Ruined for Life: Phoenix Edition

Yesterday I had lunch with a Chinese friend, who surprised me by saying she and her husband are thinking, seriously thinking of emigrating to Canada. Her sister-in-law is, because the sister-in-law’s sister-in-law is sponsoring them. I don’t blame you if that’s hard to follow.

In Guangzhou all my students were planning to leave as soon as they could and from talking to the parents it seemed that the plan was to establish a child overseas who could later sponsor the parents.

Yesterday my friend voiced concerns about being lonely in Canada and as best as I could figure that would entirely depend on the person, on how outgoing or open one is to friendship. She intimated some worries about prejudice, but really my best guess is that it would be easier for her in Canada than it is for me in China since she knows English. And I’m faring well enough.

Still I was surprised that these people who’ve weathered tougher times and now are reaping the benefits of a good economy are considering leaving. I’ve been to my friend’s condo and it’s quite nice and she owns another apartment as investment property.

The Wall St. Journal had a video about Chinese millionaires contemplating a move overseas. As I watched I thought, the featured millionaire’s wealth would go farther in China and why not just move to a nicer part of China, maybe Xiamen, which is like Hawai’i? I also wondered how well the writer knew America since his observations seemed rather superficial and he’d only visited the U.S. once on a cross-country trip. It’ll be interesting to see what happens, but I’d hate to see a brain drain here.