Asian american expat experience in china?

Hello everyone. I am thinking about moving to China to work but being Asian American who does not speak Chinese, there are some unique concerns. I wanted to get some feedback from Asian Americans especially Japanese and Koreans who live in china. What is the experience like? Do you get confused for a native Chinese or encounter misunderstandings because they mistake you for being Chinese?

Hi and welcome to Expat.com wisk!

Hope the forum will provide you with some useful advices soon.

Regards
Armand

Filipino-American in Beijing.

Sometimes I get confused for being Chinese. There's no real disadvantage unless people come up and try to speak to you. It happens most often by store employees when you're shopping. Even then "Wǒ bù huì shuō zhōngwén" (I don't speak Chinese) will get them off your back.

I'm not an expert at Chinese attitudes towards other nationalities, but I think China and Korea have good relations. There's a fairly large pocket of Koreans going to university here in Wudaokou. Japanese-Chinese relations is a bit more tricky. The two countries has had history of conflict in the past century that still springs up occasionally. I recently saw Flowers of War, about the Nanking Massacre during the 2nd Sino-Japanese war. It's a highly controversial issue and you might want to get a second opinion on that.

Otherwise, it's not that big of a deal. If you look Chinese, you'll blend in. You don't, then it's no big deal.