move to Southeast Asia where labor and lives are cheap? It is because they don’t give a shit about how their actions impact others. Well, you do the same when you fail/refuse to see how your lifestyles impact the psyche/wellbeing of those around you.

Now if those houses remained in Bexley, would the owners still be as guilty of viewing the States through a divided lens, justifying their consumption as improving the economy, and furthering internalized racism? I say yes. Are they guilty to the same degree? What are the direct impacts of their lifestyles on those in inner city Columbus or blue collar Grove City? I am embarrassingly unaware of the lives that blacks and Latinos, inner city dwellers lead in the States. Living in Grove City for 5 years, I would say residents there are not as impacted by their countrymen’s extravagance as the Chinese are of foreigners’. Perhaps being of the same nationality matters. Perhaps the Chinese have more experience on internalized racism.

Regardless, while those who look up to you are also responsible for how they view you, it does not absolve you of responsibility for how you live.