coming to china to study or research job description

Moving to China to Work or Study – The Complete Guide

This article is a quick guide to everything you need to know to prepare before moving to China and how to take your first steps once you have arrived. Keep in mind that many of the subjects included here have been covered in much more detail in other articles.

In this article, I will discuss the following aspects (you can click on any of them to skip directly to the section that interests you):

What to prepare before leaving for China

Relocation agencies, finding a job, money and cards, plane tickets, documentation, health insurance, finding lodging for the first days, what to bring.

• Sending your things

Finding a school for your children

First steps in china, registering with the local police, residency permit, registering with your consulate, opening a bank account, driver’s license, phone cards and internet, finding a place to live.

Moving to China to live can be a complicated task, and as you are going to see throughout this article, it takes time and patience. There are many specialized agencies that can help you along in this process to make it less traumatic, both before leaving and once you have arrived at your destination.

If you want to find out more about how relocation agencies work, I recommend you read this article if you have already decided that you want to contract the services of a relocation agency. We can recommend a trustworthy and honest one.

Even though there are many job opportunities in China, knowing how to find a job is not that simple.

It’s important for you to keep in mind that to work in the principal cities in China, legally you need at least two years of work experience (normally after obtaining a university degree) or a Ph.D.

If this isn’t your case, you can choose to test your luck in a smaller city (where the requirements are much less strict) or do an internship first ( click here to read our guide ).

If, on the other hand, you want to go to China to study, finding a vacancy is relatively easy both in private schools and universities. The only thing you will have to do is choose the school or university among the large educational offering that exists in China. You can click here to read our suggestions.

Obtaining a student or work visa in China is getting more complicated all the time. The process to obtain the necessary documents can take you between one and two months. Therefore, plan ahead of time.

Click here to read our complete and updated guide on how to obtain a Chinese visa.

Even though it’s not necessary to get any vaccines to go to China, I recommend that you update your diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus, polio, typhoid, hepatitis A and B vaccines. Here you can find more information on the subject.

In any case, it’s better to consult your doctor, as they will be familiar with your vaccine records and can decide what’s best for you.

The Chinese Yuan is not an international currency and because of that, it will be very difficult to obtain it in your country of origin. However, once you are in China, changing any international currency into Yuan is relatively easy, whether in cash or via a bank transfer to your Chinese bank account. International cards such as Visa or MasterCard are accepted by the majority of ATMs from the main Chinese banks. However, you should keep in mind that China has its own network called UnionPay and because of this, the majority of businesses won’t accept foreign Visa or MasterCard credit cards.

As we explain later in this article, when you arrive in China it is advisable to open a bank account even if you are staying for a short period of time. Having an account with a Chinese bank will make your life much easier and will greatly reduce bank commission expenses. You can read our article to know more about how to open an account and the best way to bring your money to China .

I recommend that you buy your plane tickets at least one month in advance. Even if you just want to buy a one-way ticket, I recommend that you check the prices for round-trip tickets because there are many companies whose one-way tickets are much more expensive than their round-trip ones.

In addition, I imagine that if you are moving to China, you will take along a lot of luggage. So, it’s a good idea to check out the baggage policies of the different companies.

While I don’t recommend one particular company, considering that the deals can vary from one place to another, Air China could be a good option. With Air China, the flight prices are added up separately (you don’t get a discount for a round-trip ticket) and in addition, on the majority of inter-continental flights, they allow you to check two 25kg bags.

Click here to read our advice on how to get the best prices on your plane tickets.

China is not a signatory to the Apostille Convention , which means that legal documents issued in any other countries have no validity in China.

In the majority of countries, the only way to legalize them is:

• Legalization through the corresponding ministry of the document (for example, in the case of a university degree, the Ministry of Education).
• Legalization of the document by the foreign ministry.
• Authentication and legalization by the Chinese consulate in your country.

Take note that this process can only take place in the country in which the document was issued (that country’s consulate in China can’t help you), so think carefully about which documents may be useful to you in China. The most common ones are: degrees, marriage certificates, birth certificates and work contracts.

Healthcare is not free in China. Therefore, I recommend that you check with your company or university to see if they will provide you with health insurance or not. In the majority of cases, the company won’t provide you with any type of health insurance and universities only provide you with basic coverage. Because of this, you will have to take out a health insurance policy.

For more information on this subject, I recommend that you read this article .

If you are going to study at a university, you will normally be provided with a room in the foreign students’ residence. If not, unless you contract a relocation agency, it will be practically impossible for you to find an apartment or room before arriving in China.

You can click here to read our recommendations to find a good hotel for the best price.

In my opinion, when going to China, you should bring the following as a minimum:

• Medicine : Many drugs in China are expensive, hard to find and of doubtful quality. I recommend that you bring a good amount of pain-killers, antibiotics and some anti-diarrhea pills.
• Books or a reader like the Kindle : In China, it’s very difficult to find books in English and practically impossible in other languages. Even in the big cities, the selection is quite limited (Hong Kong is the exception).
• Gifts : In the beginning, you are definitely going to need a lot of help from your colleagues or Chinese people you know, and it’s good manners to offer gifts for the help they provide you. Some of the most valued foreign products in China are wine, beauty products and powdered milk for children.

Sending your belongings

In my opinion, it’s not necessary to send all of your belongings to China, as the majority of apartments or rooms are already furnished and buying clothing or home products is quite cheap. However, if you are moving as a family or for other reasons need to bring more things than you can check on the plane, there are many companies that can help you send your belongings.

I recommend that you use a company that specializes in China, as clearing customs can be complicated at times and is going to be more or less rigorous depending on the good (or bad) contacts that the importation company has.

Keep in mind that the following products are prohibited: poisons, precious stones, jewelry, coins, dollar bills, counterfeit money, weapons, ammo, digital materials (tapes, CDs, etc.), and any other printed material that could be considered harmful.

Articles that aren’t prohibited but which are strictly regulated include any device that can intercept radio signals, lithium batteries, tobacco, alcohol, plants, seeds, and animals.

The shipment can be made via air transport (more expensive but quicker, around a week) or sea transport (cheaper but slower, between one and two months). Finally, make sure that you properly protect your belongings against humidity and bangs, as they aren’t going to be treated with much care.

If you move with your children, one of your main worries will surely be where they are going to go to school. The Chinese education system is quite specific and particularly demanding of students.

To put it briefly, in Chinese schools, competitiveness is encouraged and creativity is stamped out, and students are required to study for long hours and complete never-ending homework. If you want to find out more about how Chinese schools work, I recommend that you read the interview that we did with Marta , an Italian student who went to study in Chinese high school for a year.

Because of the reasons that I just mentioned (apart from language), many expats choose to send their children to international schools . You can see the complete list of international schools in China by clicking here .

Given that the tuition in international schools is quite high, recently, ex-pat parents have started to enroll their children in conventional private schools.

There are even some parents who are enrolling their children in public schools, either out of necessity (because there is no other option in the place where they live) or because they want their children to integrate better in the country. If you are thinking about this option, you should know that Chinese public schools are just like the universities: their financing and quality vary greatly from one to another, and in addition, securing a place in the best schools is extremely difficult.

As you can see, choosing the right school for your children can be a difficult task (especially if you don’t speak Chinese). So, unless you have a suggestion from someone who lives there, I suggest you ask for an expert’s opinion .

Getting pets into China can be a little bit complicated and in the majority of cases, the pet is going to have to be quarantined for seven or thirty days, depending on the country of origin. There are two ways to avoid the quarantine:

• Entering China via an airport that doesn’t require quarantine: Shanghai and Beijing require quarantine. I’m not sure about Guangzhou, because the information on it is contradictory. The only international airport that I know doesn’t require quarantine is the one in Qingdao.
• Contracting an agency: There are many agencies that will help you with the paperwork, and many assure you that it is possible to avoid the quarantine both in Shanghai and Beijing. However, the cost is quite high.

The requirements for bringing a pet into China are the following:

• A Z visa or work visa.
• Official certificate of recent vaccination against rabies (between 30 days and 12 months before entering the country).
• An international certificate of good health issued by your veterinarian in your current country. The certificate must have been issued a maximum of 14 days before your arrival in China.
• The passport of the owner, which will be presented at customs and must coincide with the name on the vaccination and health certificates.
• Pets that travel unaccompanied require an importation permit. The permit must have been obtained by someone acting on the behalf of the owner.
• China isn’t currently demanding a microchip, but it’s very likely that this will change soon.

Important : In China, animals can’t travel on public transport, whether on the bus, train, or subway. Normally, taxis won’t have a problem if the animal is small, but if you are transporting, say, a large dog, it would be better for you to arrange transportation.

One of the first things that you have to do when you arrive in China is to register with the local police station. Normally you have 24 hours after your arrival to do it. If you are staying in a hotel or a university student residence, the hotel or university will do it for you. If this is not the case, you will have to do it yourself.

While a few years ago, registering late wasn’t a problem, the tendency in the past years has been getting more and more strict when it comes to this regulation. Even though right now, registering late will just mean a written notice that you must sign promising not to do it again (under the threat of a fine), it is very likely that in the future, you should expect to pay a fine for each day of tardiness.

To register, you just need your passport and rent contract or a copy of the property registration or the ID card of the property owner of the place in which you are staying.

Both the Z1 (work visa) and X1 visas (long-term study visa) have a validity of just one month. During this time, you will have to exchange these visas for a residency permit. For this, you will need to:

1) Undergo a medical exam in an authorized medical center.

2) Go to the PSB Exit and Entry Administration office where you are living with the following documents:

• Local police registration documents
• Results of the medical exam
• Documentation on employment or studies (the company, university or school should provide it to you)
• Two passport photos.

Even though it’s not necessary to do this, I recommend that you register with the consulate or embassy from your country for many reasons. I am just going to mention what are in my opinion the two most important ones:

As a foreigner, in China, your passport is the only piece of valid ID that you will have, and you are going to need it for all of your procedures (going to the bank, train tickets, renting an apartment, etcetera). Because of this, it’s not rare for it to be lost or damaged. If your country doesn’t know that you are living in China, it will be a real pain in the neck to get a new passport.

If one day, you decide to leave China, having lived there for at least a year will give you many tax advantages upon changing your place of residence, and the only way to prove it is through registering with your consulate or embassy.

Opening a bank account is relatively easy and you aren’t going to need much language ability to do it. The only thing you need is your passport and around 10 to 20 Yuan for the card.

Why do I need to open a bank account?

Having a bank account in China is indispensable for various reasons:

• If you are working in China and your are paid in Yuan, you will need a Chinese bank account.
• As I have said before, the Chinese banking network is UnionPay, and in the majority of places, only cards on this network will be accepted.
• The best way to exchange currencies is via bank transfer to a Chinese bank and later changing the international currency that you have transferred to Yuan. Also, you can save a lot of money in bank fees by using Wise (formerly Transferwise) .
• To purchase things online, you can only do so with an “online bank account” from a Chinese bank.

You can get more information about this topic by reading this article

Which bank to choose

If you work in China and the company pays you in Yuan, it’s very likely that they will require you to get a particular bank account. In the event that you can choose, I recommend that you choose one of the large banks, as they allow you to keep your money in the account in various currencies. Personally, I like the Construction bank of China and the ICBC.

I suggest that you avoid the Bank of China, as it is an inefficient and excessively bureaucratic bank. To give you an idea: if you lose your Bank of China card, you won’t be able to use your bank account for two weeks, whereas at the Construction Bank, they will make you a new one in the moment.

International driver’s licenses aren’t valid in China. If you want to drive, you will have to obtain a Chinese permit.

The process for getting the permit is quite easy if you have one from another country. If you want to find out how to do this, I recommend that you read this article .

In China, there are currently two mobile phone companies: China Unicom and China Mobile. Both companies are practically the same in terms of service and price. Even though in the past, people said that the mobile internet was a lot better with China Unicom, since the implementation of 4G, I don’t think there are significant differences.

Currently, prepaid SIM cards can only be purchased at the official stores of the two major companies; you will have to show your passport and pay between 20-50 Yuan. You can also make a monthly contract, though I only recommend this option if you are going to use the phone a lot.

As for the internet on your telephone, you should keep the following in mind:

• Remember to activate your data plan: When you go to the store to get your SIM card they will normally ask you to choose between the different data plans according to the monthly limit you want.
• In China, internet usage is limited: If you want to access your Google (or Gmail) account, Facebook, Twitter or many other services, you are going to need a VPN active on your cell phone .
• The 4G system is different depending on the company and if you want to use it, it’s possible you may need to purchase a Chinese cell phone which is compatible with your company.

You can read more on the companies and how the internet works in China by clicking here .

This is one of the biggest problems when someone arrives in China. Looking for apartments can be hopeless, as the quality of the apartments, in general, is bad and real estate agents rarely show you what you have asked for. In addition, except in Shanghai, Hong Kong, or Guangzhou, it’s almost impossible to find real estate agents who speak English.

In the majority of cities (Beijing, for example), the few real estate agencies dedicated to ex-pats (and who therefore speak English), focus on apartments that are “high-end” not because of their quality but because of their price, which is around 20,000-30,000 Yuan per month (more than 2,500 USD per month).

If you want to find out more on how to find an apartment, you can read our articles on Beijing or Shanghai .

That’s all for today. If you think that I have left out any topics, don’t hesitate to leave a comment!

About The Author

Sergi Portolés

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7 thoughts on “moving to china to work or study – the complete guide”.

I want to move china want to study in phd aftr that i want to live there my chidren i have three chidren any job there so tell me without job its is not possible to live there.

Maraam, if you study a PhD and you get a Student X1 visa, you can try to apply for a S1 visa for your children

What is the criteria for retirement and living in China

If you’re asking to live in China once you are retired, I don’t think this is possible unless you worked in China at least 5 years.

Hola, buenas! Mi empresa me ha abierto una cuenta en el CCB (china construction bank) en shanghai, y me preguntaba si habria algun modo de acceder a mi cuenta via online?? gracias!

Hola Silvia está esta es la sección en inglés de nuestra web te recomiendo que en el futuro visites nuestra web en español ( http://www.saporedicina.com/es/ ). Para acceder a tu cuenta online tienes que ir al banco y abrir la banca online (网上银行). Te daran una clave de usuario un password y un generador de códigos.

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Thinking of Taking an Academic Job in China? Better Plan Carefully

Chinese universities are increasingly becoming increasingly attractive destinations for social researchers from abroad. On the one hand, Chinese academia is seeking to internationalize, employing growing numbers of foreign scholars, recruiting more foreign students, and competing actively for prestige in international rankings and league tables. On the other hand, the scarcity of stable post-PhD employment, exacerbated by COVID-19, means that academics may need to look for employment at the international level in order to continue their careers.

In my previous post , I pointed to broad disparities in the experiences of foreign academics working in the social sciences at Chinese universities. Steep hierarchies and profound inequalities are of course a feature of academic life at the international level. Nonetheless, a number of idiosyncrasies in the organisation of academic labor should be taken into account when considering a move to a Chinese university:

First, at what type of university are you going to work? In terms of organizational structures, working patterns, and contract terms, it seems useful to distinguish between three types of institutions. First, there are Chinese public universities. These universities are deeply rooted in the structures of the one-party state. In my experience, having worked in China for a number of years, the degree of internationalization at these universities may vary sharply, as may the extent to which they have retained the rigid bureaucratic structures and processes of the age of the planned economy.

Second, there are international schools or institutes within Chinese public universities, set up in cooperation with universities abroad. Set up to attract foreign expertise and develop international academic collaboration, these hybrid institutes may be characterized (or not) by a stronger commitment to attracting and retaining foreign academic staff.

Finally, there are the international university campuses, set up by Western universities in China’s metropolitan centers. These universities are distinctively cosmopolitan in their ethos and in their population of staff and students. However, in an age of ideological closure, at least some of them recently seem to have come under a certain degree of political pressure within China.

Second, how committed to internationalization is your university really? You may have received an offer of employment from a Chinese university. However, this does not necessarily mean that the university is interested in or committed to retaining you long-term. It will therefore be important to explore the university quite closely, if you are looking for more than a short stay in China, in order to, say, work on a specific research project or gain experience of living or working in the country. How many other foreign members of staff are there in your future school and at the university at large? How many of them are employed long-term, through the same contract system as Chinese academics, and how many are on fixed-term contracts created specifically for international staff? What are the university’s primary objectives in recruiting foreign staff? Is it seeking, for example, to bolster its standing in national and international rankings short-term by hiring more ‘foreigners’? Does it seem committed to internationalization and international academic dialogue at a deeper level, or is its scholarship largely focused on China and local developmental priorities?

Third, does the university have organisational structures to employ foreign academic staff and facilitate their integration? China’s international universities invariably do. However, the bureaucratic structures at Chinese public universities may or may not be able to cope with foreign staff. In this case, anything from opening a bank account to receive your salary to obtaining medical insurance to paying your taxes may become a terrible bureaucratic drama that will occupy your time and attention for months on end. For example, the university may encounter insoluble problems processing your tax declaration because your name is not composed of Chinese characters. Or it may take months for it to set up a salary bank account, as neither the university nor the bank know how to handle the bureaucratic procedures required for foreigners. Or their may be politically motivated restrictions on the number of international conference trips you are allowed to undertake, cutting you off from important international academic ties. And so forth.

At their heart, Chinese public universities are deeply parochial bureaucratic structures geared towards the party-state’s priorities for socio-economic development. In response to national and international pressures, some universities have recently begun to internationalize, with notably different degrees of enthusiasm. Others have not. You would do well to determine, as much as you can, into what category your prospective employer falls.

I raise these questions and concerns in response to real-life issues I experienced, witnessed, or was told about during my time working in China. None of them should be taken to imply that productive and satisfying academic careers are unavailable to foreign academics in China. Rather, my point is that the institutional culture of Chinese academia is widely divergent from what foreign and, in particular, Western academics might be used to or expect. In order for a move to China to be successful, this is an issue that must be taken seriously.

Previously… Thinking of Taking an Academic Job in China? Better Think Twice

Anonymous Scholar

The author of this post asked for, and received, anonymity.

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To feel able to contribute to climate action, researchers say they need to know what actions to take, how their institutions will support them and space in their workloads to do it.

To Better Forecast AI, We Need to Learn Where Its Money Is Pointing

By carefully interrogating the system of economic incentives underlying innovations and how technologies are monetized in practice, we can generate a better understanding of the risks, both economic and technological, nurtured by a market’s structure.

Why Social Science? Because It Makes an Outsized Impact on Policy

Euan Adie, founder of Altmetric and Overton and currently Overton’s managing director, answers questions about the outsized impact that SBS makes on policy and his work creating tools to connect the scholarly and policy worlds.

Maybe You Can’t Buy Happinesss, But You Can Teach About It

When you deliver a university course that makes students happier, everybody wants to know what the secret is. What are your tips? […]

There’s Something in the Air, Part 2 – But It’s Not a Miasma

Robert Dingwall looks at the once dominant role that miasmatic theory had in public health interventions and public policy.

The Fog of War

David Canter considers the psychological and organizational challenges to making military decisions in a war.

Civilisation – and Some Discontents

The TV series Civilisation shows us many beautiful images and links them with a compelling narrative. But it is a narrative of its time and place.

Philip Rubin: FABBS’ Accidental Essential Man Linking Research and Policy

As he stands down from a two-year stint as the president of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences, or FABBS, Social Science Space took the opportunity to download a fraction of the experiences of cognitive psychologist Philip Rubin, especially his experiences connecting science and policy.

The Long Arm of Criminality

David Canter considers the daily reminders of details of our actions that have been caused by criminality.

Why Don’t Algorithms Agree With Each Other?

David Canter reviews his experience of filling in automated forms online for the same thing but getting very different answers, revealing the value systems built into these supposedly neutral processes.

A Black History Addendum to the American Music Industry

The new editor of the case study series on the music industry discusses the history of Black Americans in the recording industry.

A Behavioral Scientist’s Take on the Dangers of Self-Censorship in Science

The word censorship might bring to mind authoritarian regimes, book-banning, and restrictions on a free press, but Cory Clark, a behavioral scientist at […]

Jonathan Breckon On Knowledge Brokerage and Influencing Policy

Overton spoke with Jonathan Breckon to learn about knowledge brokerage, influencing policy and the potential for technology and data to streamline the research-policy interface.

Research for Social Good Means Addressing Scientific Misconduct

Social Science Space’s sister site, Methods Space, explored the broad topic of Social Good this past October, with guest Interviewee Dr. Benson Hong. Here Janet Salmons and him talk about the Academy of Management Perspectives journal article.

NSF Looks Headed for a Half-Billion Dollar Haircut

Funding for the U.S. National Science Foundation would fall by a half billion dollars in this fiscal year if a proposed budget the House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee takes effect – the first cut to the agency’s budget in several years.

NSF Responsible Tech Initiative Looking at AI, Biotech and Climate

The U.S. National Science Foundation’s new Responsible Design, Development, and Deployment of Technologies (ReDDDoT) program supports research, implementation, and educational projects for multidisciplinary, multi-sector teams

Digital Transformation Needs Organizational Talent and Leadership Skills to Be Successful

Who drives digital change – the people of the technology? Katharina Gilli explains how her co-authors worked to address that question.

Six Principles for Scientists Seeking Hiring, Promotion, and Tenure

The negative consequences of relying too heavily on metrics to assess research quality are well known, potentially fostering practices harmful to scientific research such as p-hacking, salami science, or selective reporting. To address this systemic problem, Florian Naudet, and collegues present six principles for assessing scientists for hiring, promotion, and tenure.

Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of Creative Industries

Candace Jones, Mark Lorenzen, Jonathan Sapsed , eds.: The Oxford Handbook of Creative Industries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 576 pp. $170.00, […]

Biden Administration Releases ‘Blueprint’ For Using Social and Behavioral Science in Policy

U.S. President Joseph Biden’s administration has laid down a marker buttressing the use of social and behavioral science in crafting policies for the federal government by releasing a 102-page Blueprint for the Use of Social and Behavioral Science to Advance Evidence-Based Policymaking.

Daniel Kahneman, 1934-2024: The Grandfather of Behavioral Economics

Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, whose psychological insights in both the academic and the public spheres revolutionized how we approach economics, has died […]

Canadian Librarians Suggest Secondary Publishing Rights to Improve Public Access to Research

The Canadian Federation of Library Associations recently proposed providing secondary publishing rights to academic authors in Canada.

Webinar: How Can Public Access Advance Equity and Learning?

The U.S. National Science Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have teamed up present a 90-minute online session examining how to balance public access to federally funded research results with an equitable publishing environment.

Open Access in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Canada: A Conversation

Five organizations representing knowledge networks, research libraries, and publishing platforms joined the Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences to review the present and the future of open access — in policy and in practice – in Canada

A Former Student Reflects on How Daniel Kahneman Changed Our Understanding of Human Nature

Daniel Read argues that one way the late Daniel Kahneman stood apart from other researchers is that his work was driven by a desire not merely to contribute to a research field, but to create new fields.

Four Reasons to Stop Using the Word ‘Populism’

Beyond poor academic practice, the careless use of the word ‘populism’ has also had a deleterious impact on wider public discourse, the authors argue.

The Added Value of Latinx and Black Teachers

As the U.S. Congress debates the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, a new paper in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences urges lawmakers to focus on provisions aimed at increasing the numbers of black and Latinx teachers.

A Collection: Behavioral Science Insights on Addressing COVID’s Collateral Effects

To help in decisions surrounding the effects and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the the journal ‘Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences’ offers this collection of articles as a free resource.

Susan Fiske Connects Policy and Research in Print

Psychologist Susan Fiske was the founding editor of the journal Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. In trying to reach a lay audience with research findings that matter, she counsels stepping a bit outside your academic comfort zone.

Mixed Methods As A Tool To Research Self-Reported Outcomes From Diverse Treatments Among People With Multiple Sclerosis

What does heritage mean to you?

Personal Information Management Strategies in Higher Education

Working Alongside Artificial Intelligence Key Focus at Critical Thinking Bootcamp 2022

SAGE Publishing — the parent of Social Science Space – will hold its Third Annual Critical Thinking Bootcamp on August 9. Leaning more and register here

Watch the Forum: A Turning Point for International Climate Policy

On May 13, the American Academy of Political and Social Science hosted an online seminar, co-sponsored by SAGE Publishing, that featured presentations […]

Event: Living, Working, Dying: Demographic Insights into COVID-19

On Friday, April 23rd, join the Population Association of America and the Association of Population Centers for a virtual congressional briefing. The […]

Connecting Legislators and Researchers, Leads to Policies Based on Scientific Evidence

The author’s team is developing ways to connect policymakers with university-based researchers – and studying what happens when these academics become the trusted sources, rather than those with special interests who stand to gain financially from various initiatives.

Public Policy

Rob Ford on Immigration

Opinions on immigration are not set in stone, suggests Rob Ford – but they may be set in generations. Zeroing in on the experience of the United Kingdom since the end of World War II, Ford – a political scientist at the University of Manchester – explains how this generation’s ‘other’ becomes the next generation’s ‘neighbor.’

Economist Kaye Husbands Fealing to Lead NSF’s Social Science Directorate

Kaye Husbands Fealing, an economist who has done pioneering work in the “science of broadening participation,” has been named the new leader of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.

Jane M. Simoni Named New Head of OBSSR

Clinical psychologist Jane M. Simoni has been named to head the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research

Canada’s Federation For Humanities and Social Sciences Welcomes New Board Members

Annie Pilote, dean of the faculty of graduate and postdoctoral studies at the Université Laval, was named chair of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences at its 2023 virtual annual meeting last month. Members also elected Debra Thompson as a new director on the board.

AAPSS Names Eight as 2024 Fellows

The American Academy of Political and Social Science today named seven scholars and one journalist as its 2024 fellows class.

National Academies Looks at How to Reduce Racial Inequality In Criminal Justice System

To address racial and ethnic inequalities in the U.S. criminal justice system, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine just released “Reducing Racial Inequality in Crime and Justice: Science, Practice and Policy.”

Survey Examines Global Status Of Political Science Profession

The ECPR-IPSA World of Political Science Survey 2023 assesses political science scholar’s viewpoints on the global status of the discipline and the challenges it faces, specifically targeting the phenomena of cancel culture, self-censorship and threats to academic freedom of expression.

Report: Latest Academic Freedom Index Sees Global Declines

The latest update of the global Academic Freedom Index finds improvements in only five countries

Analyzing the Impact: Social Media and Mental Health 

The social and behavioral sciences supply evidence-based research that enables us to make sense of the shifting online landscape pertaining to mental health. We’ll explore three freely accessible articles (listed below) that give us a fuller picture on how TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and online forums affect mental health. 

The Risks Of Using Research-Based Evidence In Policymaking

With research-based evidence increasingly being seen in policy, we should acknowledge that there are risks that the research or ‘evidence’ used isn’t suitable or can be accidentally misused for a variety of reasons. 

Surveys Provide Insight Into Three Factors That Encourage Open Data and Science

Over a 10-year period Carol Tenopir of DataONE and her team conducted a global survey of scientists, managers and government workers involved in broad environmental science activities about their willingness to share data and their opinion of the resources available to do so (Tenopir et al., 2011, 2015, 2018, 2020). Comparing the responses over that time shows a general increase in the willingness to share data (and thus engage in Open Science).

Maintaining Anonymity In Double-Blind Peer Review During The Age of Artificial Intelligence

The double-blind review process, adopted by many publishers and funding agencies, plays a vital role in maintaining fairness and unbiasedness by concealing the identities of authors and reviewers. However, in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, a pressing question arises: can an author’s identity be deduced even from an anonymized paper (in cases where the authors do not advertise their submitted article on social media)?

Hype Terms In Research: Words Exaggerating Results Undermine Findings

The claim that academics hype their research is not news. The use of subjective or emotive words that glamorize, publicize, embellish or exaggerate results and promote the merits of studies has been noted for some time and has drawn criticism from researchers themselves. Some argue hyping practices have reached a level where objectivity has been replaced by sensationalism and manufactured excitement. By exaggerating the importance of findings, writers are seen to undermine the impartiality of science, fuel skepticism and alienate readers.

Five Steps to Protect – and to Hear – Research Participants

Jasper Knight identifies five key issues that underlie working with human subjects in research and which transcend institutional or disciplinary differences.

New Tool Promotes Responsible Hiring, Promotion, and Tenure in Research Institutions

Modern-day approaches to understanding the quality of research and the careers of researchers are often outdated and filled with inequalities. These approaches […]

There’s Something In the Air…But Is It a Virus? Part 1

The historic Hippocrates has become an iconic figure in the creation myths of medicine. What can the body of thought attributed to him tell us about modern responses to COVID?

Tavneet Suri on Universal Basic Income

Economist Tavneet Suri discusses fieldwork she’s done in handing our cash directly to Kenyans in poor and rural parts of Kenya, and what the generally good news from that work may herald more broadly.

Alex Edmans on Confirmation Bias 

In this Social Science Bites podcast, Edmans, a professor of finance at London Business School and author of the just-released “May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do About It,” reviews the persistence of confirmation bias even among professors of finance.

Tejendra Pherali on Education and Conflict

Tejendra Pherali, a professor of education, conflict and peace at University College London, researches the intersection of education and conflict around the world.

Gamification as an Effective Instructional Strategy

Gamification—the use of video game elements such as achievements, badges, ranking boards, avatars, adventures, and customized goals in non-game contexts—is certainly not a new thing.

Harnessing the Tide, Not Stemming It: AI, HE and Academic Publishing

Who will use AI-assisted writing tools — and what will they use them for? The short answer, says Katie Metzler, is everyone and for almost every task that involves typing.

Immigration Court’s Active Backlog Surpasses One Million

In the first post from a series of bulletins on public data that social and behavioral scientists might be interested in, Gary Price links to an analysis from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Webinar Discusses Promoting Your Article

The next in SAGE Publishing’s How to Get Published webinar series focuses on promoting your writing after publication. The free webinar is set for November 16 at 4 p.m. BT/11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT.

Webinar Examines Open Access and Author Rights

The next in SAGE Publishing’s How to Get Published webinar series honors International Open Access Week (October 24-30). The free webinar is […]

Ping, Read, Reply, Repeat: Research-Based Tips About Breaking Bad Email Habits

At a time when there are so many concerns being raised about always-on work cultures and our right to disconnect, email is the bane of many of our working lives.

New Dataset Collects Instances of ‘Contentious Politics’ Around the World

The European Research Center is funding the Global Contentious Politics Dataset, or GLOCON, a state-of-the-art automated database curating information on political events — including confrontations, political turbulence, strikes, rallies, and protests

Matchmaking Research to Policy: Introducing Britain’s Areas of Research Interest Database

Kathryn Oliver discusses the recent launch of the United Kingdom’s Areas of Research Interest Database. A new tool that promises to provide a mechanism to link researchers, funders and policymakers more effectively collaboratively and transparently.

Watch The Lecture: The ‘E’ In Science Stands For Equity

According to the National Science Foundation, the percentage of American adults with a great deal of trust in the scientific community dropped […]

Watch a Social Scientist Reflect on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

“It’s very hard,” explains Sir Lawrence Freedman, “to motivate people when they’re going backwards.”

Dispatches from Social and Behavioral Scientists on COVID

Has the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic impacted how social and behavioral scientists view and conduct research? If so, how exactly? And what are […]

Contemporary Politics Focus of March Webinar Series

This March, the Sage Politics team launches its first Politics Webinar Week. These webinars are free to access and will be delivered by contemporary politics experts —drawn from Sage’s team of authors and editors— who range from practitioners to instructors.

New Thought Leadership Webinar Series Opens with Regional Looks at Research Impact

Research impact will be the focus of a new webinar series from Epigeum, which provides online courses for universities and colleges. The […]

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4 Tips to Enter the Chinese Job Market: Working in China After Graduation

Are you about to graduate from a Chinese university soon, and looking to enter the Chinese job market?

If you’re a student at a Chinese university, especially if you are taking remote classes outside of China because of Covid, the process of entering the Chinese workplace can feel completely overwhelming.

Though China Admissions is not a job or career service, we still are passionate about helping students through their university journeys…from finding the perfect program and applying, to finding a great job after graduation! Thus, we’ve provided several resources and analyzed the relevant laws for foreign students who want to work in China.

If you want to enter the Chinese job market and work in China after graduating from a Chinese university, here’s everything you need to know.

Can Students Work in China After Graduation? All the Laws!

There are a few things you need to know if you want to enter the Chinese job market after graduation.

• There are some exceptions for students who graduate from top Chinese schools and will work in certain free trade zone areas in Shanghai ( info here ) or Zhuhai. You need to confirm this path with your university or reputable visa agency.
• If you graduate with a Chinese Master’s degree, you can start working in China right away without two years’ work experience.
• It is illegal to be a full-time student and full-time work at the same time.

These laws are only relevant to students who are looking for full-time jobs post-graduation. Students on an X visa can intern and complete work studies in China: To learn more, click here ( internships link and work-study laws ).

Prepare to Enter the Chinese Job Market

If you’re about to graduate soon, there are a few things you need to prepare…

• Consider where you want to work, China, or another country?
• If you want to work full-time in China after graduating…

Tips on how to find an internship

Tips on how to find full-time work

Tips on how to find teaching jobs

Insider Job-Hunting Tips for Students in China

I successfully applied for and was offered positions for both internships, full-time, and freelance jobs from Chinese companies even though I was located outside of China because of Covid. Here are my tips:

1. Research ahead of time

If you know what field you want to work in, start a year or even longer ahead of time by looking at job descriptions and application calls from companies in your field. Take note of what companies today are asking their applicants to have. Then you can prepare accordingly and begin learning new skills to make the perfect Resume.

For example, if recruiters in your field want job applicants who know Photoshop, then you should start learning Photoshop on your own before you even start applying to these jobs.

You can also check here:  5 Free Ways to Improve Your CV/Resume From Home

2. Write a GOOD resume

Learn about the difference between a CV and a Resume, and get free sample templates, here .

You can also design resumes for free on Canva.com.

Your resume should have…

• Professional photo of yourself
• Share your education, work, and volunteering background
• Highlight your unique skills
• Easy to read
• Not too crowded with text
• Tailored to the position you are applying to
• References (past employers or professors who can give you a good review if needed)
• No grammar or spelling mistakes
• A resume should be one or two pages. A half-page is too short and probably means you do not have enough experience to apply for jobs at this stage.

3. Learn Chinese!

This is extremely important for you to enter the Chinese Job Market. Even though it might not technically be required for you to speak Chinese, HSK 4 or above will give you a huge advantage in the job market. If you want to work in China, you should be able to speak the language.

Keep in mind you’ll also be competing for jobs against Chinese students who have studied abroad and learned English as well. Being bilingual in English-Chinese is the silent requirement for the best jobs in China.

Find Chinese Classes Here!

4. Apply to a lot of jobs

You probably won’t get the first job you apply to. Maybe not even the twentieth or the fiftieth. But, if you have good grades and some relevant experience, you are sure to hear back eventually. Persistence is key. Remember that your self-worth is not defined by your resume. Reach out to classmates, former employers, professors, or your university’s career services for help and advice on the job hunt.

If you are applying to hundreds of jobs and still not hearing back, it might be time to revisit your resume and see if you need to learn new skills, learn more Chinese, or get another degree that will help you be more employable.

Read More:  Find a Job in China: Companies Hiring Foreigners in China

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University Jobs: China

China’s rise in the global marketplace has been accompanied by the government’s increasing focus on boosting the quality and quantity of the country’s scientific research. China’s government and universities are stepping up incentives to retain Chinese scientists and entice foreign academics to build their careers in China, and some professors say funding for research is more readily available in China than in the West. As a result, scientists from all over the world are starting to choose China as a place to build their academic and research careers.  Read more......

Found 18 jobs in this campaign

Global scholar recruitment campaign.

• undisclosed
• City University of Hong Kong

City University of Hong Kong is now seeking exceptional scholars to join us as Assistant Professors/Associate Professors/Professors/Chair Professors

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Associate and Full Professorship at the Materials Science and Engineering

• Shantou, Guangdong (CN)
• Competitive
• Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology (Guangdong Technion, GTIIT)

The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology academically manages a new university established in Shantou City, Guangdong Province, China

View details Associate and Full Professorship at the Materials Science and Engineering

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Assistant, Associate, and Full Professorships for the Physics Program

GTIIT is a new university established in Shantou City, Guangdong Province, China in cooperation with the Technion in Israel and China.

View details Assistant, Associate, and Full Professorships for the Physics Program

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Assistant, Associate and Full Professorship at the Mechanical Engineering and Robotics

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology manages the academics of a new university established in Shantou City, Guangdong Province, China.

View details Assistant, Associate and Full Professorship at the Mechanical Engineering and Robotics

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Faculty Positions at City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan)

• Dongguan, China
• Competitive Package
• City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan)

CityU (Dongguan) warmly invites individuals from diverse backgrounds to apply for various faculty positions available at the levels of Professorship.

View details Faculty Positions at City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan)

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Course lecturer for INFH 5000: Information Science and Technology

• Guangzhou, Guangdong (CN)
• Salary for all positions is highly competitive at an international standard
• Hong Kong University of Science and Technology -Guangzhou

The HKUST(GZ) Information Hub is recruiting a course lecturer for INFH 5000: Information Science and Technology: Essentials and Trends.

View details Course lecturer for INFH 5000: Information Science and Technology

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Zhejiang University (ZJU) Global Recruitment

• Zijingang Campus, Yuhangtang Road No.866, Xihu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, P.R.China
• Attractive salary packages are offered, negotiable based on individual qualifications and needs.
• Zhejiang University

Various positions are open, including: Qiushi Chair Professor, Qiushi Distinguished Scholar, etc.

View details Zhejiang University (ZJU) Global Recruitment

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Head of the Thrust of Robotics and Autonomous Systems

• Salary for all positions is highly competitive at an international standard.

The Systems Hub now invites applications or nominations for Head of the Thrust of Robotics and Autonomous Systems

View details Head of the Thrust of Robotics and Autonomous Systems

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Global Talent Recruitment of Xinxiang Medical University in 2024

• Yazhouwan National Laboratory, No.8 Huanjin Road
• From CNY5,000,000-10,000,000 according to the requirements of relevant discipline construction.
• Xinxiang Medical University Yazhouwan National Laboratory

Global Talent Recruitment of Xinxiang Medical University in 2024   I.School Profile Xinxiang Medical University (XXMU) is the only independently es...

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Faculty Positions in Bioscience and Bioengineering

The Thrust especially encourages applications in Stem Cell Biology, Cell and Tissue Biology, Chemical and Synthetic Biology, and Biomaterial Science.

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Faculty Positions in Westlake University

• Hangzhou, Zhejiang (CN)
• Internationally competitive start-up package
• Westlake University

We are creating a stimulating, world-class environment for research and education in science, engineering and technology, and the life sciences.

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2024 Computer Science Program Director Position

• Wenzhou, Zhejiang (CN)
• Annual salary commensurate with qualifications and experience.
• Wenzhou-Kean University

2024 Computer Science Program Director Position   Wenzhou-Kean University Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU), located in Wenzhou, China, one of three Si...

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2024 Mathematics Program Director Position

2024 Mathematics Program Director Position   Wenzhou-Kean University Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU), located in Wenzhou, China, one of three Sino-Am...

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2024 Biology Lecturer/Assistant Professor

2024 Biology Lecturer/Assistant Professor   Wenzhou-Kean University Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU), located in Wenzhou, China, one of three Sino-Ame...

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Faculty Positions at Center for Infectious Disease Research, Westlake University

• Center for Infectious Disease Research, Westlake University

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Conducting Research in China

In general, opportunities to conduct research in China’s top universities are very good, especially at the top research-intensive universities. This is because government funding has been abundant and investment in the higher education system has been strong and sustained. China’s universities are growing in reputation, prestige and excellence.

China now files more patents than any country in the world and its publication rate in top international journals has improved significantly and steadily.

Another big plus is the quality of Chinese students. They receive a good grounding in basics from their primary and secondary schooling . There is a high value on education. They are hard-working, industrious , serious and focused on their education. They work well in teams and are dedicated and willing to put in the effort required to succeed.

Faculty colleagues

Chinese faculty colleagues are friendly, helpful and supportive. You will also benefit from very helpful staff both in school administration and the university International Office. Almost every Project 211 university has both a significant number of foreign staff plus Chinese academics, an increasing number of whom have studied overseas. Accordingly, one gains the benefits of working in a diverse ‘international’ community as well as a Chinese one. The blend is very exciting and stimulating.

Publishing opportunities

Ideally, you should find a Chinese colleague who can help you publish in both Chinese and English journals and thus expand the impact and reach of your research. You will also find that the outside world is generally very interested in Chinese developments. Thus, international journals will be receptive to research findings from the most populous country and second-biggest economy in the world. In many respects, too, China is confronting challenges today that will be faced by all countries in the future (e.g. ageing population, pollution, rising middle class, infrastructure). This provides a wonderful canvas on which to plan and draw your research findings as you paint a vibrant research career.

Chinese universities are relatively new and thus facilities, including research labs, library, computing and classrooms tend to be state of the art. An exception is the older buildings, but these are quickly being demolished and replaced on most campuses by new infrastructure.

Funding for research

The total expenditure on research in china and development (R&D) has increased by 23% a year on average over the past decade. Funding for research is also largely provided by both national and provincial government, though there is also some encouragement (but not as much pressure compared to the West) to attract competitive funding.

At the same time, there is worldwide interest in Chinese developments and China is still a developing country. Consequently, international bodies such as the Asia Development Bank and UN groups are very interested in developments there and research funding is available for worthy projects. Because China attracts much of the world’s direct foreign investment and with the increasing presence of major companies there from all over the world, the opportunity for industry grants and funding is also strong.

You can apply for university grants since universities normally receive money from the central government to distribute as they see fit. Competition for these is tough since there is a lot of staff, but a supportive dean should help you, and you should be able to get at least one. The amount of money normally ranges between 20,000 to a maximum of 50,000RMB.

As a foreigner, you can apply for funds through the provincial government, and be a PI on these awards if such a provision exists. Again, the funds are normally given on an annual basis of 30,000RMB per year total, with normally a maximum of a 4-year tenure. It is worth noting that foreign nationals are not eligible to apply for funding from the central government under the scheme known as CSC (Chinese Scholarship Council). These are the most prestigious awards, but they cannot be obtained by non-Chinese nationals, irrespective of your academic rank.

Chinese industry is also spending significant dollars in research and development and this is a possible source of funding for academics.

Finally, there is also ample opportunity to earn research dollars acting as a consultant to either industry or state-owned enterprises.

Conferences

Conference funding is generally ample for travel overseas. Chinese airports and the transportation system is generally excellent and it is easy to get into, out of and around China.

If you are fortunate to be working in a university in a major city such as Shanghai or Beijing you will find that many of the conferences come to you. There are also important international groups holding their meetings in Beijing and so access to key people from all over the world is easier when you have the opportunity of becoming part of that network.

For sciences

For those engaged in the sciences, health and technology fields, research opportunities abound. There is still much work to be done and the government has committed substantial resources to research in its leading universities. Being relatively new and well-funded, these research-intensive universities have the latest labs and other infrastructure. There is also no shortage of very talented, hardworking, keen and dedicated Chinese students to serve as a research, lab and other assistants.

Computing/Technology

China is also an excellent environment in which to engage in research related to computing, computer games, e-commerce, computer chips, nanotechnology, robotics, aerospace, computer engineering, software development and related fields. With over a billion mobile phones and almost 500 million people connected to the internet, China is well poised to become the world leader in many of these areas and research opportunities are many and varied.

Arts, Social Sciences, Law, Design and related disciplines

Generally, the research funding picture for all disciplines is positive, especially in the research-intensive universities. The quality of the libraries and general availability of leading electronic databases and other resources are very good.

For those doing field research, the general availability of people to talk to and survey is probably more open than it has ever been, though obviously the language barrier with so many dialects spoken and for a non-Chinese speaker, is a major obstacle. Also, there is greater government censorship and monitoring leading to more restricted access to data and information than one would find in the far more open Western political environments.

For those in the Arts, the Chinese have a long cultural tradition in the arts that will be of great interest. In addition, you will find intense interest from the Chinese themselves. For example, English language production of Shakespeare performed by English actors will attract large crowds, even though many in the audience must rely upon slide screens on the sides of the stage that display the dialogue in Mandarin. In the fine arts, fashion and design, too, China is developing rapidly and there is an outstanding opportunity to bring together East and West and create something new and exciting.

In areas like law, the greater internationalization of and participation by China in a global economy means that Chinese laws, regulations and other materials are today more often readily available in English. In addition, with China’s rise economically, there is a growing number of commercial databases that provide up-to-date, reasonably high-quality information and data on Chinese developments. All this makes doing comparative work and analysis of Chinese developments much easier than in the past.

International network

In addition to building your network within China, China provides an excellent base from which to engage the rest of the world. If you are located in a major city such as Beijing or China you will have international meetings and conferences and their attendant networks readily available to you.

You may also be interested in our ebooks:

How To Pursue An Academic Career In China: Part One

How To Pursue An Academic Career In China: Part Two

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China Bound, Revised: A Guide to Academic Life and Work in the PRC (1994)

Chapter: 4. research, 4. research.

This chapter focuses on opportunities for research in China, both for advanced graduate students and more senior scholars. It is based on numerous reports from scholars who have conducted research in China, interviews with many of them, visits with a few in China, and published accounts—especially from China Exchange News. Reports from scholars in the field provide detailed accounts of individual experiences—problems faced and obstacles surmounted, the joy of new academic discoveries and the need to adapt to changing opportunities, and daily life in China. It is impossible here to do justice to those accounts. Rather, this chapter will try to outline the range of research being conducted in China today, offer advice about how to go about conducting research, and describe how some have managed the complexities of the research process. A distinction is made between archival research (where the scholar's time is devoted largely to gathering documentary materials in libraries or archives), laboratory research, and field research. The concept of field research is broad—from the social scientist who lives in the city and conducts interviews with respondents outside his own work unit, to the rural fieldworker who spends weeks or months in a county seat or village, to scientists conducting research on animal behavior or geology in remote parts of the country. Several general rules apply.

THE RESEARCH CLIMATE

The trend toward economic self-sufficiency in universities and research institutes affects the foreign scholar in several ways. In many respects, the climate for foreign researchers is improving. Greater academic au-

tonomy means more flexibility, and universities or research institutes that want to help foreign researchers have greater maneuverability now.

''China is a pretty flexible place," points out one researcher. More Chinese scholars are doing research on topics of interest to Americans, and Americans are being invited to more conferences, where Chinese and foreign scholars can interact and find out what colleagues in their field are doing. Collaborative research projects are increasing, and social scientists are beginning research on topics that would have been difficult in previous years. Nonetheless, research in the social sciences and humanities remains much more sensitive than that in the physical sciences.

Work units that remain skeptical of foreign researchers are still tough to crack. A few major collaborative projects have begun in archaeology. In general, however, archaeological collections, to quote one researcher, "are under the control of the excavator and his danwei, " and access for foreigners remains difficult—in his case, impossible. The new demands on Chinese faculty to raise money often means that they are busier now and have less time to spend with foreign colleagues. As one researcher pointed out in early 1992, "It is obvious that even compared to my 1991 visit, scholars are much busier, spending less time discussing topics and more time providing consulting and other services to earn additional income." In some universities, personnel in the foreign affairs offices (waiban) who were attentive to the needs of long-term, serious, financially constrained researchers have turned their attention to short-term moneymaking "China experience" packages for U.S. undergraduates. Some foreign students and researchers are discovering that personnel in the waiban assigned to assist them are away working with newly formed enterprises.

Finally, as in many other countries, research fees are becoming a standard requirement for doing research in China. The trend is a departure from the early years of exchanges and has taken many foreign scholars by surprise, particularly those with previous research experience in China. Some are concerned that the profit motive is excessive. As one researcher argued, "Money is the only thing that matters to most people now and they do not seem to care a bit about whether foreign researchers come to China in the future so long as they can squeeze maximum profits from them now. Closely related to this development is the fact that guanxi has become absolutely critical for getting anything done."

This trend is likely to continue, despite protestations of American and other foreign researchers. Knowing when to negotiate and when to accept the reality of higher costs will be essential to any researcher's psychological equilibrium.

Successful research in China usually operates at three levels—a for-

mal institutional affiliation, the more informal collegial and personal ties of guanxi, and the concept of mutual benefit. Banquets still include toasts to friendship between the Chinese and the American people. The most successful projects are those where a measure of friendship does develop and where researchers return—as friends and colleagues—again and again.

The concept of "mutual benefit" suggests that the benefit to U.S. scholars of gathering research data should be balanced by benefits to the Chinese scholars. These benefits could take the form of opportunities to study in the United States, practical contributions to the process of development, gifts of equipment, or research fees.

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR RESEARCH

Before attempting to undertake a project, and to ensure a successful research experience, it is important to meet with Chinese colleagues at international conferences, within your own university, or through short-term academic visits.

Research is likely to proceed more smoothly if a preparatory visit to China is made to lay the groundwork. For instance, short-term study (for a student) or lectures at Chinese academic institutions (for a teacher) could be combined with meetings to make research arrangements. As one scientist observes, "In the final analysis, there is no substitute for advance personal contact between participating scientists to optimize conditions for joint investigations. The expense involved is well justified."

IMPLEMENTING YOUR PLAN

The importance of your host unit.

Almost everyone needs a host unit in China, and finding an appropriate host is vital to the success of any research project. Planning for a research project requires selecting and securing the cooperation of a host unit, and arrangements to do research can be made only when formal affiliation has been assured. Because the question of appropriate affiliation remains vexing for many researchers, this section discusses the search for an appropriate host.

Conversations with colleagues who have done research in China can be especially useful. Researchers have had diverse experiences, and their insights and advice will be invaluable. Most are happy to share with others what they wish they had known before going. For example, both Chinese and American colleagues can provide advice on the most appropriate host units for your work. Opportunities and pitfalls are so diverse that you will want to weigh a variety of possibilities.

Check into various possible affiliations before deciding which are best. There is no need to jump at the first opportunity, because local research academies have now been given considerable autonomy. In the early years of exchanges, only national academies, universities, and ministries had the right to issue official invitations, so affiliation at the national level was almost a prerequisite to research. Today, however, authority has been decentralized, and it may be more useful to affiliate with an institution in the locale where your research will be conducted, thereby removing several layers of time-consuming bureaucratic communications and working directly with the unit that will make your research arrangements.

When considering potential affiliations, obtain answers to two questions. Most important is: can the proposed host unit make all the arrangements necessary for your project? Some foreign scholars have identified Chinese colleagues with whom they wanted to collaborate only to find upon arrival that the foreign affairs office at the university or institute was unable or unwilling to make arrangements necessary to carry out the research.

Second: is the cooperation of a single unit sufficient for your needs? If it appears that the cooperation of more than one unit will be necessary for your research, you need to consider the relationships between or among those units. The Chinese bureaucratic structure is quite different from that within the United States. Understanding that structure can help you work within it. Chinese institutions are highly compartmentalized. Each danwei is part of a larger system, or xitong, and cooperation across xitong can be awkward. Knowing to which xitong your proposed danwei belongs is important.

The university system under the direction of the State Education Commission (SEDC) is one xitong with which many American scholars affiliate. The SEDC determines important educational policy and administers all national-level universities, exercising control over their budgets, curricula, and the allocation and promotion of faculty. It also issues regulations governing research by foreign scholars hosted by universities under their jurisdiction. Several recent social science field researchers-both advanced graduate students and university professors-have noted an SEDC regulation stipulating that scholars affiliated with universities under its jurisdiction are permitted only two weeks of fieldwork each semester. The rule has rarely been applied, and many people have found informal ways of circumventing it. But at least one researcher recently decided to switch her affiliation to a local social science academy that permitted her to spend several months in the field.

Similarly, the SEDC currently has a rule that Chinese social scientists under its jurisdiction must first get national-level permission to conduct

collaborative research with foreigners. And a 1989 decision to impound survey data gathered under a collaborative project sponsored by Peking University was made not by university officials but by officials at the SEDC, who then ordered the university not to release the data (the data have since been released).

Some universities and scholars are willing to bend SEDC rules, and the SEDC is likely to become more flexible in the future, but scholars hoping to conduct field research through a host unit under SEDC jurisdiction will want to assure themselves early that their proposed research and collaboration are possible. If a local social science academy is an equally attractive affiliation, arrangements there may be easier.

Universities under the jurisdiction of local governments are not directly administered by the SEDC, although most comply with the spirit of SEDC directives. But local-level universities are often more flexible than centrally administered ones, and their position in the educational hierarchy allows them a degree of local autonomy.

Research on localities is often easier at a locally administered university. Even in a province distant from Beijing, a centrally administered university is less likely to have ties with the locality. For instance, a graduate student studying local administration in one southern city found that his affiliation with a university administered by the SEDC in Beijing was not particularly useful in gaining him entree to local officials. By establishing a less formal affiliation with a locally administered university, he was able to get introductions to many officials in the local government. Conversely, a researcher hosted by a municipal foreign affairs office found that city officials could not make contact for her with the centrally administered university there.

Even at the national level, there are differences among xitong. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is administered by the State Council and is not part of the SEDC xitong. Cooperation between CASS and universities under the SEDC can be difficult. Moreover, in contrast with the SEDC, the national-level CASS has no vertical line of command to provincial and local level academies. Although relations between CASS and local-level academies may be close and cooperative, local academies have the autonomy, for instance, to decide for themselves whether to accept foreign researchers. And local-level academies are able to sponsor foreign researchers who might be refused by the national-level academy.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is also administered by the State Council. It is a different xitong from both the SEDC and CASS and is subject to different regulations. What may be possible for a foreign researcher within one CAS institute may not be possible under SEDC or CASS. Thus, although CASS instituted a moratorium on rural fieldwork by foreigners in the early 1980s, U.S. scientists under the auspices

of CAS continued to conduct research in rural areas. And, unlike CASS, CAS does have administrative authority over its branches.

Similarly, each ministry under the State Council constitutes a separate xitong, and some ministries also operate their own universities and research institutes. Some Americans, particularly scientists, choose to carry out research under ministry auspices.

In addition to institutions falling under clearly defined xitong are numerous local government and party organizations that sponsor research of importance to them, some of which have established their own, relatively independent, research institutions outside national jurisdiction. These institutions tend to be relatively flexible and adaptable, and a few foreign researchers who have established guanxi with them have also been able to conduct research under their auspices. This type of affiliation, however, is apparently open only to more established scholars. Advanced graduate students seem to be required to affiliate with either universities or research academies. Moreover, working with these organizations requires such good guanxi that only people with long-term, close relations with Chinese colleagues are likely to be able to make the arrangements.

Horizontal communication among xitong is difficult, although cooperation across xitong is somewhat easier in the sciences than in the social sciences and humanities. Since the mid-1980s, in an effort to bring scientific research in China up to international standards, China has instituted several dozen "open labs." These promote horizontal mobility between research institutes under the CAS, scientists at universities under the SEDC, and ministries, and at least one foreign scientist sits on the governing board of each of the open labs. A fuller discussion of laboratory research appears later in this chapter.

The social sciences and humanities have yet to reach this level of cooperation. A researcher affiliated with CASS's Institute of History, for instance, has access to the library at his institute but may face difficulties obtaining permission to use the library at Peking University, which is under the administration of the SEDC. One graduate student doing research on the revival of temples in southern China discovered that different temples were administered by different xitong —the Office of Religion, the Tourist Bureau, the People's Political Consultative Conference, and the Cultural Bureau. Relations between these organizations were often strained, and communications between them were difficult. Access to one of the organizations made it difficult to work with the others. Similarly, a researcher in archaeology discovered that relations between the research institute with which he was formally affiliated had terrible guanxi with a museum whose cooperation he needed.

The complexity and compartmentalization of China's institutional structure serves to highlight the importance of talking with as many

colleagues as possible—both American and Chinese—before deciding which affiliation best serves your research needs. Only with time and experience do the complexities of institutional relationships become clear.

The compartmentalization of institutional relations in China is one reason why guanxi is so important. While formal horizontal communications among xitong are often difficult, informal ones are not—if you, or more likely your Chinese associates, have a friend or relative in the xitong with which you want to communicate. One scholar recently had great success conducting field research with a younger Chinese faculty member who had been sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. They returned together to the village where the Chinese professor had lived for several years and where her ties of guanxi were still strong.

Cultivating guanxi is much like networking in the United States. Informal ties can often open doors that formal affiliations cannot.

THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

After finding an appropriate host, you will usually be expected to submit a detailed research proposal outlining the purpose of your research, specifying how the research will be conducted, and stating what you expect to accomplish, who will be involved, and what types of collaboration, cooperation, and training can be expected. Virtually every field researcher working through formal channels has stressed the importance of the proposal, because after the Chinese agree to it, the proposal will become, in effect, a contract from which deviation will require further negotiation. If you are a scientist and your research requires camping, make certain that everyone on your team (including the driver) is prepared to camp, too. Americans whose research proposals have not specified the importance of camping report having to leave their research site and drive two hours to sleep in less than commodious hostels. Similarly, research requiring work outside normal hours (generally 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a two-hour rest period around noon) should also be spelled out. Researchers for whom early morning photography is important have been stymied because their proposal did not specify the necessity of early morning visits to their field site. Fieldworkers observing animal behavior have been frustrated because prior agreement had not been reached for the team to go to the field at sunrise or during the noon rest break, when the animals were active. Without specifying your research needs in precise detail, key members of your Chinese team could balk, legitimately claiming that they had not understood the terms of the agreement—or even that your demands are a violation of the contract.

In working out the details of the project's work schedule, remember that the ordinary Chinese work day is eight hours long and five-and-a-

half days a week. The Chinese weekend usually begins at noon on Saturday. Respecting your colleagues' work schedule is important and will allow them time for family responsibilities and rest.

The question of intellectual property rights should also be spelled out clearly in the proposal. Jointly authored papers are commonplace in academic exchanges with China. U.S. researchers, however, still report instances when articles based on their collaboration were published under exclusively Chinese authorship without mention of U.S. collaboration or funding. Conversely, Chinese have published articles claiming joint U.S. authorship when the U.S. author had not been actively involved or consulted.

Similarly, the need to bring specimens, questionnaires, or other raw data out of China should also be spelled out in the proposal. Some researchers expecting to take raw data with them have been stymied by restrictions on data export. Agreement in the proposal should start with delineation of responsibility for investigating export restrictions and for getting necessary documentation. The proposal should include agreements on data collection. For example, it should clearly state what data the Chinese are supposed to produce, sampling techniques, and data processing methodologies. Be wary of the spoken or written phrase, "according to Chinese conditions." It can cover different interpretations about objectives or methodologies. It is important to understand potential differences early on and make sure comfortable resolution can be found for them. Finally, the proposal should address how data will be collected across institutes and xitong.

Researchers also advise that you bring to China your proposal and all correspondence related to your project. If modifications must be made, you will need to refer to your written understandings.

Finally, the agreement on cooperative research between the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the United States and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the State Education Commission, and the Chinese National Science Foundation stipulates that the receiving side pays all in-country fees of the scholars in their program (that is, the Chinese pay per diem expenses of U.S. scientists in China and the United States pays the costs of Chinese in the United States). However, researchers should be flexible in interpreting this agreement. The agreement works well when scientists are working in laboratories without extraordinary additional costs. Field research, however, is more expensive in terms of the number of personnel involved, equipment, and cost of cars and trucks transporting researchers and equipment to the site. Chinese research institutions ordinarily cannot afford to pay the additional costs of field research. These costs thus should be worked into the budget of the funding proposal to the NSF or any other institution operating under a similar agreement.

Researchers should expect to pay research-related fees in China. It is important, when negotiating a proposal, to ask for clarification of what those costs will be. Specific types of fees will be discussed in the sections on archival research, laboratory research, and fieldwork. The most common are affiliation fees for more advanced scholars and either affiliation fees or tuition for dissertation-level graduate students. Most people also pay a variety of service fees, and additional costs are incurred when host units arrange outside visits that last overnight or longer. Many scholars, having been housed in more expensive guest houses when equally comfortable, cheaper accommodations are available nearby, suggest trying to negotiate to stay in dormitory rooms or cheaper accommodations. In fieldwork, additional fees may be charged for the salary and costs of staff who accompany you to the field.

Fees now vary widely from institution to institution and, within institutions, even from person to person, often depending on the researcher's status (for example, advanced graduate student or senior scholar), ability to pay, and guanxi with the host organization. Some researchers with longstanding relations with their work unit pay no affiliation fee; some have paid $300 a month, others $100. One senior scholar paid a $1,000 affiliation fee for a research stay of three weeks, which included conducting interviews, sending and receiving faxes, and photocopying some materials. This amount should be considered too high in almost every case. In general, short-term researchers pay more than long-term ones, and senior-level researchers pay more than junior-level ones.

Graduate students engaged in research are generally required to pay either affiliation fees to a research institute or tuition to a university, even if they do not attend classes. The cost to students varies, but it seems generally to run between $1,000 and $3,000 a year. In negotiating this fee, it is important to clarify what types of assistance you will be offered in return; for example, guidelines from an adviser, use of the library, assistance in making outside contacts and arranging for interviews, or help in negotiating fees for interviews. Costs for preparing questionnaires, photocopying, computer time, and transportation are usually extra.

FINALIZING A PLAN

After reaching agreement on the proposal and fees, you will usually be issued a formal invitation, signed by an official of the institution with which you will be affiliated (usually a dean of a university or a vice president of a research institute).

Scholars who have worked in Chinese institutions have discovered that no arrangement is predictable, permanent, or self-executing. The experience of the CSCC is telling. Research proposals of students and scholars selected by the Committee on Advanced Study in China are

approved by the appropriate Chinese organization prior to the grantee's departure for China, and placements are negotiated with host institutions. Yet most researchers discover that the implementation of these carefully laid plans requires continuous negotiation with their host units. Some scholars adjust their project to fit available materials and resources. Proposals must be flexible enough to accommodate different opportunities.

The last edition of China Bound noted, "The most serene reports come from individuals who manage to combine a Taoist philosophy that everything will eventually work itself out with low-key but persistent negotiations with Chinese hosts."

Reports from more recent years suggest that that approach is still best. One researcher writes:

Working successfully in China seems to require the development of a kind of Zen-like mental balance that allows you to take in new and often challenging information without having it obscure your original vision. . . . If I ever encounter a similar situation, I hope I will be able to arrive more quickly to a state of resignation and not waste so much mental energy being mad.

ARCHIVAL RESEARCH

Historians and other scholars in the humanities have benefited greatly from the opportunity to do research in China's vast archival and library collections. As Beatrice Bartlett, a leading expert on China's Ming-Qing archives, writes:

China's dazzling wealth of archives and plethora of archival organizations, preserving 30 million fascicles (juan) of materials at both the national and local levels, have attracted many foreign researchers. In addition to the three enormous chronologically-demarcated institutions for central-government holdings—the Number One in Beijing for Ming and Qing documents, the Number Two in Nanjing covering the Republic, and the central archives in Beijing for the post-1949 era —there are more than 2,000 local depositories. In theory, every county (xian) or district in China has its own archive; this should also be true for most townships (xiang) as well. Faced with this information, foreign scholars may be led to devise extensive research plans worthy of this latest manifestation of the fabled riches of the East. Nevertheless, researchers are well advised to proceed with caution. Direct inspection of a local archive is likely to yield considerable deviation from expectations. 4

China has more than 200,000 libraries, including the national library in Beijing; 1,732 public libraries; 700 college and university libraries; 100,000 middle school and elementary school libraries; 1,000 scientific and specialized libraries; and 110,000 trade union libraries. Detailed descriptions in Chinese and English of Chinese and foreign holdings along with addresses of important libraries can be found in the Directory of Chinese Libraries.

Foreign scholars have used only a fraction of China's holdings, but each year a few researchers begin work in previously unexplored collections. Scholars who have done research in Chinese archives urge others planning to use archives to read the articles by Bartlett in the National Palace Museum Bulletin, as well as her book, Monarchs and Ministers: The Grand Council in Mid-Ch'ing China, 1723-1820, and the Fall/Winter issue of China Exchange News, which is devoted to reports on archival research. Bartlett's admonition to users of the Qing archives holds true for library collections around China. The archives, she writes, "were saved for the Chinese, to be developed by the administrative vision and genius of Chinese curators. Foreigners are welcome, but as readers, not owners of the documents." 5

Scholars planning archival research will also find useful Archives in the People's Republic of China: A Brief Introduction for American Scholars and Archivists, by William Moss, director of the Smithsonian Institution Archives. The publication includes description of several central, municipal, and provincial archives and includes translation of archives laws including the July 1992 law on archival work by foreigners (provided in Appendix N ). The report is available free of charge from

Smithsonian Archives

Arts and Industries Bldg.

Room 2135, Mail Stop MRC 414

Washington, D.C. 20560

The following section is devoted not to a description of the collections in archives and libraries but rather to the practical experiences of those who have used them.

RESEARCH AFFILIATION

Access to archival or library holdings requires a research affiliation, so it is advisable to seek affiliation with the organization most likely to be helpful in arranging for the access needed. For most library or archive users, that affiliation will be either a university or a research institute.

In considering affiliation with a university, it is important to know that humanistic research in Chinese universities is often focused on events and personalities of local importance. For example, scholars at Shandong University have conducted research on the Boxers while those at Wuhan often study the 1911 revolution. Scholars at Nankai write about the economic history of the Tianjin region. And in Nanjing University, the focus is on the Jiangnan region. Faculty at these universities often can introduce the foreign scholar to colleagues in museums, libraries, publishing houses, and other universities who are working on similar topics.

Some university departments may be oriented toward a particular historical era rather than toward local interests. Peking University has aided scholars working in Shang and Qin-Han history because its departments are strong in those areas; it is also strong on May Fourth literature.

For access to holdings outside the library at the institute or university with which you are affiliated, a letter of introduction from a scholar at your host organization, together with a description of your research project and the types of materials you need to use, are usually required. Sometimes several weeks pass before the request is granted. In other cases, permission is immediate. Some libraries, such as those at CASS's Institute of History and at Peking University, are open only to people who are directly affiliated with the institution. Scholars affiliated with research institutes often have difficulty obtaining permission to use university libraries and vice versa. On the other hand, an introduction from someone who already has access is often sufficient for permission to work there temporarily. Some archives with years of experience with foreigners, such as the Ming-Qing holdings, have institutionalized procedures, making these archives relatively predictable and easy to use. Access to other holdings must often be explored on a case-by-case basis. Occasionally, students have obtained access to municipal libraries with only student identification, but some libraries are still closed to foreigners. Additional pressure from an adviser or colleague is often necessary before requests to work in other libraries are accommodated. In library research, as in other aspects of Chinese life, good relations with colleagues are important to achieving your goals.

USE OF COLLECTIONS

Researchers report that card catalogs for some collections are difficult to use. Chinese categories for arranging knowledge are different from those in the West, and many card catalogs are incomplete, making it difficult to be certain about holdings or their contents. Fortunately, there is a growing literature on the kinds of materials available and reference guides for further information, all of which can be very useful when preparing to work in China. It is wise to

read all the secondary literature and consult catalogs (that is, of Chinese holdings now increasingly available outside China) before your arrival so you can be prepared to ask for particular holdings. Most collections have one or two staff members who are knowledgeable about their holdings, and their cooperation has been invaluable to foreign researchers.

Access to particular materials can be limited even after receiving permission to use an archive or library. Rare books are carefully protected and generally may be read only in certain areas of a library and often under supervision. While one scholar using twentieth century sources at the National Library of China describes it as ''unbelievably modern and user-friendly," scholars working with its rare books collection complain of a rule, issued in 1991, that a letter of introduction allows a scholar to look at only four (one scholar says five) rare books. Some scholars have circumvented the regulation by obtaining several letters of introduction, and one such scholar was able to see well over 80 books by bringing in new letters. Others who have used similar tactics have been told that the rule is four books per research project. "This drastic restriction on the single most important collection for the study of premodern Chinese history is a serious blow to scholarship," writes one disappointed researcher.

Occasionally, researchers find that materials are out of circulation for microfilming or that some portion of a collection is not open to foreign researchers. One researcher found he was not allowed to copy everything he wanted because the person in charge did not want him to obtain "systematic" records. But many people, after spending some time working with collections, find one or two people who are sympathetic to their research needs and knowledgeable about the collection who become very helpful in gathering and copying materials. "What is needed," writes one researcher "is much persistence, a judicious amount of insistence tempered with courtesy, and good luck."

Costs for using China's libraries and archives may include fees for access to collections, user's fees to examine materials, preservation fees, and reproduction costs. Usually your host organization will not charge additional fees for use of its own library, although some do. But places where you have no formal affiliation may charge an entrance fee even before you use the holdings. Students can usually negotiate smaller fees than senior scholars. One graduate student, for instance, was able to negotiate a fee of Y100 to use a rare books reading room for a year, while a senior scholar who came at the same time paid $US200 to use the same holdings for two-and-a-half months. Other scholars have reported paying nothing or as little as Y2 a day for library use.

On June 16, 1992, reports one researcher, the Chinese government

announced a decision to define archival work as a "third industry." Archives, like universities and research institutes, were made responsible for raising money for their operating costs. The result has been higher fees both for using collections and for reproducing materials, although as of this writing, the guidelines have not been uniformly enforced. One researcher was able to copy a portion of the new guidelines for increased charges on library use. The portion he was given detailed the costs to Chinese users. Foreign users, the researcher was told, are to be charged five times the Chinese price, although sometimes this cost can be lowered considerably by judicious negotiation. The prices listed below are for the Chinese:

Storage fees

User's fee (the cost of examining a document or microfilm reel) for "ordinary" historical documents: Y2/ juan

User's fee for "special" historical documents: Y10/ juan

Preservation fees

User's fee for Qing dynasty documents: Y2/ juan

User's fee for revolutionary history documents: Y1/ juan

Republican material: Y0.8/ juan

Material on the founding of the PRC: Y0.5/ juan

All microfilm material, all periods: Y5/reel/day

Reproduction

Large, 11x16 sheet: Y0.8; 11x8.5 sheet: Y0.5

Microfilming, color: Y10/frame; black and white: Y2/frame. (Microfilming costs vary according to the size of the original document.)

People have found it possible to negotiate these prices. Some have continued to pay Chinese prices or a combination of Chinese prices for use and preservation and foreign prices for reproduction. For most scholars working in archives, duplicating costs are the most burdensome, and some have found it cheaper to hire an assistant to hand copy documents than to have them mechanically reproduced.

LIBRARY RULES

Rules regarding access and duplication of materials vary among libraries. Most stacks are not open and fetching materials generally takes more time than in libraries in the United States. Often, collections and reading rooms are separated, sometimes in different parts of a city. In some cases, books or periodicals must be ordered as much as a week in advance.

Photocopying facilities, while more common now than in the past, are usually limited. Photocopying and microfilming are ordinarily done by the staff and also require a wait—sometimes days or weeks. In some cases, however, researchers have been permitted to photocopy

materials themselves. Some places limit duplication of materials to 500 sheets. Some archives and rare book collections require that notes be taken only on specially supplied paper, in pencil and in Chinese. At the Ming-Qing archives, all notes must be inspected and stamped when they are taken out. At the Peking University Library, only 30 sheets at one time can be photocopied, and the turnaround time is at least two days. String-bound books and most pre-1800 materials may not be photocopied, although in some libraries they may be microfilmed. Usually, microfilm readers must be reserved in advance. Research assistants to help with transcribing materials by hand may not be admitted to some facilities. Some libraries do not allow their old books to circulate during the hottest months of the summer. Learning the rules early and planning your time accordingly can increase efficiency.

LIBRARY HOURS

Library hours also vary. The National Library of China is open six days a week (closed on Saturday) and does not close for the noon lunch and rest hour. Many others, however, are open only five days a week and take two-hour breaks at lunchtime. Some allow foreign researchers to continue working in small sitting rooms during that period, but others require that the facility be shut down. Some researchers say that facilities open later than the posted hours and that staff members leave earlier than closing time. Most libraries are not open at night.

In conclusion, Beatrice Bartlett's general advice to scholars in China's libraries and archives is as sound today as it was in 1985:

The situation is constantly changing, however, and frequently one is gratified when a curator's generosity is employed to prevail over a narrow interpretation of the rules. In view of the fact that the materials in all Chinese archives are magnificent, offering much to the scholar willing to search, patient submission to the rules while at the same time quietly attempting to negotiate improved terms is a worthwhile posture, likely eventually to produce desired results. 6

Fieldwork by U.S. scientists and social scientists has been a vital part of academic exchange with China and can be especially rewarding, but the bureaucratic procedures required to conduct fieldwork continue to puzzle potential researchers. For the purposes of this book, fieldwork

is defined as almost any research that requires extensive contact outside the host unit, from interviewing workers or enterprise managers in the city, or carrying out systematic survey research, to conducting anthropological research in a rural village or doing on-site studies of animal behavior. Making arrangements to conduct fieldwork is more complicated than affiliating with a research institute, university, or scientific laboratory and requires time to plan. As Otto Schnepp observes:

Conducting fieldwork in China. . .is in many respects unlike carrying out field investigations in the US and other foreign countries. The reasons for this difference are many but for the most part may be attributed to the structure of the Chinese bureaucracy, the undeveloped nature of some rural areas where fieldwork takes place, China's own priorities in scientific development (which may not always match our own), and, to some extent, basic cultural differences between Chinese and foreigners involved in joint projects. 7

This section provides an overview of opportunities for fieldwork in China, details the steps that must be taken in order to carry it out, and provides information and advice on how to ensure that fieldwork goes smoothly.

Scientists often find it easier to identify opportunities for field research in China than do social scientists. Many institutes within CAS operate field stations in various parts of the country, and many stations welcome cooperative projects with foreign scholars. Projects in earthquake geophysics, paleontology, mining, forestry, botany, epidemiology, and oceanography were among the early successes.

Social science fieldwork, especially survey research and anthropological studies of rural villages, is always more sensitive, and identifying appropriate opportunities is often difficult. Until very recently, CASS had been the principal sponsor of social science fieldwork. The National Science Foundation and the CSCC's National Program for Advanced Study and Research in China both fund American field research in China. The Luce and Ford Foundations also sponsor collaborative research projects, while a number of U.S. institutions and scholars have been able to make their own, less formal arrangements.

Several anthropologists were among the first group of scholars sent to China under the CSCC's Program for Advanced Study and Research in the late 1970s. However, it was not easy to get official authorization to do fieldwork then, especially in rural areas. In 1981, after the conduct of an American anthropologist had provoked controversy within both the U.S. and the Chinese academic communities, the Chinese government instituted an informal moratorium on social science fieldwork in rural areas. Nevertheless, scientific fieldwork continued and several

social scientists were able to make their own arrangements through informal channels. In 1985, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Zouping County government in Shandong Province agreed to permit a team of CSCC-sponsored researchers, including anthropologists, political scientists, economists, historians, sociologists, and ecologists, to conduct long-term fieldwork in Zouping. At about the same time, institutional restrictions appeared to ease, anthropologists were again given permission to conduct village studies, and anthropological fieldwork was revived.

Proposals to do social science research continue to raise sensitive questions and official concerns remain, but the increased autonomy of universities, provincial social science academies, and local research institutes in recent years has made fieldwork easier to arrange than in the past. Today, social scientists are conducting field research on a wide array of topics, including China's "floating population," the development of the stock market, enterprise management, linguistics, and local administration.

The ingredients for successful research in China described in the previous section—formal institutional affiliation, guanxi, and mutual benefit—apply equally to fieldwork. Stanford University's joint research with Chinese earth scientists demonstrates the interrelationship of all three elements and thus stands as a model for successful scientific fieldwork. Cooperation in the geological sciences between Stanford and China dates from the turn of this century. When an international meeting in 1979 provided the opportunity for Stanford and Chinese geologists to meet after a hiatus of 30 years, the old ties of guanxi were immediately revived. The multifaceted, long-term research project that has resulted combines both theoretical and applied science. The implications of the research for the development of China's petroleum industry make the project of interest to the Chinese Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources, the China National Petroleum Corporation, and U.S. oil companies interested in petroleum exploration in China. The NSF has provided funding for the project, and U.S. oil companies make yearly contributions. Several Chinese graduate students have received Ph.D. degrees at Stanford as a result of the joint collaboration. More than one hundred scholarly papers have been published. The practical benefits are unquestionably mutual.

The 10-year study of a rural village by Edward Friedman, Paul Pickowicz, Mark Selden, and Kay Johnson demonstrates how successful good guanxi can be. The authors were seen by authorities in Beijing as friends of China and in 1978 were allowed to begin research in a north China village, where they returned 18 times over the next decade. As the Chinese government's policy of opening to the West continued and the U.S. researchers won the respect and confidence of village lead-

ers, their access to the details of village life expanded. In contrast to scholars working with formal affiliations, they have never paid research fees. Their book, Chinese Village, Socialist State, is a detailed analysis of rural life in China.

Few American projects will approach this complexity or these ideals. Such projects require considerable experience and sophistication. But several important considerations will greatly increase your chances of success. Following is a brief discussion of what they are.

Field research, because so many people are involved, is generally more expensive than archival research. Costs naturally vary depending on the subject to be researched, scope of the project, and number of people involved. Costs for field research are not institutionalized, nor are the names given to different fees consistent.

In addition to affiliation fees mentioned earlier, field researchers may be asked to pay additional administrative costs (guanlifei) as compensation for arrangements made on behalf of the project, work compensation fees (laowufei) to the work unit where interviews take place, fees for reproduction of questionnaires, equipment, transportation fees, gifts and banquets for people who have helped you, fees and living expenses for the people who accompany you to the field, as well as your own living expenses. For collaborative projects, some of these fees may be waived, especially costs related to Chinese personnel involved. The China Health and Nutrition Survey, a cooperative survey research project between sociologists and health economists from the University of North Carolina and nutritionists and biostatisticians from the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine in Beijing, is one example. Although major funding comes from several U.S. organizations (the Ford Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation), the Chinese side contributes both its expertise and hundreds of hours of work. Data collection takes place in China, but much of the analysis is done in the United States, and many of the younger Chinese collaborators come here to work for extended periods, often obtaining graduate degrees in the process. The NSF provides funding for senior Chinese collaborators to stay in the United States for up to six months.

Chinese approval of fieldwork depends on a demonstration that the project will be beneficial to all concerned. For the American, the opportunity to conduct research constitutes a benefit. The benefit to the Chinese host varies. For Chinese scholars, the benefit may be the opportunity to work with (and sometimes publish together with) an American with similar research interests or to come to the United States. With the recent decision to encourage every Chinese work unit, including research institutes and universities, to generate their own income, Chi-

nese hosting organizations may also see foreign research projects as a way to make money. Many local officials regard it as an honor for their unit to be the subject of study, but they will also expect financial benefit from the research. So long as the current trend continues, foreign researchers can expect the cost of their research to rise.

You will want an accurate estimate of your research costs before you go to the field. This is difficult. Many Chinese collaborators will be reluctant to discuss finances with you. Some institutions prefer to delay discussions until you are actually in the field; some researchers agree, hoping first to develop ties of friendship that may serve to lower their costs. Other researchers caution that you should negotiate as many of your costs as possible before arriving in China. Whether before or after your arrival, honest, up-front discussions of budget limitations and funding sources may help to establish guidelines within which to work. Many local officials appear to believe that Americans are wealthy enough to afford whatever is asked—a belief that is confirmed by the few scholars who do pay whatever is asked.

You may be charged a lump sum without any itemization of costs. China hands suggest negotiating over costs and encourage their colleagues to ask for a breakdown of costs by category. Similarly, some researchers have found it effective to spread payments out over time rather than dispersing funds in a single lump sum, reserving a hefty portion of the total payment for the end.

Service fees (fuwufei) are another category you will want to scrutinize. Some researchers, for example, have been charged a daily fee to cover such services as making travel arrangements and being picked up at the airport. In a few cases, people report having been charged for services that were never rendered, and some prefer to save money by making arrangements themselves.

Expect to pay more than the cost of salary for your research assistants and interpreters. Some portion of what you are charged for them will be going toward institutional overhead.

Finally, with corruption now widespread in China, there is no easy way to distinguish between unreasonable research fees and outright corruption. Fieldworkers urge you to consult American colleagues who have already been to the field when attempting to decide what are reasonable costs for your research. Prices vary by region and by the status and wherewithal of the researcher.

Negotiations can be time-consuming, and the ill will that can result from bickering over money can hinder your research efforts, which is another reason for trying to negotiate your expenses before you leave for China. Researchers who can spend only short periods of time in the field may find it simpler to pay the requested sums with few questions asked. Indeed, short-term researchers whose projects can be completed

in one or two visits can expect to pay more than researchers conducting long-term projects where the ties of guanxi and friendship have had time to develop. The best way to come up with a realistic budget is to begin with a good sense of legitimate costs and ask for a precise breakdown of costs by category, presenting your own financial situation honestly, negotiating—and compromising —on the basis of all these factors.

PLACEMENT IN THE FIELD

Scientific fieldworkers are often based in established field stations. However, social scientists often prefer to work in locales (such as villages) that are outside the xitong with which they are affiliated. Technically, most host organizations do not have the authority to place a social scientist in the field. Field placement still depends on guanxi and necessitates that representatives from the sponsoring organization persuade local-level officials and organizations to accept your project. If your Chinese collaborator has close ties to the area, as in the case mentioned earlier where the Chinese partner was returning to the village where she had lived during the Cultural Revolution, that process may be quick and smooth. Often, however, a process of courtship is required—including hosting banquets and offering gifts—to convince local officials that hosting a foreign researcher is to their advantage.

For anthropological research, this process may have to be repeated in several places before local officials are willing to sign on. Unless you have already developed personal friendships with local officials, they will expect compensation for making your research possible, for seeing that you are properly housed and fed, and for ensuring that local people will be cooperative.

THE RESEARCH TEAM

If you rely on a host organization to get to the field, a complicated cast of characters is likely to be involved—administrators from the host organization, Chinese collaborators, research assistants and interpreters, local officials, drivers, and local residents. They will have individual interests that may differ from each other's and from your own. Your research will be smoother and more successful if you understand why everyone is there and can forge the various participants into a working team.

Academic administrators, often from the foreign affairs office of the sponsoring unit, are important to the success of your project. The best will be supportive of your work and active in bringing it to fruition. Many foreign affairs officials receive high marks from U.S. researchers, and it would be unfair not to recognize the great assistance so many have given. But some have been viewed as impediments to research. Many may have little interest in the substance of your work; many are busy with other things.

However, the breadth of authority of the foreign affairs office is wider than that of the individual scholars with whom you work; therefore, the academic administrator assigned to work with you is vital to your project. He is often responsible for making the local connections necessary to put you in the field, and his endeavors may require considerable expenditure of time and effort. Your way will be smoother if he understands and supports your project. You will be at an advantage if you can persuade him that your project is worthwhile.

Most American field researchers work with Chinese collaborators, although some social scientists prefer to work independently. Collaboration with Chinese colleagues has been one of the most rewarding aspects of the exchange relationship. Most Americans could not work in China without that collaboration, even when they approach the project with different motivations and methodologies. "I found her presence on many of the interviews a godsend," writes one researcher about her collaborator. "Her connections were clearly of immeasurable help to me. . . . I feel that my research access. . .[was] greatly facilitated through her."

In addition to carrying out joint research, your Chinese collaborators will also have their own interests. The concept of mutual benefit recognizes the need to work for your collaborators' interests as well. In one successful research project, local officials were happy to host the American fieldworker and her Chinese faculty collaborator because the town was trying to develop connections with the Chinese university. The young faculty member was happy to make the connections because her graduate students were looking for a place to do their fieldwork. Everyone's interests were served.

Similarly, institutions hosting projects with funding from the United States have a better chance of receiving additional funding from Beijing, and a collaborator able to bring in additional funds will gain both increased prestige and a financial bonus. Chinese scholars may expect collaboration to lead to a research opportunity in the United States. American funders, including the NSF, promote reciprocity and assume that collaborative projects will include the opportunity for members of the Chinese team to conduct research in the United States.

If you are individually funded and your home institution is not able to offer your collaborators direct financial support, they still might welcome a formal invitation from your institution to join you as a visiting scholar. A formal invitation may allow the Chinese scholar to receive approved leave from his own work unit and enhances his chances of receiving a U.S. visa.

Research assistants will be invaluable in implementing your research project. Many look forward to working with Americans as a way of gaining experience in the use of Western methodologies. The

project they undertake with you may suggest new avenues of research as they pursue their graduate education. Many will also be looking forward to an opportunity to study in the United States. In some cases, research teams include research assistants from both the host and local institutions. The local assistant is likely to be much more familiar with the area and its people and can be an important source of information and help in becoming acquainted with the area. Research assistants from the host unit may be better trained academically but less conversant with local issues.

Interpreters are another vital part of the team. Researchers who have used Chinese interpreters report that an English-speaking scholar who is also part of the project, especially one who has studied in the West, is likely to be extremely effective. He will understand both the project and the specialized language, which "ordinary" interpreters might not.

You will, in any case, want to make certain your interpreter is able. You can facilitate the work of interpreters by providing outlines of questions ahead of time and perhaps making a glossary in Chinese to English for technical terms. Since he will also be interpreting during whatever negotiations you may have in the field, his position can be delicate. His English abilities will enable you to befriend him more quickly than non-English speaking members of the team, and his trust, friendship, insights, and information can be invaluable to your work.

While serving as your translator, the interpreter remains an employee of your host organization and is often junior to your Chinese collaborators. While you may become friends, his first responsibility is to his superiors in his own work unit. Your interpreter, too, may be looking for an opportunity to come to the United States and may want you to help.

Local officials who have been persuaded to accept you into their area are also vital to your research. Their continued cooperation is necessary for your success. Once you arrive, they are responsible not only for your food, housing, health, and safety, but also for assisting your research, which can be a heavy burden. Hospitality to foreigners is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture even as wariness toward them is pervasive. You will need good relations with your local hosts for the successful completion of your work, and it will be important to them to understand that your intentions are good. Representatives from your host institution may help you in the early stages of this relationship, serving, in effect, as middlemen in explaining who you are and what your project is about.

But if you spend lengthy periods in the field, you will want to develop good relations with your local hosts. Just as hospitality to foreigners is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture, so you will be expected

to give your hosts face by reciprocating that hospitality. A generous banquet, where you publicly thank the hosts who have made your research possible, is one way of showing your appreciation. If you give one early in your stay and use it as an opportunity for your hosts to get to know you and win their trust, the foundations for further cooperation will be strengthened. In some cases, gifts are appropriate. Your interpreters and collaborators can advise you about the most appropriate ways of compensating your local hosts and showing your thanks.

Nonetheless, even scholars who welcome the opportunity for friendship sometimes complain that social demands can be overwhelming. Field researchers whose work requires traveling from place to place are often treated like VIPs. The presence of foreigners is an opportunity for local officials to throw an expensive banquet, and face is gained through concrete and long-lasting evidence of the foreigner's visit in the form of numerous photographs. Local hosts may not understand the needs of a serious scientific researcher or a researcher's impatience over time-consuming banquets and photo opportunities. Your work schedule should allow for the exchange of hospitality, but you may need to remind your team members that time is limited, and obligations of hospitality and face ought not to overwhelm your work.

Your driver is the final member of your team, and he is especially important if your research requires travel to out-of-the-way places. Make sure that he is invited to banquets on the road (this is best done through a go-between) and carry cigarettes to present as occasional gifts. The article by John Olsen in Appendix O provides essential information on the types of vehicles you should use, the need for mechanical skills, and types of fuel available.

Because so few Chinese have private cars, drivers have a special status. Not only do many of them make far more money than their friends in factories, but the mobility afforded by a car gives them wide-ranging connections. They are likely to know their area well and to be a lively source of local lore.

But a number of researchers, particularly those who must travel long distances on crowded roads, have expressed concern about the speed and audacity of their drivers. While it is important to respect the driver's status and to make him part of the team, your safety—and the safety of others on the road—is paramount, and it is important to negotiate hard to ensure it. If you believe your driver is too reckless, a frank discussion with him and the Chinese members of your group may be necessary. The driver is responsible for your safety while you are in his vehicle, and it is a responsibility all drivers must take seriously.

THE RESEARCH SITE

If your field research is to be conducted in out-of-the-way places, basic urban amenities will be absent. Do not

expect to be able to do any banking in small towns, regardless of what you are told, and do not expect that your hosts will know what an American Express card or travelers' check is. You will not be able to use them outside large urban areas. (See Appendix K for a list of places where American Express services are available.) Bring enough money to conduct all your transactions in cash. If you will stay several weeks or months in one place and have large amounts of cash, you should consider opening a local bank account for the deposit of renminbi.

Advanced medical facilities will also be unavailable. Many researchers suggest bringing along Where There Is No Doctor, and fieldworkers should follow the medical advice offered in Chapter 2 . In addition, rabies is common in small animals in some areas of China; you are advised not to pet dogs in rural areas. The American doctor in Beijing recommends a rabies series (the embassy stores the serum) for anyone bitten by a small animal there. The first injection, administered intramuscularly, must begin within ten days after being bitten. You would either have to return to Beijing for the shots or have the frozen serum delivered to you on site to be administered by a local doctor.

Your hosts will attempt to house you in the best hotels or guest houses available. Some research stations have guest quarters and cooks on site. Most accommodations, while simple, are clean and adequate, though some will not have running hot water or modern plumbing. On the other hand, some researchers have described their housing as squalid. Fieldworkers with experience in developing countries recognize that difficult living conditions often come with the territory. If cleanliness is important to you and you are planning to stay any length of time in out-of-the-way places, you might want to bring your own bed sheets and strong bleach, cleansing powder, and rubber gloves to clean your room yourself.

Local people in out-of-the-way places may have little or no experience with foreigners. You may be the first to have visited in decades and hence the only foreigner most people in your area will have seen. Most researchers report that the people in remote areas are curious, friendly, and generous beyond their means. These researchers have greatly enjoyed the opportunity for interaction despite an occasional thirst for privacy.

You can expect banquets to be given in your honor. Alcohol consumption at rural banquets is high. Not only do the toasts, each drunk ''bottoms up," escalate during the evening, but the liquor may be a rough-and-ready local brew. Some researchers believe that abstinence is ungracious and a barrier to potential friendships; some also report becoming very drunk and sick. Other researchers insist that scholarly decorum is best maintained by sticking to fruit juice and soda. Do what is most comfortable.

The quality of cooking on ordinary days varies widely in remote areas —from enormous quantities of tastily prepared fresh vegetables and meat to much less appetizing fare. Many researchers enjoy eating at the tiny independently run restaurants, while others note that sanitary conditions in such places may be inadequate and can cause digestive upset or worse. Of course, there will be no restaurants at all outside the towns and villages. If you have a favorite instant food that can be prepared by adding boiled water, or if you insist on morning coffee, bring some with you for times when you prefer a simple meal at home.

In recent years, many foreign scholars have conducted research in ethnic minority areas, and anthropological research may be easier to arrange there than in Han regions. Scholars contemplating research in ethnic minority areas should read the summer 1991 issue of China Exchange News, which is devoted to an examination of anthropology and ethnology in China. Many of the minority populations live in remote areas along China's borders that are more sensitive politically than the coastal areas with which most Westerners are familiar. Several researchers have had very successful visits to such areas (see, for example, Matthew Kapstein, "New Sources for Tibetan Buddhist History," CEN, Fall/Winter 1991), but others have had difficulty getting permission to conduct research in sensitive areas, even for such innocuous projects as data collection on minority languages. Relations between the dominant Han majority and China's national minorities have always been sensitive, most notably in Tibet and Xinjiang. With the breakup of the Soviet Union and growing ethnic nationalism everywhere, China's national minorities problem is even more delicate. U.S. field researchers are still conducting productive research in these areas, but conversations with colleagues who have preceded you may help to prepare you for the particular problems you might encounter.

EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES

The equipment and supplies you need depend very much on the nature of your research. You will want to consult extensively with both your American and Chinese colleagues for their recommendations.

A general rule of thumb for field researchers is to bring everything you will need. The following paragraphs are written by A.T. Steegman, a biological anthropologist at the University of Buffalo. The article by John Olsen, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona and former director of the CSCC's Beijing office, in Appendix O , contains important recommendations, including how to purify water in the field, food and cooking equipment, and how to choose the best vehicle for your trip. The comments by Steegman and Olsen should be required reading for anyone conducting scientific fieldwork.

A.T. Steegman writes:

If the Chinese have equipment to be used in the research, be sure it is of good quality, modern and possible to calibrate independently. If you cannot test it on a preliminary visit, try to get manufacturers' specifications. The Chinese may be sensitive about the quality of their equipment, and it is easy to walk into a disaster.

Minor pieces of equipment are probably easiest to take through in personal luggage. Some people think you can take major and minor equipment through the "green line" at customs this way as part of your own gear. However, if customs stops it, there could be big problems.

If you are taking major equipment, try to send it early and get a "customs waiver without bond." Consult an import/export broker who does business in China.

Chinese customs is literally a law unto itself and is very powerful. It can ruin a research project by being slow and obstructive, especially if time is limited. The "bond" referred to above is a deposit worth one to two times the value of the equipment. It must be left with customs to get your containers unless it has been waived. Even then it can take days or weeks to clear, regardless of carrier.

If you ship air cargo, reserve space well ahead of time. Not all major U.S. carriers have competent offices in China.

Assume you will not be able to replace equipment. It is extremely hard to import equipment, nor are there facilities to repair high-tech equipment.

Take cameras as part of your personal baggage. It is nearly impossible to get them past customs as equipment.

Supplies: Take everything you will need. Much is not available in China or is of very poor quality. Here is a partial list:

Solder/soldering gun

Pencils/pens/sharpeners

Paper (all kinds)

Plastic tape/duct tape

Glue/fasteners

Lubrication (ex. WD-40)

Calibration equipment

Circuit testers

Voltage transformers/surge protectors

Reference books

Tables/standards

Computers/software

SURVEY RESEARCH

Several research teams have been able to undertake systematic survey research with Chinese collaborators—in areas such as work and social life, the process of mate selection, the health and living status of elderly populations, occupations of urban residents, housing and community resources, the concept of modernity, epidemiology, and health and nutrition. Social survey work remains sensitive, and the experiences of researchers vary. For most of the 1980s, several projects were housed in universities under the administration of the SEDC, but following the Tiananmen Square tragedy of 1989, the SEDC banned collaborative social science survey research in universities under its jurisdiction. Several ongoing projects were suspended. As of this writing, negotiations to renew this type of research are nearing conclusion. Several other projects outside SEDC jurisdiction have continued.

Anyone contemplating survey research in China should read the articles in the spring 1993 edition of China Exchange News. Many of the scholars whose research is described there are happy to share their insights with others contemplating similar research. Some general advice follows, distilled largely from Gail Henderson's article, "Survival Guide to Survey Research in China."

The choice of affiliation and potential collaborators, and the contract agreed to by the participating parties, is key when contemplating survey research, just as for other types of research.

Henderson advises:

Make sure that your collaborators can do what they promise and are interested in what you want to do. It sounds simple, but in the rush to get access to China, this step is often skipped. Talk to other people who have worked with your proposed collaborators. Look at work they have completed; don't let chance connections push you into a long-term relationship. 8

In the case of survey research covering multiple locales, a national-level host institution is likely to be more effective in arranging access than a local one. Local-level institutions ordinarily do not have the connections necessary to arrange research in multiple settings. Some researchers, however, have been successful arranging to have multiple hosting institutions, carrying out, in effect, multiple projects under one large umbrella.

Researchers with experience in survey research in China also emphasize the complexities of designing questionnaires that will both measure what you are trying to learn and make sense to Chinese respon-

dents. Plan to spend more time than you might think necessary to design the questionnaire and to pretest and revise it before the survey begins. An overly complex questionnaire, which might take several hours for respondents to answer, or one with unfamiliar concepts, is not likely to yield the desired data.

Training interviewers is also important. A few graduate students who have been persuaded to leave questionnaires with enterprise managers, for instance, have had mixed results at best. Few Chinese have had experience either administering or responding to questionnaires, and the result of insufficiently trained interviewers can be faulty data—even on so simple a matter as age, which the Chinese may calculate in terms of actual date of birth or xu and either the Western or the lunar calendar. Time spent in training is made up later in more accurately completed responses.

Researchers have also found that paying respondents after the interview is complete is more likely to produce better quality data than paying them before. Similarly, interviewers should be compensated for the quality of the data they collect rather than the speed with which they complete interviews.

LABORATORY RESEARCH

The advancement of science has been a major goal of China's modernization program, and U.S. scientists have been welcomed since the beginning of academic exchanges, especially in fields of high priority to the Chinese government.

Virtually all work conducted in the sciences is collaborative, and the NSF, which remains a primary funder of U.S. scientists in China, actively promotes cooperative research. Scientists who have done extensive work in Chinese laboratories describe facilities that range from "world class" to "tremendously inadequate." While generalizations are difficult, labs run by the CAS are often well-equipped, as are some in key universities. Those administered by provinces, cities, and localities, which have fewer funds, tend not to be as good, and some field stations are sorely lacking in basic equipment. Laboratories that have hosted foreign scholars—or have foreign scholars on their advisory boards—are often particularly well-equipped. Moreover, the experience of having hosted foreign scholars makes the integration of each succeeding foreign scholar easier.

Scientists are advised to visit several laboratories before deciding which to affiliate with. Sometimes basic equipment is not working for lack of a single part or necessary reagents are unavailable. If you can supply needed parts or reagents, your collaboration will be off to a good start. In any case, check again before returning for precise specifi-

cations on what is available and working, and plan to bring to China materials your lab does not have.

Scientists have several suggestions for ensuring successful research. First, your Chinese collaborator will be key to the success of your project. Find a collaborator who is genuinely interested in working with you, with whom you have an easy rapport, and who is both conversant with the scientific bureaucracy and able to work effectively within it. Personal connections are also important in scientific research. China's current emphasis is on applied research, and proposals in the applied sciences, such as materials science, biotechnology, natural resources, information science, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, are particularly welcome. These fields have been targeted as major recipients of Chinese government funds where international collaboration is encouraged.

Second, spell out the details of collaboration in your research agreement. Because the agreement must be approved by several bureaucratic layers, it will assume the force of law, though details can always be renegotiated. In addition to conducting research, your Chinese hosts will undoubtedly want you to lecture, and they will want to be introduced to new techniques. Many scientists spend several months conducting research at one site followed by short visits to other labs for collaborative exchanges, lectures, and training workshops.

Offer to arrange for Chinese collaborators to come to the United States for research and provide opportunities for graduate students to study. Spell out the precise financial arrangements for Chinese collaborators in the United States. Chinese scientists are often on very tight budgets, and most will need to be picked up at the airport and will need assistance finding reasonably priced housing. Occasionally, Chinese research institutes will try to send less-qualified researchers. The terms of the agreement should detail what their research obligations will be and what qualifications researchers in your own laboratory are expected to have. If your institution is able to provide equipment to the Chinese laboratory where you are working, offer to donate it. By providing opportunities for Chinese scientists in the United States and giving what equipment you can, you are in a better position to negotiate the terms and cost of your research in China.

Third, your research is likely to be more successful if you return for several visits during the course of the project. Successful research results are very difficult to obtain in one or two visits.

Fourth, share all data with your Chinese hosts and offer to publish jointly with them. Most welcome the opportunity to publish their research in international journals. If you are publishing independently, let Chinese collaborators comment on drafts. Be certain to send copies of all publications to your colleagues and to any other scientists and laboratories you have visited. Encourage your collaborators to do the same.

Fifth, communications between research institutes are often faulty. When traveling alone from one research site to another, ask your host to arrange for people at the next site to meet you when you arrive. If not, be prepared to get from the airport or train station to your hotel on your own. If you are paying your own way, costs can be cut if you make your own living arrangements and travel reservations until your research work actually begins. Many scientists spend several days in Beijing before proceeding to their research site. If that stay is arranged by your host unit, you could be charged US$200 to $300 a day. If you make arrangements on your own and stay in a relatively inexpensive hotel, you will save money.

SHORT-TERM ACADEMIC VISITS

Many people contemplating a longer-term research project in China find that a short-term visit to meet Chinese colleagues, visit different research institutes and universities, and, usually, to lecture is a necessary and valuable means of meeting potential collaborators and beginning to formulate a research plan. Short visits usually require stamina and flexibility because the pace can be intense. Although the short-term visitor does not develop firsthand experience with the inner workings of professional and personal life in China, you can expect frank conversations with Chinese colleagues and explorations into the potential of collaborative work. Moreover, the logistics of your visit will rest almost entirely in Chinese hands.

Timing during short trips is usually not under your control. Despite the best intentions of your Chinese hosts, and elaborate planning and scheduling by the U.S. sponsor, these scholarly visits almost always are marked by last-minute changes, unexpected developments, and missed opportunities.

When to go is an important consideration in planning a short-term academic visit. Work tends to slow down in the hottest summer months and during the Chinese New Year in January or February.

During the summer months, major Chinese cities are often crowded with other foreigners, who strain the resources of Chinese hosting organizations. Chinese scholars often use the vacation months to travel abroad. One visitor, disappointed that many Chinese scholars he hoped to meet were out of town, put it this way:

The intellectual dimension of Deng's open door policy means that it has become much more difficult to meet Chinese in China. If no one travels, no one ever meets anyone from a different place. If everyone travels, however, no one also ever meets anyone from a different place except at conferences and in chance encounters at airports.

Internal travel in the heavy tourist season (May through October) creates headaches for Chinese hosts and guests alike. Several scholars complained that they were not met at airports nor informed ahead of time about schedules, hotel accommodations, or local travel arrangements. As is true anywhere during high-tourist season, long delays in airports owing to weather, mechanical failures, or overbooking of flights are not uncommon.

PREPARATIONS

In general, the most successful short-term visits are the result of careful arrangements with the hosting organization combined with communications with individual Chinese scholars. Itineraries, requests for meetings with colleagues, lecture formats, and collaborative arrangements must be worked out well in advance. Goals for the project, as well as meeting and site visit requests, must be presented clearly. If you are going to be lecturing, it is a good idea to ask your host unit for advance information about topics, the probable size and composition of classes, what students or colleagues expect to learn from the lectures, and what kind of interpretation will be provided.

If special equipment, such as audiovisual equipment, is necessary, be sure to inform your hosts well in advance. Visits to other organizations in China are difficult to arrange once the hosting organization assumes responsibility, and they are often too complex to arrange informally in a short time. Returned scholars therefore urge you to write ahead to arrange to meet organizations and individual scholars not associated with the hosting unit. In the words of one recent grantee:

If I had it to do over again, I would invest a lot more time than I did before going to China in specifying exactly what I wanted on my schedule and, most importantly, corresponding directly with those institutions and individuals I wanted to visit, thus avoiding some of the lateral communications problems which existed despite the good intentions of my host.

This is particularly important if you are concerned that insufficient time may be devoted to substantive academic meetings. Be sure to give detailed guidance in advance about what meetings you desire.

Even with elaborate advance preparations, fine-tuning of the schedule will occur after your arrival, in consultation with colleagues from the host unit and the foreign affairs officer in charge of your visit. This is the time to point out any potential problems. If you will be lecturing, this is a good time to distribute abstracts or outlines, if this has not been done earlier, and to confer with interpreters.

If you have not worked closely with your hosts in planning your schedule, you may find that your travel schedule is lighter on academic time and heavier on touring. Many visitors are not aware of the time

required and discomfort of travel in China. Some scholars have complained that during their visit they had little free time to meet people informally or simply to rest; others suffered from the lack of cultural stimulation. One scientist remarked:

I had little opportunity to develop any sense of the Chinese people or their daily lives. This was all the more frustrating because I was aware that an incredible number of interesting opportunities existed beyond the walls of the hotel, but since I did not speak Chinese, I was reluctant to strike out on my own without a guide or interpreter.

Another scholar who does speak Chinese remarked that his visit was so intense and so richly rewarding personally and professionally that he lost 15 pounds, in spite of too many banquets, and returned home exhausted and elated. Most travelers report that at some point they politely declined to see one more site and instead took a day off to rest, write up notes, or prepare a lecture.

ACADEMIC CONFERENCES

China hosts many international academic conferences each year, providing excellent opportunities for Western and Chinese scholars to make new contacts and become more familiar with ongoing research in their fields. Scholars considering attending a conference in China should be clear on the following questions:

Who is paying for travel, lodging, and food? Find out if "conference fees" will be charged and how much they will be.

Is the conference a genuine attempt to gather serious scholars or a money-making scheme?

What is expected of participants? How long should one plan to allocate for a read paper? Will translation be provided? Will the entire text be translated? Do the translators need a written copy in advance?

What are the exact dates of the conference? When do the sessions actually begin and end?

Being prepared in China, says one researcher, can mean "the difference between a headache and a productive day." Acclaimed by readers, this friendly and practical volume—now updated with important new information—offers all the details academic visitors need to make long-term stays in China productive, comfortable, and fun.

Academic opportunities have been revived in the years since the Tiananmen Square event, and the book opens with an overview of what we have learned from our academic exchanges with China, the opportunities now available, and resources for more information.

To help visitors prepare for daily life, the book covers everything from how to obtain the correct travel documents to what kinds of snack foods are available in China, from securing accommodations to having the proper gift for your Chinese dinner host.

Frank discussions on the research and academic environments in China will help students, investigators, and teachers from their initial assignment to a danwei, or work unit, to leaving the country with research materials intact. The book offers practical guidelines on working with Chinese academic institutions and research assistants, arranging work-related travel, managing working relationships, resolving language issues, and—perhaps most important—understanding Chinese attitudes and customs toward study, research, and work life.

New material in this edition includes an expanded section on science and social science field work, with a discussion of computers: which ones work best in China, how to arrange to bring your computer in, where to find parts and supplies, how to obtain repairs, and more. Living costs, health issues, and addresses and fax numbers for important services are updated. Guidance is offered on currency, transportation, communications, bringing children into China, and other issues.

Based on the first-hand reports of hundreds of academic visitors to China and original research by the authors, this book will be useful to anyone planning to live and work in China: students, researchers, and teachers and their visiting family members, as well as business professionals.

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How to Apply for an Academic Job in China and Be Successful

By Dr Wan (Victoria) Hu; MA Chinese/English Translation and Interpreting, and PhD Translation Studies at The University of Nottingham. Dr Hu is now a lecturer in Translation and Interpreting Studies at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing.

The number of Chinese students in the UK is increasing, and if you are a PhD student, you may be considering returning home to start a career in academia after graduation. As a PhD graduate and now a lecturer myself, here is my step-by-step guide to securing an academic position in China.

Step 1: Gathering information

Chinese state-owned universities normally post job vacancies on their own official websites. Their recruiting time is usually from December to May, but each university will have its own specific recruitment period, so keep an eye on their websites.

In addition, there are also some Sino-foreign universities in China. These universities may not follow the above time period. They may only post job advertisements when they really have vacancies, and will usually post them on academic job boards.

Step 2: Preparing and completing your application

When it came to making my applications, I found it very useful to attend courses put on by the Graduate School and Careers service, such as how to write an academic CV , and how to apply for academic jobs in China. The supervisors in my school gave extensive support for reference letters. Gathering various suggestions from different parties and applying these ideas to my own applications was vital to my success.

There is usually an application system on each university’s website. The online questions are not difficult, some may even overlap with what’s on your CV. You need to be patient and careful, ensuring you have completed every section before submitting your application online.

Step 3: The interview stage

If you are lucky enough to be shortlisted, you will be invited to an interview. The panel will normally consist of the head of school, party secretary, deputy heads of school, and/or directors of departments or research centres. Some of them may share the same research interests as you, but they may also know little about your area. Therefore, you should aim to present all your information in a simple, clear and logical way.

In preparation for my interview, I had a one-to-one consultation with Clare Jones from the Careers and Employability Service who gave me valuable advice on my interview technique.

“As a PhD student, you are trained to be a researcher. The employers are hoping to see this during the interview.”

I also consulted two professors, one from the Business School and the other from the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, who both gave me great advice about staff recruitment and interviews in China.

They helped me to prepare for the common stages of the interview process:

• Teaching a class
• Giving a presentation about your academic and research achievements
• Formal interview in front of a panel

Step 4: Don’t forget the physical!

A physical test is also required as part of the recruitment process for Chinese universities. It’s an easy stage to forget, so stay healthy and bear it in mind as you approach this stage.

Final step: Making a decision

Before closing, I would like to further elaborate two points.

• How you ‘fit’ is very important. You need to be sure that your teaching, research or administrative interests fit the school/department’s needs and expectations.
• The second point is preparation . This is a key element when searching for academic jobs in China. I had a notepad detailing my target universities, their requirements, and their deadlines.

Last but not least, it’s worth noting that graduates from The University of Nottingham are in high demand at Chinese universities. You are viewed as a graduate with a world-leading degree, research and teaching potential, transferable skills, and a fresh perspective.

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Building an Academic Career in China

Sol gained his PhD in Social and Lifecourse Epidemiology from UCL, and is Assistant Professor in Global Public Health at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Read about his life as an academic in Beijing.

13 December 2022

What are you up to now?

I started working at the Tsinghua Vanke School of Public Health in April. It was quite a big move, but I’ve been here a few months now and I’m getting into my stride. I’m an Assistant Professor, which means I’m on the tenure track, and my role involves research and teaching.

What does a normal working day look like for you?

My contract says my work should be 45% research, 25% teaching, which includes running courses, but also supervising Masters and PhD students, and 30% community involvement, which could be sitting on a university committee, or being on journal editorial boards or external expert committees. Any given day might involve some or all of these elements, and the proportions will vary based on the time of year.

With research, so far I’ve been trying to get established. This has meant writing up and submitting papers arising from previous collaborations, setting up new projects, and speaking with potential collaborators, such as the CDC in the US who are looking to better utilise their malaria data from Burkina Faso. I’ve been hiring recently too, for a research assistant who will be starting at the end of the month. I’ve also been applying for grants, and I recently won a bid for a consultancy project on identifying research priorities for malaria interventions in Africa, so I’m turning that into research funding, and have hired a research assistant for that too.

Regarding teaching, because of when I started, my teaching has so far been on short Epidemiology courses over the summer, and on English writing workshops for Masters students. Come September, I will be teaching the Introductory Epidemiology and Biostatistics course for first-year Masters students. In American terms, I have a 1:1 teaching load, which means teaching one course per semester/term (I gather a regular teaching load in the US for a new lecturer is often 2:1 or 2:2).

And for the community contribution, it will be quite difficult for me to sit on university boards because of the language barrier, so instead my time will be spent on wider community activities, like contributing to the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) Alliance, and being a grant assessor for the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Tell us about the journey you’ve taken to reach your current position.

The end of the PhD can be a tough time for getting jobs and making a transition. After my PhD, I worked as a Research Associate at King’s College London for about a year and a half, but during that time I also took on external consultancy work, as I was looking to move out of academia and do something more practical. After making a few unsuccessful applications, I secured a position at the NGO, Malaria Consortium, as a Senior Epidemiologist on their SMC programme. My role involved setting up surveys, providing epidemiological advice, designing research studies, and helping to build capacity in country staff. Alongside that role, I was still collaborating with KCL, and conducting external consultancy work, such as with the WHO, which involved writing papers.

For personal reasons, I decided I wanted to move to China. But any international candidate wanting to move to China, or any other Asian country, is competing with local people in the job market, and unless you want to be something foreigner-specific, like a language teacher, it’s quite a tough sell for an employer to hire a foreigner when there are lots of extremely skilled people locally. Academia is one of the few places where being from overseas, with overseas academic experience, can be seen as an advantage. This is for two reasons 1) Chinese universities could be said to be “credentialist”, really valuing experience at and collaborations with elite universities, and so a UCL brand on your PhD can certainly be an advantage in academia in China. And 2) Chinese universities typically value international experience.

Academia was one of the best ways for me to get a visa and be employed in China, and it lets me continue to work on many of the things I would have been working on in the UK outside of academia. I applied online by sending in a CV and covering letter, and then went through three interviews to get the role; one where I had to deliver a teaching presentation, one a research presentation, and the third being a general interview with faculty members.

Was your time spent outside of academia an obstacle?

That hasn’t been a problem overall, no, but I’ve found reactions to non-academic experience can vary greatly between individuals and departments. The nature of my current department (and perhaps Public Health more widely) is we have a lot of academics who also have external practical experience, so that didn’t worry them. I would say China is probably more flexible in general in terms of assessing you and your work and experience, maybe putting slightly less emphasis on the work fitting exactly with what else is going on in the department. And because this is a brand new Public Health school, they haven’t yet built an identity I would have to fit in with, so that probably worked in my favour.

My previous supervisor at KCL had also worked outside of academia for several years including in the civil service and NHS, and then returned and become a high-profile professor, so she understood my external experience. However, I did have one interview with another university in London a while back (not UCL), where they reacted fairly negatively to me continuing my external consulting, and it was a pretty bad interview as a result! So it could pose a barrier in some scenarios.

The fact my NGO work involved conducting research and continuing to publish papers and collaborate with academics made it conceptually easier for people to see the link to academia.

What are the best things about your job?

The autonomy is one of the most appealing things about academia in general, and I think that’s especially true in China, where there may not always be the same level of structure as in some other countries, like the US. There’s a great freedom in that; I can work on what I want and collaborate with whomever I want, and undertake consultancy whenever I like. No one will mind what time of day I’m working, and as so many of my meetings may be with people overseas, I may be having meetings quite late because of time differences. This flexible way of working suits me, but it can be a double-edged sword, as some people may dislike the lack of structure in academia.

What are the biggest challenges?

As a foreigner coming into China, it does feel very much like a sink or swim environment. Colleagues may not be able to help in the same way as if I spoke the language, and so dealing with bureaucracy can be difficult. My university is really making an effort to be a place where an international researcher can work completely in English, and I would say that in most of the main areas they’ve done a great job. But there are still lots of small things that aren’t terribly user-friendly for a foreigner.

I’d say anyone looking to make a move to China should expect things to take a while with the initial bureaucracy to get settled. Setting up a mobile phone number and WeChat and all of the essential ‘super apps’ they use here, which is really important for daily living in a way that it isn’t in the UK, can be difficult.

And in China in general, quite often systems and processes aren’t as clear as I might have been used to. For example, when I’m hiring people there are a few rules, but not as many as I might have been used in the UK, where we have clear HR processes people are supposed to follow. In a way, that gives you lots of freedom in how you select the right candidates, but there isn’t quite the same support system for someone like me who might have been doing this for the first time ever at this university. I used the methods I was used to in the UK in the end, but it’s quite daunting to have to come up with your own recruitment tools, and to work out how to reach the right candidates without an equivalent of jobs.ac.uk or insidehighered.com like in the UK or US.

What’s the progression like?

There is a much clearer progression timeline in Chinese academia compared to the UK; it’s far more similar to the US tenure system. Once you’re on the tenure-track, there are established milestones where they will assess you. Some people don’t like these systems, perhaps because of the concern about not meeting certain deadlines. While I personally prefer having timelines to work towards, I would say the performance indicators on which you’ll be assessed aren’t always totally clear, or might differ by department, and that’s something I’ve been trying to get my head around by talking to colleagues, to establish exactly what my KPIs will be.

In terms of the timeline where I work, on the tenure-track there’s a 6-8 month probation period, where the criteria will likely be wanting to see some progress in your research, and not messing up any teaching you’ve done at that stage! Around the 2-year mark is the first assessment instance for getting promoted. Typically, you will be promoted to Associate Professor before you can apply for tenure. So at the 2-ish year mark you either get promoted, or you wait another year to be assessed again. Then one year after that you can apply for tenure.

To get tenure, normally you would have led a course successfully and completed or nearly completed supervision of at least one PhD student. On the research side, assessors will value you winning peer-reviewed funds, typically a China National Science Foundation grant, so that would set you up well for getting tenure. I submitted an application to this when I first started here and am waiting to hear back. For international researchers there is a separate National Science Foundation funding scheme, which is hopefully more accessible for foreigners.

When you have tenure, I’m not sure there is an explicit number of years, but at some point, once you fit the criteria, you could apply for a full professorship.

Are there any other differences in research culture compared with the UK?

I’m sure each university will have its own culture, but in general Chinese culture has a sort of informality to work requests, and less of a separation between work and personal life. If you want something done, you can start immediately and get it done speedily, by going into WeChat and asking a colleague. Again, this is a double-edged sword though; yes, you can ask colleagues to get things done quickly, but it also means your colleagues can ask you to get things done quickly too, and at all hours.

I think there’s more freedom to pursue multiple research directions here, so I don’t feel constrained in any way by my department. For example, I am working on both malaria and tobacco, and I think if I were in a UK department that might raise eyebrows, but here it’s fine to follow my interests.

Another difference is in winning funds, as the system for grants here can seem a little different. In the UK and US, sometimes people joke you’re almost applying for money retrospectively; that you should have already done a bit of the research and yielded promising results before applying, like a pilot to build upon. Whereas in China, they’re looking at the project in a more general sense. You don’t need to already have had outputs or results, or the data source or even a very specific hypothesis, it’s more about how good the project is itself, so the fields on the application form are very open. For a UK researcher that will feel quite different, but it can be quite freeing, as it’s possible to put in a good grant proposal without as much previous work on the project.

Compared to somewhere like UCL, I would say that the faculty is less international. That’s not to say foreign faculty are so rare that people don’t understand my presence or feel I’m a novelty, but it’s still also not common. As an example, while nearly all of the 15 faculty members in my department have some sort of overseas study background - maybe having studied for a PhD overseas – there are only two people who are not originally from China, and the one who isn’t me is ethnic Chinese, so although he grew up in the US, he is at least able to speak the language.

Do you have to speak the language?

I don’t speak Chinese, so no, it’s not a prerequisite. I’m sort of learning, but I’m busy with other things and currently getting by fine in English, so I must say that at the moment I’m perhaps not trying hard enough.

Although one can get by fine in English, it is worth noting that not speaking Chinese can present barriers. All the faculty speak great English, but sometimes the faculty meetings are entirely in Chinese. This means I can’t contribute to minor faculty administrative issues, which some people may not mind, but it’s also possible I might miss something important, so I often need to ask people for clarification.

I teach my students in English, and their written and comprehension skills are great. But there can be barriers here too, as sometimes shyness about speaking English can present an obstacle to class participation.

Looking ahead, if someone did want to build a long-term career here, where they see themselves progressing to become a director of a department, for instance, they would probably need to speak the language pretty well.

What top tips would you pass on to researchers interested in this type of work?

If you want to go to China and work in academia, but you do not speak the language, I would advise you arrive as an independent researcher with existing external collaborations, as the collaborations within China may not come very quickly.

If you are thinking of changing country, whether to China or anywhere else in the world, I would recommend you visit the country you’re moving to first, as it may be different to what you’d expect. At the same time, don’t be scared to look and try things.

And for those who have left academia and are trying to come back, or are thinking of leaving but want to hedge their bets and keep the door open for returning, I would advise you maintain collaborations with academics, and try to keep up publishing, or help supervise a student. In other words, try to stay in the loop, which is far easier if you have a job that is somehow still related to research or your subject.

Are there any specific tips you would give to people graduating into an uncertain employment landscape?

Try to develop one, two, or even three specific skills you’re really good at, and people know you for being good at, and that you can leverage in a range of career paths. I don’t like the term “personal brand” in a sort of marketing sense, but if you have one or two skills you are known to be really good at, you will be more employable. One thing I’ve become known for is being a good writer, being able to turn dumps of information into a paper or article. That skill can be useful in so many ways, and in several different careers, so it gives me flexibility and confidence.

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Finding a Job in China for International Students

Table of Contents

Trying to get a good job in a foreign nation may be intimidating, particularly in a place as vast and varied as China. For overseas students, the Chinese employment market might be especially difficult because of the significant cultural, linguistic, and linguistic differences between their home countries and China. But, foreign students who do their homework before coming to China may improve their employment chances and discover many exciting options. In this blog, we will discuss strategies for finding work in China as an international student.

The Necessary Requirements Should Be Known

Learning what is needed to be hired for a certain position is the first step for an international student looking for work in China. It's possible that some companies have standards for hiring foreign nationals that aren't the same as those for hiring Chinese nationals. International students, for instance, may be required to provide evidence that they can speak, read, and write Mandarin, even though doing so is not strictly necessary for the position for which they are applying. In addition, overseas applicants may need to apply for work permits before starting work.

Get Yourself Job-Search Ready

Students from other countries should be aware of the ways in which the employment market operates differently in China. Students would be well to familiarize themselves with the labor market and hot occupations so that they may concentrate their job search efforts where they would be most successful. Also, Chinese companies are more likely to utilize professional networks or contacts to locate possible new workers, making it all the more important to cultivate these ties. Students studying abroad should also develop a résumé that highlights their foreign experience and tailor it to each job application they submit.

Use Available Means

Foreign students in China have access to a variety of tools designed to facilitate their job hunt. A wide variety of resources, including career placement programs and job fairs, are available to students looking for work via universities. Students may also use internet resources like job search portals and company websites to find out about employment opportunities in their field of study. With these tools, overseas students may identify employment opportunities that are a good fit for their skills and experience.

Get in Touch with People

If you are an international student searching for employment in China, networking is a vital part of your job search. Students should network with experts in their industry by reaching out to their personal and professional networks. Also, foreign students interested in working in China might benefit by joining relevant professional groups and going to industry-specific events.

Maintain a Fluid Mindset

The same goes for overseas students looking for work: have an open mind. Due to language and cultural limitations, many Chinese firms may be hesitant to recruit international students. As a result, international students may need to look for less visible or publicized opportunities. In addition, it is highly recommended that students try to get some kind of relevant work experience in order to better their employability.

Last thought: overseas students should be patient while looking for work in China. Foreign students might find work that suits their skills and interests with time and effort.

As an international student in China, finding a job might be difficult due to the necessity to meet certain standards and skills. But, with diligence and planning, overseas students may locate suitable work. International students may improve their odds of finding employment in China and advancing their careers by familiarizing themselves with the necessary credentials, preparing for the job hunt, making the most of available resources, networking, and maintaining a flexible attitude.

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Career Opportunities and Global Connections for International Students in China

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• February 16, 2023
• About China , Career , Career in China , Chinese Culture , Entrepreneurship in China , Gap Year , Guides , Jobs and Internships , Learn Chinese Language , News & Events , Study Abroad , Study in China , Study Skills

Why does Studying in China Offer Career Opportunities and Global Connections for International Students?

Career opportunities and global connections for international students in China have increased since China’s recovery from the devastating COVID-19 outbreak.

Undoubtedly, studying in China is a great opportunity for international students to gain professional growth and international networks to thrive in the global job market.

China, in particular, offers an incredible chance for students to explore different cultures and develop career opportunities. With its booming economy, it provides a unique platform for international students to acquire valuable knowledge and skills essential for success in their future endeavors.

In this article, we will explore the various ways China can provide career-related benefits as well as global connections that are beneficial for international students looking to make their mark on the world stage.

Why studying in China is important for international students?

China’s ever-growing economy provides an excellent platform for international students to acquire the necessary skills required to succeed in the now turbulent job market. Career Opportunities and Global Connections for International Students in China in this era can not be overestimated.

China offers a variety of courses ranging from finance and economics, business management, computer sciences, engineering and much more. This opens up new opportunities for international students that they may not have otherwise had access to.

In addition to providing knowledge and skills relevant to their career path, China also provides its own unique set of experiences for international students. From meeting people from different backgrounds with different cultures to taking part in traditional Chinese festivities, China gives international students the opportunity to explore and understand how different countries operate on the world stage.

China has also become one of the leading sources of foreign investment worldwide; thus giving international students insight into the world of business.

China’s growing economy and job market create prospects and worldwide connections for foreign students in China

The booming economy in China has created a world of new opportunities for international students. China’s booming industry means that students can find career opportunities here, whether they stay long-term or return to their home countries.

Meanwhile, in recent times, China’s high demand for skilled workers has increased. Therefore, making it a prime destination for talented graduates who want to work abroad and try something different.

Remember, China is home to many leading multinational companies such as Huawei, Alibaba, Lenovo, and Tencent, which are all actively recruiting international talents.

The unique experience China gives to international students means that they will be competitive in the job-hunting race globally.

China’s role in the global economy and politics and the impact on Career Opportunities and Global Connections for International Students in China

China’s impact and influence in the world is ever-increasing; international students with China experience have the potential to become very useful in policy and geopolitical engagements in their respective countries. With China’s continuing growth, the opportunities are limitless.

So, if you are here to further your education, try to equip yourself with the needed knowledge, skills and connections that will make you stand you.

Career Opportunities and Global Connections for Students in China

China is a rapidly developing nation with multiple opportunities for international students to pursue. From business and engineering to technology and finance, China offers you the chance to explore a wide range of career paths.

The Chinese economy is booming and there are plenty of job openings in China’s cities. While studying in China, many students have internships or gain professional experience that helps them stand out among their peers when they return home. This makes China an attractive option for those looking to explore different career options while still gaining valuable work experience.

Additionally, China has become a global powerhouse in many industries including technology, manufacturing, education, entertainment and more. As such, studying abroad in China can open doors for students hoping to build relationships with influential people and organizations across the globe.

These factors make career opportunities and global connections for students in China enormous.

What kind of global connections can China offer?

China is a major powerhouse in the global community, with its economy and population size playing a significant role in international relations.

China maintains close relationships with many countries worldwide; these connections provide international students with the opportunity to build their own global network of contacts.

Having a connection to China provides you access to invaluable resources and information that you may not have otherwise had access to. It also provides you with the chance to explore potential job opportunities or internships in China, giving you an edge when it is time for you to enter the job market.

Events and programs that facilitate international networking and cultural exchange in China.

International networking and cultural exchange is big in China. And there are many events and programs that foster this interest. From trade to job fairs, exhibitions to film festivals, educational expos, and many others. These events provide a platform for individuals and organizations to come together and network, learn from each other, and share their culture.

Here I take you through some of the most prominent events and programs that facilitate international networking and cultural exchange in China.

China International Industry Fair (CIIF)

CIIF is one of the largest industry fairs in the world and attracts participants from around the globe. It provides a platform for international networking and cultural exchange in China.

China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair)

Also known as the Canton Fair , this event takes place twice a year in Guangzhou, China. It is one of the largest trade fairs in the world and is a great opportunity for international networking and cultural exchange.

Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF)

BJIFF is an annual international film festival that showcases films from all over the world. It is a great platform for cultural exchange and networking in China.

Shanghai International Literary Festival

This annual festival attracts authors and literary enthusiasts from around the world. It provides an opportunity to engage in cultural exchange and networking in China.

China Education Expo

The China Education Expo is an annual event that attracts international educators and students to China. It provides an opportunity for networking and cultural exchange in the education sector.

China International Travel Mart (CITM)

CITM is the largest travel trade show in China and provides a platform for networking and cultural exchange in the travel industry.

China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT)

CIFIT is an annual event held in Xiamen, China, that attracts investors and businesses from around the world. It provides an opportunity for networking and cultural exchange in the business sector.

International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP)

IALP is an annual conference that brings together researchers and professionals in the field of Asian language processing. It provides an opportunity for networking and cultural exchange in the field of linguistics.

International Conference on Advances in Social Science, Humanities, and Management (ASSHM)

ASSHM is an annual conference that brings together researchers and professionals in the fields of social science, humanities, and management. It provides an opportunity for networking and cultural exchange in these fields.

China International Robot Show (CIROS)

CIROS is an annual exhibition that showcases the latest developments in robotics and automation. It provides an opportunity for networking and cultural exchange in the field of robotics.

A lot of entities organise job fairs regularly where employers show specific interest in international students in China. Hence, many international students transitioned from the classroom to the workspace through these job fairs. Likewise, some universities in China are partners to these job fairs, so be on the lookout for the opportunity whilst on campus.

Cultural Immersion and Language Learning in China!

China is also a great place to experience culture and learn a new language. Mandarin is a language that is in high demand globally due to the growing global influence of China. As a result, many international students are showing more interest in learning Mandarin.

Cultural immersion in China also gives international students the opportunity to explore China’s rich history, customs, and traditions. From visiting the Great Wall of China to exploring China’s ancient cities and cultural hotspots. Whichever angle you look at it from, you’ll not regret the adventure.

These opportunities open up an entirely new world for international students.

Benefits of studying in China for cultural immersion and language learning!

• Understanding Chinese culture facilitates your engagement with Chinese companies or people better.
• When you appreciate Chinese culture, culture, you can easily make great connections with the Chinese, Chinese, which can be useful in growing your career or business.
• It makes you very competitive in the business world or the job market.
• Chinese Language-Mandarin is in high demand across the world, so learning Mandarin is an asset or a lifetime investment.
• You get to build lifetime connections and networks
• You can easily fit in, in China

Different programs and resources available for international students to learn Chinese language and culture!

China has various programs and resources available for international students looking to learn the language, culture and customs. There’s a variety of exchange programs such as Confucius Institutes, China Summer Camp, China Student Exchange Programmes, China Scholarships and China Internships.

Whereas some students are looking elsewhere to study abroad, those with futuristic eyes and adventurous mentality are coming to China.

So there you have it. Studying in China offers opportunities for international students to gain skills, create career paths, and build global connections. Furthermore, China’s competitive universities and lower living costs make it a great destination for exploring a new culture. With a booming job market and international networks, studying in China can offer personal growth and benefit you throughout your life.

We’ll be happy to welcome you to China.

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Study and work in china in 2024.

Sam Study in China Leave a comment

Hey, welcome back! Ever thought about how to work and study in China at the same time?

Getting to know the most important universities for students is important next to the costs of studying and living in China . Now comes the part where you navigate discovering the possibility of working in China besides studying at your university. This will help students to get additional income, which contributes to covering part of the living cost in China.

In today’s work while studying in China report, you’d be able to learn the possibility to study and work simultaneously during your period of study in China. Ready?!

Table of Contents

Can international students work in China?

This question is frequently asked by students coming to study in China. Yes, indeed, it’s possible to work in China as an international student. However, this matter was not possible before January 2022.

Students weren’t allowed to work and study at that time, resulting in a lack of increase in the number of international students choosing China as a destination. This made the Chinese government abandon this law and allow students to work part-time or during the holidays.

Hence, a new policy released by the Chinese Ministry of Education grants now international students the right to work and study in China. The right allows students who have been studying for more than one year at their university to work on and off campus for a maximum of 8 hours per week. 

The monthly limit is then 40 hours, which the students can double to 80 hours per month (16 hours a week) during summer and winter holidays. 

To be able to work, students need to get the approval from their university and the local Exit and Entry Bureau of the region they study in. Also, any change in workplace requires them to get an agreement and certificate from their institution of higher education, then applying again to the bureau. 

Conditions for work and study and work visa types in China for students

To be allowed to work during their studies in China, international students must first and foremost purchase an insurance covering their work-studies activities. The students who choose to work on campus should work mainly as teaching assistants, scientific research assistants, administrative management assistants and agents at the school public services. 

Their university should arrange for the remuneration of the students. But the jobs should meet the needs of the students without over-lapping on their normal study time. Other conditions include, the students to: 

• Be at least 18 years old and meeting the physical conditions for the position they apply to
• Have a valid residence permit for their study in China, with a remaining residence time valid for more than 6 months
• Have studied for more than a year in a Chinese institution of higher education. This applies for students in undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate level
• Comply to the progress and attendance rate requirements of their school
• Other conditions and requirements from the school

Moreover, you must have a study visa in China of type X, and there are two types of students visa.

• The first one is the x1 visa, which is given to students who want to study in China for more than six months.
• The second type is the x2 study visa that is given to exchange students or those who won’t exceed six months in China.

Study and work in China for international students

Getting a job in China is not really that complicated. However, to get a part-time job in China, here are our tips!

Take advantage of the Internet

Visiting the sites that provide part-time job opportunities is one way to get your information right. When doing so, read all the work requirements and learn about the advantages and whereabouts. This will help you in the long term as you don’t want to work in a place far away from your place of residence.

Talk to your friends

Ask your friends, especially the Chinese ones, about the job opportunities available in the city where you live. This helps you become a scout as someone in the local market.

Newspapers and web

Many newspapers provide a special section for vacancies, search for the most suitable and closest to you. Try online vacancies too!

Jobs available for foreigners in China

Language instructor.

Teaching English in China is one of the highly important jobs for international students. It’s not necessary to have English as a mother tongue, but it’s sufficient if you master it very well.

There are many opportunities for students in this field, and the work will be in either company or training centers. Try searching online!

Voice recording

This is also linked to how good your English language is. Your voice may be recorded in advertisements or videos. There is a demand for people to speak in English.

Don’t forget! Working extra hours for students is part of the experience to study and work in China.

Working in shops

If you master English, you have more chances to work in shops. However, it’s necessary to know to speak Chinese so that you can communicate with your customers.

School support

One of the best opportunities for work you have in China is to provide school support to Chinese students in the English language.

There are many ways to find opportunities to work in China. Since China’s economy is booming, many students find opportunities to find work in various fields.

For example, students at Peking University of Languages and Culture do often provide support to international companies. You can search for opportunities online, or by looking at ads in university cafes, or through sites such as those providing part-time job opportunities for students.

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China Eases Post-study Work for Foreign Graduates Education Articles

New post-study work regulations for foreign graduates and foreign degree holders in China make it easier for international students to stay and work and for returning students to find jobs at home.

The policy supports efforts to attract globally minded talent to boost China's globalised economic strategies. Photo: File

The move is the latest in China’s strategy to position itself as a study destination and attract talent to help globalise its labour force.

Under the new regulations announced on January 6 by the Ministries of Human Resources and Social Security, Foreign Affairs, and Education, foreign graduates with a master’s degree or above from a university in China are immediately eligible to apply for work visas within one year of graduation.

Similarly, Chinese nationals with a master’s degree or above from “well-known universities overseas” can return to China to seek graduate jobs within one year of graduation.

The precondition prevented international graduates from transitioning from school to work, according to Eric Skuse, research manager at Emerging Strategy, a market intelligence company based in Shanghai.

“This policy change is a recognition that if China wants to expand its international higher education capacity further, it must leverage the attractiveness of China’s massive, globalised employment market among foreign students seeking to start careers,” commented Skuse.

According to the Ministry of Education, in 2015 390,000 international students studied in China. The country is taking action to grow its share of globally mobile students including increasing the number of English taught degrees at Chinese universities, which, according to MastersPortal, now total 327, including 143 bachelors and 184 master’s programmes, mostly in business administration and STEM fields, at 105 universities.

“The fact that graduates of China’s institutions can benefit from this policy…is clearly intended to bolster the attractiveness of its own graduate programmes at Chinese schools for foreigners,” noted Skuse.

To apply for the one-year work visa, foreign students must have secured employment with a Chinese company in a field that matches their degree, meets local skills demands and offers a salary set to market standards. They must be over 18, have a B (80%) grade average or higher, and no criminal record.

“Having this new policy, will encourage more foreign students to choose China as a study destination and then to stay and work here,” commented Jill Tang, founder of CareerXFactor, a talent recruitment company for graduates with foreign degrees.

“This policy might even encourage the first generation of Chinese migrants who moved overseas to send their kids back to China for studying and working.”

However, China’s labour market remains highly competitive, and foreign graduates will have to compete with Chinese nationals who studied at home and those returning with foreign degrees.

“Their major competitor will be Chinese overseas returnees who are bilingual or even trilingual so the language is a key. If they want to get a job, they have to speak good Chinese,” Tang said.

China’s government is encouraging industry to look outward as it aims to bolster slowing economic growth. At the World Economic Forum this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping explained the country’s reasoning to “embrace the global market” and outlined his strategy to develop it further.

“Any attempt to cut off the flow of capital, technologies, products, industries and people between economies, and channel the waters in the ocean back into isolated lakes and creeks is simply not possible. Indeed, it runs counter to the historical trend.”

China’s development into a more globalised free market means the country needs more talent with a global mindset, argued Tang.

“For certain skills, China will still need to import either knowledge or people from overseas,” she said.

The more relaxed post-study work policy also presents opportunities for Chinese businesses to use foreign graduates to help establish overseas hubs.

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• NATURE INDEX
• 05 June 2024

Why China has been a growing study destination for African students

• Rachel Nuwer 0

Rachel Nuwer is a freelance writer based in New York City.

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African students at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in Fuzhou. Credit: Xinhua/Shutterstock

Winnifred Kansiime was finishing her undergraduate degree in environmental health sciences at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, when she received an offer that she could not refuse: a place in a three-year master’s programme in environmental engineering at Xiangtan University in China, preceded by a year there learning Mandarin — with all expenses paid by the Chinese government. The course, which Kansiime completed in 2016, paved the way for her current pursuit of a doctorate in public health at Makerere. More than that, she says, “I wound up having the best time of my life in China.”

Kansiime is one among tens of thousands of African students who have pursued undergraduate or graduate studies in China, primarily in the subjects of engineering, science, business or management. Although African students have been studying in China since the 1960s, over the past decade their numbers have risen dramatically. In 2006, just 2% of China’s international students came from Africa; by 2018, that proportion had risen to nearly 17%.

Nature Index 2024 China

According to China’s Ministry of Education, of the 81,562 African students who were studying in China in 2018, 6,385 were pursuing a PhD — representing about 20% of all foreign students undertaking a doctoral degree in the country. In 2018, the Chinese government pledged to provide 50,000 scholarships for African students to pursue higher-education studies in China over the following three years. By 2020, China was outranked only by France as the top destination for African students pursuing higher education abroad, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank headquartered in Washington DC.

Detailed data on foreign students in China since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020 was unavailable at the time of writing. But in general, the country’s strict lockdown policies have had a negative impact on international enrolment, says Benjamin Mulvey, a sociologist at the University of Glasgow, UK, and author of Mapping International Student Mobility Between Africa and China . “Lots of students were locked out” of China, “and students were also locked in”, he says of the pandemic. Some foreign students, particularly those from Africa, also faced discrimination and scapegoating at the height of the outbreak. Some restaurants, malls and hospitals in China banned Black people from entering, for example, and some African students were thrown out of their apartments, Mulvey says.

In 2021, the Chinese government reaffirmed its logistical and monetary support for African students at the triennial Forum on China–Africa Cooperation, a multilateral meeting that is part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Launched in 2013 as a global infrastructure development strategy, the BRI is underpinned by economic and geopolitical motivations on China’s part and has so far reached around 150 countries. At the 2021 meeting, officials did not commit to a specific number of scholarships for African students as they have done in previous years, stating only that China will continue to train professionals through the programme. But assuming government support does come, Mulvey expects African student enrolment in China to pick up again soon.

Chinese government scholarships have always been a big part of the draw for African students. Mulvey says they are “underpinned” by a desire to enhance diplomatic links between China and African countries. Some scholarships, therefore, “go to the children of politicians and business people in a less-than-transparent process”, he says. “But there are also students from quite disadvantaged backgrounds who receive scholarships.”

Although most African postgraduate students receive financial support, the majority of undergraduates still pay their own tuition. They often come from middle-class families and are attracted by the relative affordability of studying in China compared with North America or Europe. But whether they receive a scholarship or not, virtually all African students who study in China are beneficiaries of a deliberate Chinese government strategy to strengthen ties with the continent, says Wen Wen, a higher-education researcher at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “Nowadays, higher education is becoming part of geopolitics,” she says. “China has a very clear goal to project its influence in the Belt and Road countries, and African countries are definitely part of this initiative.”

Source: UNESCO

The Chinese government is “quite explicit that the purpose in giving these scholarships is improving soft power and having people strategically positioned in Africa who could open doors for Chinese business and industry”, says Natasha Robinson, a postdoctoral researcher in education at the University of Oxford, UK. Although this quid pro quo relationship is sometimes portrayed in a negative light, Wen sees it as mutually beneficial. “China helps to train African PhD students, doctors and engineers, and when those students return to their country, they bring back China’s academic atmosphere and scientific research standards,” she says. “From this perspective, I think it’s quite good.”

African students might also have “a sense that China is the future, and it’s good to have familiarity with it”, Robinson adds. “They already speak English, so having Chinese under their belt is really valuable.”

However, not every African student who studies in China has the positive experience that Kansiime did. If students are on the receiving end of racism or are disappointed in the calibre of the education they receive, then China’s goal of developing soft power can backfire, Robinson says. In such cases, African graduates “certainly come back knowing China, but they don’t necessarily come back loving China”.

Opportunities and obstacles

For most African students, the appeal of studying in China is multi-fold. First and foremost, China provides access to educational resources that usually are not available back home, Robinson says. “If you want to do any natural-sciences research, then China’s facilities are much superior.” But language barriers can pose a difficulty in making the most of these resources. “There’s only so much you can do in a year” of learning Mandarin, Robinson points out.

Winnifred Kansiime. Credit: Courtesy of Winnifred Kansiime

Kansiime, for example, was proficient enough after a year of intensive Mandarin tuition for general communication, but not for the technical language of her engineering courses, which were all taught in Chinese. She came to rely on online software and “super helpful” classmates and professors for translation assistance, she says. She also watched instructional YouTube videos and accessed free digital courses from universities in Europe and the United States to supplement the Chinese lectures. The silver lining of all this extra work, she says, was that she came away with a better grasp of the material.

On the other hand, Kansiime did feel like she missed out on developing a strong relationship with her master’s supervisor, who did not speak English fluently. This is a typical situation reported by African students, Robinson says. “There have been students we’ve spoken to who were told their postgraduate studies would be in English, but then turn up and find that their supervisor doesn’t speak English.”

Martha Muduwa, a doctor and clinical-trials coordinator at the Mbale Clinical Research Institute in Uganda, completed her undergraduate degree in medicine and surgery at Capital Medical University in Beijing in 2019. She had applied to universities in both China and the United Kingdom but opted for China in part because of the lower cost of tuition, which a family member paid. Muduwa’s courses were all in English, but she sometimes struggled to understand her professors, whose grasp of the language varied. She was confronted with other language-related disparities too, including an English library that was “just one tiny room”, she says, compared with the larger Chinese library that spanned three floors. She also learnt that the Chinese students and international students who were studying in Chinese were given “a lot more opportunities” than the students following programmes in English, she says, including a greater diversity of course options and a chance to participate in research.

Most international students missed out on many opportunities, but Muduwa made the most of things, she says, by learning to advocate for herself in the classroom and at a hospital internship. “If you were not pushy, you got nothing out of your internship,” she says. Many of her classmates “never even examined a single patient”, but Muduwa says she was able to get hands-on experience, including assisting in operations, by having a more forceful attitude.

Expanded worldviews

Studying in China can also provide African students with more intangible benefits. “It’s good to experience other cultures,” Kansiime says. “It makes you an open-minded person and willing to accept and understand other people’s views and perceptions of things.”

Muduwa adds that the Chinese friendships she made had “really enhanced my experience of their culture” and that she “absolutely loved the food”. African students — who typically live in international dormitories separate from Chinese students — also benefit from an opportunity to make friends from around the world. “You’re all foreigners in this place,” Kansiime says. “You have to mix and make your own community together.”

Outside of the campus environment, though, African students in China very often find themselves singled out for their race, Mulvey says. In public, Muduwa was constantly aware of people photographing or pointing at her, and some even touched her without asking for permission. “You’re on your phone on the subway, you’re minding your own business, and someone would start playing with your braid,” she says. Although most of this attention seemed to be driven by curiosity, she also saw overt racism, including job offerings that listed different salaries for Black or white English-language teachers.

Source: China Ministry of Education

Mulvey knows of some African students who remain in China to do a postdoc or take on an assistant professorship, but longer-term stays are “quite rare”, he says. Although there are more avenues now than in the past to get post-study work visas in China, it is still a very difficult process. In addition, “many African students have families and jobs back in their home countries”, Robinson says. “This, coupled with a feeling of foreignness in China, means that many choose to return.”

Researchers have yet to conduct large-scale studies of what happens after these former students return home, says Mulvey, including how, if at all, they use their degrees; whether they put their Chinese-language skills to use; whether they contribute in a tangible way to building positive relations with China; and the impression they take away from their time in the country. “There is very little research on this, though it is a crucially important avenue for future research,” Mulvey says.

In interviews Robinson conducted with 27 African students who formerly studied in China, a few did say that they were continuing to collaborate with Chinese colleagues. Robinson had expected the number of collaborations to be higher, she says, and typically in these relationships, “Chinese scholars would do the experiment and calculations, and African researchers would write it up”. For Africans returning home after years of study in China, this “is not an amazing outcome”, she adds. Although Africans who studied in China often have the skills to do experimental research, the problem is that they might lack the resources and facilities at their home institutions, and therefore are reliant on Chinese colleagues.

Kansiime, for her part, says she would “highly recommend” studying in China. Muduwa is more measured. “I would recommend China to African students, but with caution,” she says. “They’d have to manage their expectations and consider the fact that they might not get 100% of what they want from the university experience.”

Nature 630 , S14-S16 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01599-z

This article is part of Nature Index 2024 China , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content. For more information about Nature Index, see the homepage .

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