14

 
 
May  
 

 
Master Thesis

Perception of social and official Norms among

German expatriates in China

之后在 70 年代末重新 放其边界的国际移民，中国在最近几年是看到自己的国家迅速增加的外国移民。尽

管德国人仍然对外籍人士在中国一个比较小的份额，其社会影响是一定的重要性。与主要业务的外籍人士，
语言学生和当地雇用的一批德国移民是非常多样的。往往有非常有限的接触到了中国社会的主人，德国移
民认为中国社会和官方的规范不同，然后他们的中国同行。基于深度访谈，在三月至 2014 年五月间中国四
个城市 29 德国移民，本文试图通过分析在中国的德国侨民之间的社会和官方规范的看法。以下佩吉莱维特
肉棒（   2001）的分类，工作表现出不同的看法，以及之间的观察员，适配器和创新在中国的适应模式。越
来越多的互动程度随着时间的推移东道国社会导致进程从观察来认识和处理社会和官方的规范。在这里，
语言似乎是最 键的因素。由于相互作用是由外部因素影响，部分论文要求不同的政策和业务的影响。此
外，该类 在不同的上下文中的 常呼吁在中国的德国移民更细致的分类。

After re-opening its borders for international migration in the late 1970s, China in recent years is seeing a fast
increase in foreign migration to their country. Even though Germans are still making a comparatively small share in
the foreign community in China, its social impact is of certain importance. With mainly business expatriates,
language students and locally hired, the group of German migrants is very diverse. Often having very limited
contact to the Chinese host society, German immigrants perceive Chinese social and official norms differently then
their Chinese peers. Based on in-depth interviews with 29 German immigrants in four Chinese cities between March
and May 2014, this thesis tries to analyse the perceptions of social and official norms among German expatriates in
China. Following the categorisation of Peggy Levitt (2001), the work shows different perceptions as well as
adaption patterns among observers, adapters and innovators in China. An increasing degree of interaction with the
host society over time leads to a process from observing to recognising and handling of social and official norms.
Here language seems to be the most crucial factor. As interaction is partly influenced by external factors this thesis
calls for different policy as well as business implications. Furthermore, exceptions within the categories in different
contexts call for a more nuanced categorisation of German immigrants in China.

Keywords: social and official norms, adaption, migration, China, Germans

Tobias  Ross
Contemporary  Development  of  China  at  BNU  
Stud-­‐ID:  201229240001  
Advisor:  Miguel  Salazar  
 Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Literature Review & Background 7

3. Research Methodology 23

4. Analysis 33

4.1 Social Norms 38

4.2 Official Norms 54

5. Conclusion 66

6. References 69

7. Appendix 74

  2
1. Introduction

Since Deng Xiaoping introduced the reform and opening-up policies in the late 1970s, China is

seeing an increasing flow of migrants to their country. While in the early 1980s there were only

several thousand foreigners in China, with a fast increase in the last few years the number

jumped to about 632,000 foreign residents living in China in 2012, up from 525,000 in 2010 (not

including migrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao). Out of all foreign nationals, South

Koreans (120,000 people), US Americans (75,000) and Japanese (70,000) alone make a bit less

than half of the total foreign population in China (Public Security Ministry 2013; CSY 2010). As

most foreigners are driven by work opportunities or study prospects, most of the migration

concentrates in China’s most developed cities in the East and South as well as border regions

(Pieke 2012). Not including migration from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, only Beijing

(120,000 foreigners), Shanghai (170,000) and the province of Guangdong (320,000) accounted

for more than 90 % of the total foreign population in China in 2012 (CSY 2012). While foreign

students are mainly enrolled in Chinese language programs and for the most part just stay for one

or two semesters, other migrants settle for many years if not stay for the rest of their lives. While

travelling back to their home-country every once in a while or contacting home via email or

skype, most of these foreigners still hold close ties to their homeland. Foreigners become part of

a transnational community and while they stay foreigners, at the same time they incorporate into

the new environment. Moreover, foreigners carry a set of certain ideas and behaviour from home

when they immigrate to China, which is sometimes challenged when entering this new

environment. People living in a different culture than their own either adapt to the new culture,

stick to their own or find a middle way in mixing both sets of behaviours. Coming from a

different cultural background, foreigners in China are confronted with a new normative

environment, which is perceived by migrants differently. As local values, beliefs, attitudes and

  3
behaviours are often very different in the host country, immigrants develop different patterns of

adaptation in China. While some immigrants live relatively excluded from the host society, their

old normative behaviour goes almost unchallenged and shows mostly now signs of adaption to

local norms. Other immigrants have more contact points with the host society, which forces them

to adapt to local norms for practicality reasons. These people usually still stick to their old

normative structure, but add new local norms to their set. Lastly, a small group of immigrants

actively seeks out to add and combine new local norms to their normative structure not just to get

along, but more to use and benefit from them in general. By building some kind of hybrid norm

system, these people are usually highly involved with the local society. (see also Levitt 2001).

In my research I want to take a closer look at this phenomena, especially focusing on the

migrants perceptions of norms in China. By conducting in-depth interviews with 29 German

immigrants in four Chinese cities, I want to take a closer look on the perceptions of social and

official norms among German expatriates in China1. In semi-structured interviews I want to find

out how Germans perceive norms and behaviours in Chinese society as well as laws, rules and

regulations. As German immigrants in China follow similar adaption patterns to the ones

described before, I want to display their different adaption paths when living in China. Taking

the experience of Germans from different work and study fields, I will try to give a better

understanding of German migrants in China and migration in general. In giving insight views

into German immigrants perceptions of social and official norms, these findings can be used for

policy makers to adjust to the fast growing influx of foreign migrants to China.

Furthermore, there is an urgent need for more contextualized studies on transnationalism, studies

that go beyond anecdotal data and macro-economic models based on very scarce and deficient
                                                                                                               
1  The  thesis  title’s  term  German  expatriate  stands  for  German  migrants  in  general  and  does  not  only  describe  
business  expatriates  send  by  an  international  company  to  work  abroad.  Further,  social  and  official  norms  are  
also  known  under  the  terms  informal  and  formal  norms  (Jackson  1965).  As  I  used  social  and  official  in  my  
interviews  I  will  also  stick  to  this  termini  in  this  thesis.  
  4
data. As China is seeing a vast increase in migration to their country this also brings a lot of

problems that need to be addressed. China is claiming an international position in the world

economy and politics, having a growing number of foreigners living in China it also changes the

picture of China globally. For the last three decades China’s migration policy was rather

restrictive and even after s recent increase in incoming migration still China’s foreign population

only accounts for less than one percent of the total population. However, foreigners are highly

concentrated in specific parts of the country. The percentage of the total population says little

about the impact, as a big part of these foreigners play an important role in China’s transforming

society. While leading multinational companies and organisations, doing cultural work, pushing

academic research, promoting foreign music and arts, especially migrants from developed

countries have a relatively huge impact on Chinese society as well as in their homelands. Recent

changes in the Visa admission show a clear policy towards more controlled and selective

migration, which will further foster this trend (also see Zhu & Price 2013).

In the following chapter I will give an overview of the recent trends in research regarding norms,

assimilation, and in more particular ethnographic research on western migrants in China. To

have a better background understanding, at the end of the section I will give a brief historical

introduction about German-Chinese relations with a focus on migration from Germany to China.

In a next chapter I will explain my research methodology with detailed information about

participants demographics as well as my field sites in China. An English translation of the

interview protocol will be attached to this work and can be find in the appendix. This

methodology section is followed by my main analysis, which is divided into two sub-chapters.

While the section about Germans’ perceptions of social norms focuses more on behaviours,

values, attitudes and beliefs on how to behave in Chinese society as a German immigrant, the

section on official norms focuses on how they perceive laws, rules, and regulations here. In a last

  5
section I display my findings developed in the analysis section as well as suggestions for further

research and policy implications.

   

  6
2. Literature Review & Background

Norms

First comparative studies on norms between different cultures had been conducted by American

sociologist William Graham Sumner in his early study Folkways: A study of the sociological

importance of usages, manners, customs, mores, and morals (1907). Later Jackson (1965)

further developed his first findings into what is today generally accepted in the norms approach.

Today norms are seen as the behaviors and cues within a society or group. Or in other words, the

rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.

These rules may be explicit or implicit. Failure to follow the rules can result in severe

punishments, including exclusion from the group or even fines by an authority. These norms

vary and evolve not only through time but also vary from one age group to another,

between social classes and social groups, and from place to place. What is considered to be

acceptable in one social group may not be accepted in another.

In recent times the distinction of four different norms had been established among leading

scholars in the field: folkways, mores, taboos, (informal norms) and laws (formal norms).

Folkways are seen as informal norms whose violation is not offensive to the group, but expected

to be followed. It does usually not cause any punishment or sanctions, but gentle intimidation

and social pressure. On the other hand, not following mores could cause punishments and social

sanctions like exclusion as mores are based on morality and define what is right and what wrong.

Taboos are norms that society or certain groups hold so strongly that violating it in almost all

cases results in disgust and exclusion. Different to folkways and mores, taboos usually are

objected by the general society, not only by its different groups. Taboos for the biggest part are

universal all over the world, but different studies showed exceptions. Laws are norms that are

  7
written down and enforced by an official authority. Violating a law could result in a harsh

punishment like a fine, jail sentence or even death penalty. In contrast to laws, folkways, mores,

and taboos are categorized as informal norms whose violation could cause social sanctions in the

form of disapproval or exclusion, but does not imply punishment by an official authority. Formal

norms like laws and its punishments are recorded and therefore more predictable than informal

norms whose punishments are executed by individuals of the society.

In recent years a comparative study on different cultures’ tight or looseness regarding norms has

caused an intensive debate in the media and among scholars around the world. In the study

Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study by Gelfand et al. (2011)

different scholars from around the world developed a theory of why certain cultures are stricter

in following norms than others. Here tight cultures are generally defined as having many strong

rules and low tolerance of deviant behavior. While loose cultures have weak social norms and a

high tolerance of deviant behavior. Relying on survey data from 6,823 participants in 33 nations,

the paper states distal ecological and historical threats (e.g. population density), broad versus

narrow socialization in societal institutions (e.g. media regulations), the strength of everyday

recurring situations, and micro-level psychological affordances (e.g. regulatory strength) as their

four main reasons for differences in tight and looseness between cultures. Looking at Germany

and China, the study showed a higher tightness for mainland China (7.9) than for former East

(7.5) and West-Germany (6.5), but differences were not too striking.2

Gelfand et al.’s study was the first of its kind comparing a sample of 33 nations and maybe

therefore leaves many questions. As samples were only taken within one place in each nation

(Chemnitz and Frankfurt in former East and West Germany respectively; Beijing in China) and
                                                                                                               
2  According  to  the  study,  Hong  Kong  scored  6.3  and  is  therefore  a  more  loose  culture  than  both  mainland  
China  and  Germany.  Ukraine  (1.6)  and  Pakistan  (12.3)  were  at  each  ends  of  the  tightness-­‐looseness  spectrum.  
In  general  one  can  divide  the  results  into  three  broad  tightness-­‐looseness  areas:    South  and  East  Asian  (tight),  
Mediterranean,  Western  European  and  Anglosphere  (moderate)  and  Latin  America  and  Eastern  Europe  
(loose).  However,  these  categories  showed  several  exceptions  and  only  included  a  very  limited  number  of  
nations  and  samples  in  each  nation.  
  8
only from a very limited sample (201 participants in former East Germany, 312 in West

Germany and 235 in Beijing), tightness-looseness scales should vary within different parts of

each nation. Furthermore, different critics did not agree with the data collection of the study and

raised several further concerns. (for a critical debate on the study please see Khan 2011)

Adaptation Theory

In his work Cultural Shock: Adjustment to New Cultural Environments (1960) Canadian

anthropologist Kalervo Oberg first developed a theoretical framework that tried to describe the

different stages immigrants experience while living in a foreign culture. Here the first phase, the

honeymoon phase, is described by feelings of excitement, optimism and wonder. When arriving

in a new cultural environment, immigrants observe their surroundings and usually more focus on

the positive aspects of the new environment. In the crisis phase this changes and immigrants

experience what is often termed as culture shock. When encountering difficulties in assimilating

to the new culture, a feeling of anxiety, surprise, disorientation and confusion arises. Having

difficulties in not knowing what is socially appropriate and what not as well as a feeling of

disgust towards certain aspects of the new environment makes assimilation very hard. Usually

the crisis phase leads to exclusion and a strong feeling segregation from the host society with

other foreigners. In a third phase, the recovery phase, this slowly improves and people start to

assimilate. Over the time immigrants experience positive effects of cultural adjustment, like

increasing self-confidence, improved self-motivation and cultural sensitivity. As immigrants

gradually begin to feel more comfortable in and adjusting to the new environment, you will feel

more like expanding your social networks and exploring new ideas. In the adjustment phase

people feel increasingly flexible and objective about their experience, learning to accept and

perhaps adapts parts of the new culture, while holding onto their own cultural traditions.

  9
Korean anthropologist Young Yun Kim developed a slightly different approach. In her works on

intercultural communication she sees the human as a system, which goes through a

disequilibrium when confronted with a new culture. The person then incorporates feedback to

bring the system back into balance. Instead of a U-shaped curve like in Oberg’s model, Kim

(1988) suggests that adaptation is more cyclical. After doing two steps forward, immigrants step

one step back, or as she calls it: draw back to leap. While there are always smaller pullbacks

which can be seen as cultural shocks, the general trend is towards assimilation.

Assimilation Theory

Immigrants adapting to the host society’s social norms is seen as core requirement in the process

of assimilation. In the following I will give a brief overview on different concepts regarding

assimilation and its critics.

Published between 1918 and 1920, the five-volume work The Polish Peasant in Europe and

America by Florian Znaniecki and William I. Thomas is considered as one of the first mayor

contributions to the field of transnational migration studies and a classic work in empirical

sociology. As many scholars later stated, Znaniecki and Thomas’ work was ground breaking in

the sense that it for the first time combined abstract theory with empirical data to understand the

situation of a special group of people. Based on personal documents like letters and diaries,

brochures, newspaper articles, court documents and an autobiography of a Polish peasant, the

work describes the situation of Polish peasants in Poland and America in a time of huge

emigration from Poland. About the same time the term assimilation slowly got attention for the

scientific understanding of transnational migrants, headed by William I. Thomas in line with

Robert E. Park and their collaborators and students of the Chicago school of sociology. Park and

Burgess in 1921 describe assimilation as “a process of interpretation and fusion in which persons

  10
and groups acquire the memories, sentiments, and attitudes of other persons and groups and, by

sharing their experience and history, are incorporated with them in a common cultural life”.

Applying their early findings on immigrants in Chicago, over the years the Chicago school of

sociology developed a first concept theorizing assimilation, today known as classic assimilation.

In general the theory sees immigrants and the host country’s society following a "straight-line"

of convergence, becoming more similar over time in norms, values, behaviours, and

characteristics. Assimilation was (and mostly is still) seen as a mean to socioeconomic mobility

and desirable for new immigrants. Culminated in Milton M. Gordon’s influential book

Assimilation in American Life (1964), the theory further expects those immigrants residing the

longest in the host society, as well as their later generations, to show greater similarities with the

majority group than immigrants who have spent less time in the host society. Whether explicitly

or implicitly, the biggest part of work following the classical assimilation theory assumed that

assimilation was a necessary part of the process of upward socioeconomic mobility for

immigrant groups. Furthermore, most classical formulations of assimilation theory treated

assimilation as a social process to be explained, but never as a causal factor affecting different

outcomes. (Alba & Nee 1997, Waters & Jimenez 2005).

Contemporary scholars in recent times generally recognizes noteworthy differences between the

post-1965 wave of immigration and early twentieth-century immigration in both the composition

of immigrant groups and the context of their reception in the United States. In terms of group

composition, some scholars emphasize that the new immigrants in the United States today are

primarily from Asia and Latin America in contrast to the waves of white European immigrants

before 1965. In addition, many scholars have noted that nowadays immigrants come from a

much wider variety of socioeconomic backgrounds than those in the previous waves, suggesting

that different groups will enter different stages in the American class system. While before 1965

  11
most immigrants were considered lower class, today the range of immigrants is more diverse,

ranging up to highly skilled upper-class migrants from other developed countries.

Regarding context, new immigrants are entering the United States during a period when demand

for semi-skilled and unskilled labor has been substantially reduced by changes in the local

economy. Several scholars have argued that the assimilation and upward mobility of the 1890-

1920 wave of immigrants were fostered by the manufacturing-based economic expansion of that

period, but that the current service-based postindustrial economy is less favorable for the

incorporation of new unskilled workers. (Greenman & Xie 2008)

These changes in origin and reception of contemporary migrants make any uniform model of

immigrant incorporation into the United States less fitting than it may have been for earlier,

relatively more homogeneous groups of migrants. Therefore, in the last two decades two new

theoretical concepts for assimilation had evolved that are predominantly used in current

scientific works: new assimilation and segmented assimilation.

First, scholars like Alba & Nee (2003) or Jacoby (2004) followed the concept of new

assimilation. This concept argues that even though over time most migrants achieve

socioeconomic equality with the host society, ethnicity and race matter and determine the

migrant’s outcome. Different to the classic assimilation theory, in different studies these scholars

found differences in the assimilation process of migrants from different ethnicities. For example,

while in the US assimilation for white European migrants seemed to be very easy, black as well

as Hispanic migrants faced different problems in their assimilation process. For the first time

assimilation studies focused on the diversity of migrants and tried to analyse the reasons for

certain ethnicities’ constraints in the society’s upward mobility.

As other scholars realised migrants and their children not necessarily assimilated into the host

country’s mainstream, scholars like Portes & Rumbaut (2001) or Portes & Zhou (1993) more

followed the concept of segmented assimilation that suggests different possible paths for
  12
migrants on their route to incorporation. Here they differ between three possible routes: (a)

becoming part of the (white) mainstream, (b) remaining ethnic, or (c) becoming part of the

underclass and experience downward mobility. Segmented assimilation theory states that the

United States is a stratified and unequal society, and that therefore different segments of society

are available for immigrants to assimilate into. These scholars theorize that structural barriers,

such as poor neighborhoods, cut off access to employment and other opportunities for migrants

that hinder upward mobility. Other findings among Haitians in Miami showed that sticking to

their respective ethnic communities and not assimilating to the American mainstream may lead

to better chances for educational and economic mobility through use of the material and social

capital that their communities make available. In summary, segmented assimilation focuses on

identifying the contextual, structural and cultural factors that determine successful and

unsuccessful assimilation. Segmented assimilation theory emphasizes that there is more than one

way of “becoming American” and that complete assimilation is not necessarily beneficial. At

least under some circumstances, immigrant children may be better off limiting or avoiding

assimilation and instead remaining strong part within the ethnic community.

A major critique of segmented assimilation theory is that the experience of today’s immigrants

and their offspring is not truly all that different from that of the 1890-1920 wave of European

migrants. For example, Alba & Nee (1997, 2003) argue that the offspring of earlier European

immigrant groups often did not completely assimilate until the third or fourth generation, which

is similar to observations of today’s second generation youth. Furthermore, studies by Perlmann

& Waldinger (1997) show that immigrants from most national origin groups are actually more

likely to have a college degree than native-born Americans. Alba and Nee (1997, 2003) and

Perlmann & Waldinger (1997) also argue that racial boundaries towards white European

immigrants in the United States have proven to change over time, so that contemporary Asian

  13
and Latin American immigrant groups also may not be considered racially distinct in the long

run. Referring to upward mobility through assimilation, Perlmann & Waldinger (1997) further

argue that second generation rebellion was not uncommon among earlier European groups, but

that it did not ultimately hinder the upward mobility of these groups in later generations. Both

scholars imply that if today’s second generation does develop an “oppositional culture” it is not

more likely to result from the process of assimilation into the American underclass than to arise

spontaneously out of the immigrant working class experience.

In more recent years scholars like Greenman & Xie (2005, 2008) took some of the mentioned

critical comments into consideration and tried to test their relevance empirical. In their studies

they argue that the effects of assimilation in today’s context are variable rather than uniformly

beneficial. While scholars like Portes & Zhou (1993) and Alba & Nee (2003) point to diversity

among immigrants and across social contexts as the reasons for this variability, for Greenman &

Xie another source of variability is the outcome itself. Or in other words, the effect of

assimilation may be beneficial for one outcome but negative for another. Their 2008 study Is

Assimilation Theory dead? The effects of assimilation on adolescent well-being on five different

groups of migrants (Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Chinese and Filipinos) in the United

States proved their concern and showed different outcomes within migrants due to assimilation.

For example, while assimilation is associated with higher levels of at-risk behaviors among

immigrant adolescents, for both Hispanics and Asians of various ethnicities, assimilation is

associated with higher levels of academic achievement for the parts of the same group on

average. Whether assimilation has a detrimental or beneficial effect on a particular outcome for a

particular group appears to be related to how new immigrants fare on that particular outcome

relative to natives.

Initially advocated as “cultural pluralism”, Horace Kallen (1915) first developed the concept of

multiculturalism in contrast to early assimilation theories. Especially coined in the 1960s in

  14
Canada and Australia by different policies, multiculturalism in sociology today is seen as an

alternative to the “melting pot” caused by assimilation. As different subgroups emerged in recent

years, the main concept still aims at the protection or even encouragement of ethnic diversities

within one society. Regarding immigration it advocates for a society of various different cultures

living together and not necessary assimilating into one mainstream culture. Promoters of the

multiculturalism theory belief that members of different cultures can live peacefully alongside

each other and assimilation is not necessary, nor perhaps even desirable. Critics of

multiculturalism have mainly argued that multiculturalist policies would cause the slow

vanishing of the host culture and undermine the country’s unity into fragmentation. Critics

especially get support when migrants’ cultural norms were not confirming with the host society

norm construct, like for example in the women’s rights movement in the United States. (see also

Okin et al. 1999)

Ethnographic Studies on Western Foreigners in China

In the last three decades there have been numerous Chinese and English publications on China’s

ethnic minorities, which partly touch on topics like assimilation, integration and

multiculturalism. Dreyer’s early work China's forty millions: minority nationalities and national

integration in the People's Republic of China (1976) is often seen as the first detailed study on

China’s minority integration. Other works like Smith’s China’s Tibet: Autonomy or

Assimilation? (2009) more focus on a certain minority and their situation in China’s political

context. Most works on assimilation in China unfortunately only focus on China’s politics

regarding assimilation and not a single work has dealt with assimilation of Western foreigners in

China. The only English language ethnographic studies on Western foreigners can be counted on

one hand and will be presented briefly in the following.

  15
Willis and Yeoh (2002, 2005) contributed a first comparative study on gender characteristics of

British and Singaporean business expatriates in Hong Kong and China based on material from

interviews that were conducted between 1997 and 2001.

More recently James Farrer (2008, 2010, 2011) examined foreign business expatriates’ nightlife

activities, sexuality and interracial marriage. Having done research in Shanghai for almost a

decade, Farrer’s works give a good insight into Shanghai’s business expatriate community and

their interaction with the host society.

In her PhD dissertation Passing Shanghai: Ethnographic Insights into Expatriate Youths’ Mobile

Lives (2013) Marie Sander gives a very detailed insight into the life of expatriate adolescents

from her ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai between 2010 and 2012. Among many other

topics, Sander examines the youths’ feeling of acceptance in society as well as their special

status as foreign upper-class expatriate children.

Phiona Stanley’s book and A Critical Ethnography of 'Westerners' Teaching English in China:

Shanghaied in Shanghai (2013) is a detailed report on the lives, identities and practices of short-

course-trained “Western” English teachers in China. By working as a teacher herself, the author

conducted her information through interviews and field observation at a second-tier university in

Shanghai.

Taking a focus on middle-class Western transnational workers, Angela Lehmann’s recent

publication Transnational Lives in China: Expatriates in a Globalizing City (2014) is a detailed

report on expatriates’ lives in Xiamen. The book was developed during her research in 2005 and

different to most studies, focuses on the expatriate group in the middle of the migrant spectrum

whom she calls “middling migrants”- not the highly skilled upper-class expatriates promoted

from their company at home, neither the unskilled lower-class workers.

  16
Sino-German Relations

To get a better understanding of the situation of Germans in China, in the following I will give a

short historical overview of Sino-German relations from the mid-18th century till today,

especially focussing on migration from Germany to China. The last part gives special regard to

contemporary German immigrants in China.

Even though first reports of German explorers and missionaries can be traced back to the 12th

century, it was not before the mid-18th century that China and different German states (mainly

Prussia) started first trade relations. Compared to other European nations these connections were

very contained and it was only after China’s forced opening after the Opium War and the

unification of the German states that these relations got intensified. During that time Germany

established the German-Asian Bank with its first branch in Shanghai, which intensified trades

like the buy of two German warships and the building of a fortification near today’s Dalian.

Germany was seen as a neutral partner and enjoyed a better reputation than many other European

imperial powers in China. But this peaceful relation did not last long.

Germany's relatively nonthreatening China policy as shaped by Bismarck changed under his

predecessor Wilhelm II, who was fearing the British Empire’s hegemony in Asia and wanted to

extend its own influence in the region. After German naval forces were sent in response to

attacks on German missionaries in China’s Shandong province, Germany in 1898 negotiated a

99-year leasehold for Shandong’s Kiautschou Bay and began to develop the region. Kiautschou

Bay and especially the city of Qingdao were transformed into Germany’s open door to China and

trade as well as political relations got intensified immediately. According to a report from 1913,

there were 3600 Germans living in colonial Qingdao - with 2000 being marines and the rest

mainly civil servants and traders. Considering the city of Qingdao only had a Chinese population

  17
of about 30,000 people during that time, Germans accounted for about 10 % of the total

population (Wagner 1913). But Germany’s presence in that region did not last longer than

sixteen years, and at the beginning of World War I, Kiautschou Bay was taken over by Japan

who then joined forces with the Allies. As China later also joined allied forces, German-Chinese

relations slowed down in the following years. (if not marked differently, all Herold 2006)

It was not before the German-Chinese Peace Treaty in 1921 and China’s civil war that German

business efforts started to slowly flourish again. After the Nazi government took over power in

Germany a more concrete Sino-German policy was formulated and especially connections to

Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang laid foundations for trade as well as industrial and military

cooperation. Different barter agreements were signed between the two countries and Germany

took huge part in China’s modernization of the 1930s. While China supplied Nazi-Germany with

urgently needed raw materials, Germany helped to develop China’s railroad system, different

heavy industries as well as its military. Even though different German advisors and experts were

send to China, the German population still did not surpass several hundreds due to the general

dangerous situation in the war stricken country. Still the time between 1931 and 1937 is seen as

an early heyday in Sino-German relations. In 1936, Sino-German exchange accounted for 17%

of China's foreign trade and China was the third largest trading partner with Germany. With the

outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and Nazi-Germany choosing Japan as their

ally against the Soviet Union, German-Chinese relations were put on hold but did not break up

until 1941. With Japan attacking Pearl Harbor, China joined the Allies and declared war on

Germany, which brought all relations to an end. (if not marked differently, all Martin 1981 and

Kirby 1984)

Following Pieke (2012) and Brady (2003), in 1949, the founding year of the People’s Republic

of China, China had more than 200,000 foreign residents as a consequence of China’s forced

opening of more than 40 treaty ports for international trade and the take over of different regions

  18
by western powers and Japan. Unfortunately there are no numbers about the German population

during that time, but it can be estimated to several hundreds. Perceived by the ruling Chinese

Communist Party as an era of humiliation, the first years of the new Republic were used to

regain control over China’s territories and a strategy of “first cleaning out the rooms before

inviting new guests”. Many foreigners either chose to leave the country voluntarily, or else were

expelled, or imprisoned as spies, which led to a huge decrease in the foreign population to just a

few thousands. In the 1950s China set up a new system regulating foreigners coming and staying

in China. Even though this set of regulations can be seen as partly following the Soviet Union’s

model, China’s system was unique in the way that it clearly separated Chinese and foreigners in

all aspects of life. During that time most foreigners were foreign experts from the Soviet Union

and its allies who came to help China industrialize and set up a socialist planned economy. From

1949 to 1960, 16,000 Soviet and Eastern European technological advisors went to China to

work. Even though some of these advisors were also from East-Germany, East-Germany’s

relations to China were mainly based on trade. Different to its neighbour in the West, East-

Germany immediately after its founding acknowledged China’s sovereignty and intensified

relations in the late 1950s. In 1959, East-Germany was China’s second biggest trade-partner after

the Soviet Union. In the late 1950s, due to China’s break with the Soviet Union and other allies

like East-Germany, most of these experts were withdrawn and China’s regulations on foreigners

were tightened again. At the start of the Cultural Revolution, this all has led to China becoming a

hermetic state that only a few foreigners - mainly diplomats, journalists, students, and

businesspeople that recognised the new People’s Republic - could travel to. (Feege 1995)

At the end of the Cultural Revolution, China’s economy was almost completely run down and

with Mao Zedong’s death in 1976 China’s leadership took a new road of development, opening

its country again to the outside world. During the opening-up policy, starting in the late 1970s,

Western experts were again seen as necessary for China’s development and the foreign

population grew again rapidly. Experiencing its economic boom, in 1962 West-Germany and
  19
China started diplomatic relations and slowly intensified business relations in the following

years. In 1984, Volkswagen was one of the first German companies who established a large-

scale joint-venture in China – whose path hundreds of other German companies followed in the

future. At about the same time, East-Germany and China also came closer together again and

foregoing differences became minor. In 1978, 1.02 million foreigners entered China, rising to

3.29 million in 1985 and 16.7 in 1999. But even though numbers were rising drastically in the

1980s, the foreign population was still largely excluded from the local population by strict

housing regulations, labour rules and designated places for shopping and entertainment. In the

1990s, these boundaries slowly vanished and foreigners started to share residential housing,

competed in the same job market, bought their groceries in the same supermarkets, and mixed

within same leisure places.

Since the 1990s and Germany’s re-unification, Sino-German relations are closer than ever before

in history. In the last three and a half decades China’s economic boom had attracted thousands of

German medium and big size companies, who employ a considerable amount of German

employees in China. According to the German Company Directory by the German Chamber of

Commerce, today there are more than 5,000 registered German companies in China (German

Chamber of Commerce 2014). The big majority of German companies in China operate in

traditional German industries, with machinery/industrial equipment (23 %) and automotive (17

%) making the biggest part, followed by service companies (10 %). (German Chamber of

Commerce 2013) According to a verbal note by the Public Security Ministry of the Peoples

Republic of China, there were 20,121 Germans registered and living in China in 2012.3 While

the note gives different info about the German residents’ professions, talks with German

diplomats show a three-folded German community in China: business expatriates (and their

                                                                                                               
3  According to the German Embassy in Beijing this number derives from registration data from local police stations.
In China foreigners are requested by law to register their residency. Not registering could cause a fine. While most
Germans register when arriving in China, many do not change their registration when moving within the country.
This might cause inaccuracy in the data.  
  20
families), students, and local hired employees. These three groups might count for about 90 % of

the total German population in China.4

Driven by China’s economic boom and a shortage in qualified personnel on the Chinese job

market, business expatriates are posted to China by their company in Germany and usually work

in middle or upper management positions. Coming here mainly for career prospects and huge

financial benefits, this group normally stays in China for three to five years, which very often

can be extended for a second term of the same duration. Increasing numbers have brought their

families over, while others - mainly men – have found a Chinese partner. Including their families

this group might account for more than half of the total German population in China and is

mainly settled around China’s economic power areas. In most cases business expatriates live

very clustered among other expatriates and high-income Chinese professionals in one of China’s

numerous gated communities with minimal interaction with the host society (see also Wu &

Webber 2004 and Sander 2013).

As China’s global role increases, Chinese language is experiencing a huge rise in popularity in

recent years in Germany and elsewhere. China’s universities become a magnet for fee-paying

foreign students who usually enrol in language programs scheduled for one to two semesters. In

2014, more than 330,000 overseas students were enrolled in Chinese universities (China Daily

2014).5 The biggest part of the 6,271 German students enrolled in Chinese universities comes

here as part of their language study in Germany, which often puts them into a set up environment

at their sending school’s partner university in China (Ministry of Education 2013). As a big part

                                                                                                               
4  The note states “[…] darunter sind 20121 deutsche Staatsangehörige (9058 arbeiten und 1018 studieren in China).
[among them [all foreigners] are 20121 German nationals (9058 are working and 1018 study).] Unfortunately this
statistic does not match with official numbers by the Chinese Ministry of Education, which published German
student enrolment numbers of around 6,200 for the same year (Ministry of Education 2013). Furthermore, it is an
open secret that a fair amount of classified foreign students enrol in Chinese universities to get a residents permit,
but work as language teachers or the like. Unfortunately the German embassy was not able to give me more detailed
information about the German community in China.  
5  According to Pieke (2012) there is an increasing number of Southeast and South Asian degree students enrolled in
Chinese universities. In 2008, about 60,000 foreign students were enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate
programs.  
  21
of German students is receiving financial support by their parents, different scholarships

programs or work part-time, most students enjoy a comparatively high living standard compared

to their Chinese peers, which often allows them to rent an own apartment outside campus. If

living on campus, their dorms are in most cases separated from other Chinese students. All

German students in China might account for 20-30 % of the total German expatriate population.

This group is hard to pin down, as many German students are registered at Chinese universities

for Visa reasons, but often work for language schools or give private lessons as their main

profession.

An increasing number of Germans have independently taken up long-term residence in search of

local employment with either Chinese or foreign (mostly German) companies in China. Local

hired employees mostly already had connections to China when coming her due to their study,

previous visits, Chinese or foreign friends and the like. These people mainly compete with

Chinese graduate students on the job market for lower and middle management positions, but

usually can expect a higher salary than the average Chinese employee. However, their income is

for the most part considerably lower than that of business expatriates, which only allows them to

rent apartments in mixed neighbourhoods among middle-class Chinese people and other

foreigners. Local hired employees might account for 15-30 % of the German expatriate

population in China.

Besides these three big groups of Germans in China, others are self-employed with own

businesses, diplomats, volunteers and social workers, interns and trainees, artists, long-term

travellers, and others. This categorisation is surely not including all Germans in China and

should only give a general overview about the main categories of German migrants here.

Furthermore, as the category students showed, there is very considerable overlap and spill-over

between all of these categories.

  22
3. Research Methodology

Data Collection

To get a better picture of the attitudes and perceptions among Germans regarding social and

official norms in China, I conducted 27 in-depth semi-structured interviews with 29 participants

in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Qingdao from March to May 2014. Eight

interviews were conducted in Beijing, with additional eight interviews in Chengdu, three in

Shanghai and eight in Qingdao. All but two interviews were conducted with only one participant

at the time. Two interviews in Chengdu and Qingdao were conducted with two participants at the

same time. Informed consent was obtained before all interviews. Interviews were conducted at a

location convenient for the participants, mainly close to their work place. All interviews were

recorded in German, before being transcribed and translated into English. The interviews lasted

between 50 and 120 minutes. All interviewees were holding German nationality and had been

living in Germany for at least ten years of their lives. All participants except for one were of

German descent or could be perceived as western foreigners in China. One participant was the

child of Chinese-German parents, but grew up in Germany before moving to China after

graduating from university. The participants’ age ranged from 17 to 59 years. Participants had at

least already been in China for one year when I was conducting the interview. The time of being

in China ranged from one to nineteen years, with the average being 6.2 years among all

participants. Almost all participants travelled back to Germany every once in a wile for private

or business reasons. To get a diverse picture on different perceptions among Germans in China, I

interviewed people from different fields of work and positions as well as students, house wives,

diplomats, artists, social volunteers and self-employed. I tried to interview people with different

motivation to come to China, social status, education, income, Chinese proficiency, martial

status and time being in China. I recruited most participants through snowballing. In the cities of

  23
Beijing and Chengdu I met most of the participants through my own social network from longer

stays in both cities in 2009/10 during my Bachelor and recently during my Master’s program.

Participants in Shanghai and Qingdao were mainly contacted via the German Academic

Exchange Service (DAAD), the Goethe Institute and a German email lists that existed in the

German community in Qingdao.

The following table is an overview of the participants’ demographic data.

Gender:           Male             58,62  %,  n=17  

          Female             41,38  %,  n=12  
 
Age:           <  20             6,89  %,  n=2  
          20-­‐30             41,37  %,  n=12  
          30-­‐40             20,68  %,  n=6  
          40-­‐50             13,79  %,  n=4  
          >  50             17,24  %,  n=5  
 
Educational  level:       Hauptschule  (low  sec.  school)     6,89  %,  n=2  
(highest  degree  obtained)     Realschule  (mid  sec.  school)     6,89  %,  n=2  
          Gymnasium  (upper  sec.  school)     (-­‐-­‐-­‐)  
          Abitur  (high  school)       24,13  %,  n=7  
          BA             24,13  %,  n=7  
          MA  /  Diplom           37,93  %,  n=11  
 
Accessible  income:       <  3000             3,44  %,  n=1  
(per  month  in  Yuan)       3000  –  5000           6,89  %,  n=2  
          5000  –  10000         24,13  %,  n=7  
          10000  –  20000           24,13  %,  n=7  
          20000  –  30000           24,13  %,  n=7  
>  30000           17,24  %,  n=5  
 
Time  spend  in  China:       average  6,2  years  (max  19  years,  min  1  year)  
 
Having  a  Chinese  partner:     total             37,93  %,  n=11  
          Male             31,03  %,  n=9  
Female             6,89  %,  n=2  
 
Chinese  proficiency:       none             24,13  %,  n=7  
(self  assessed  by  participants)     basic             27,58  %,  n=8  
          medium           20,68  %,  n=6  
          fluent             27,58  %,  n=8  
 

  24
Field Sites

I decided to conduct interviews in Beijing and Chengdu because I already had good contacts to

the German community in both cities due to longer stays in both cities. Furthermore both cities

have a very diverse German community that was very suitable for my research. I added Shanghai

because it has the biggest German community in China and can be seen as the city with the

strongest western influence in Chinese society. I picked Qingdao because of the fact that

Qingdao and its surroundings were Germany’s only colony in China, the Kiautschou Bay

Concession from 1898 to 1914, and the city is still known for its German cultural influence. In

the following section I will describe each city a bit more in detail, especially focusing on the

foreign and more specific German community in each city.

Beijing

Located in China’s Northeast, Beijing is the capital of China and one of China’s three main

economic powerhouse regions. Beijing is China’s power and decision centre with almost all

important government bodies, organisations and authorities being located in Beijing. With a

population of around 20 million people Beijing is the second biggest city in China. Located

about 170 kilometres from the international port of Tianjin and having early set up a business

environment of international standard, Beijing’s location was always attractive for local and

international companies to settle. Starting in the 1980s, Beijing over the years attracted more

than 10,000 joint-ventures and regional headquarters of multinational companies, now clearly

taking part in shaping this global city. In 2012, Beijing was home of about 120,000 foreigners

(CSY 2013). Even though there are different newspaper articles stating the number of certain

nationals in Beijing – it is said there are about 80,000 South Koreans in Beijing - there is no

overall data on where Beijing’s foreigners come from (Cha 2007). According to the German

  25
Chamber of Commerce’s Company Directory, there are 851 German companies located in

Beijing today (German Chamber of Commerce 2014). Having their China headquarters located

in the Chinese capital, big German companies like Audi, Volkswagen and Siemens have a

comparatively big German workforce here. Besides German companies, most of Germany’s

global organisations and institution like the Goethe Institute, German Academic Exchange

Service, academic research institutes, etc. have their China office in Beijing. Furthermore,

Beijing is China’s academic centre and home to the big part of China’s most renowned

universities. In 2012, Beijing’s universities attracted almost 77,000 overseas students and ranks

number one in China (Ministry of Education 2013).

In total there were 4708 Germans living in Beijing in 2012 – the second highest number among

all Chinese cities (Public Security Ministry 2013). Unfortunately there is no data about their

demographics, duration of stay or profession. From my own experience and talks to German

diplomats, about 60-70 % of all Germans in Beijing are working in international companies,

while another 20-30 % are enrolled in Beijing’s numerous universities. The rest are family

members of business expats, self-employed, part-time workers, volunteers, diplomats, artists and

others. Having several German restaurants, sport clubs, regulars’ tables, business societies and

the like, Beijing’s German community is relatively good connected and active. Furthermore,

many German business expatriates work in almost completely “German” surroundings where the

only Chinese people they meet probably studied or worked in Germany and speaks fluent

German or English. In most international companies work language is either English or German

so many Germans staying here for only three to five years do not learn Chinese. As Beijing is

one of China’s most developed cities, foreigners from developed countries can relative easily

live the same life like back home.

  26
Shanghai

The government direct-controlled municipality of Shanghai is located in China’s east coast and

the centre of China’s Yangtze river delta economic area. Being chosen as one of China’s Special

Economic Zones, in 1990, the area of Pudong in Shanghai followed other cities in the South to

open for foreign investment and soon became the country’s role model for economic reforms.

Today, the city with a population of more than 23 million people is one of the fastest developing

cities in the world and China’s international centre. The city is China’s biggest city by

population and according to different statistics also the biggest city in the world. Shanghai is a

global financial centre and a huge transport hub. In 2012 the port of Shanghai overpassed

Singapore being the busiest port in the world (Bloomberg 2011). With more foreign companies

than any other city in China and several renowned universities and international organisations,

Shanghai also has China’s largest foreign population. While in the early 1970s there were only

about 70 foreigners residing in Shanghai, official numbers today state 170,000, and some

estimates going up to 300,000 (CSY 2013, Farrer 2010). Having a long colonial history,

Shanghai is still the most international city in China. When walking through the old French

Concession or the new business districts in Pudong one can easily forget this city is located in

China.

According to the German Chamber of Commerce Company Directory, there are 1902 German

companies located in Shanghai today – more than in any other Chinese city. Similar to Beijing,

main employers are medium and large German companies mainly from Germany’s traditional

industries machinery and automotive. Besides these big companies like Krupp and Bayer, other

main drivers for German migration to Shanghai are its several partnerships between German and

Shanghai universities and research institutes. Especially the 1998 founded Chinese-German

Academic Association (CDHK) at Shanghai’s Tongji University is one of China’s showcase

  27
projects for Chinese-German partnership. With about 400 German students annually, Tongji

University has the highest numbers of German students among Chinese universities.

In 2012 there were 8586 Germans registered in Shanghai – the highest number among all

Chinese cities (Public Security Ministry 2013). The composition of Germans in Shanghai is

similar to Beijing and shows no significant differences.

Chengdu

Chengdu is the provincial capital of Sichuan and besides Chongqing Chinas economic driving

force in western China. With around 14 million inhabitants Chengdu is China’s fourth biggest

city by population (Chengdu Statistical Bureau 2011). Including people from Taiwan, Hong

Kong and Macao, Chengdu in 2009 was home to about 20,000 foreigners (People’s Daily 2010).

After having received huge amounts of government investments to promote the local economy

and business environment, today the city has become western China’s economic centre and

transport hub. Finding attractive business opportunities and support by the local government,

Chengdu recently attracted many international companies to open offices. China Daily earlier

this year quoted Chen Fu, the city’s municipal board of investment vice director, saying in 2013

the city had 252 Fortune 500 companies having set up own branches. Among them were 188

foreign and 64 domestic companies (Li & Lai 2014). With more and more international airlines

offering direct flights to Chengdu and a positive trend in foreign investment, Chengdu is

booming and one can feel the transformation maybe even stronger than in Beijing and Shanghai.

While Beijing and Shanghai had their first economic boom in the 1980s and 1990s, Chengdu’s

development did not really start before the turn of the millennium. Its internationalisation is still

at a very first stage and foreigners not exotic, but still strikingly more rare than in Beijing or

Shanghai. There are 99 registered German companies in Chengdu, with Volkswagen and its own

  28
production centre being the biggest (Chamber of Commerce 2014). In 2012 there were 181

Germans registered as living in Sichuan (Public Security Ministry 2013). Unfortunately there is

no specific number about the city of Chengdu. According to talks with German diplomats there

are roughly 150 Germans living in the city of Chengdu, which is comparatively little compared

to its size and growing internationalisation. As Chengdu’s universities are not among the first

choices for German students and study opportunities are comparatively limited in general I

would assume students to have a smaller share among the Germans at place. From my own

experience I cannot say there is any form of German community in Chengdu and even the

foreign community is very fragmented. While different business expatriate groups tend to stick

together, there is no real mix between the different companies’ employees.

Qingdao

Lying across the Shandong Peninsula, the former German colony Qingdao is located at China’s

east coast. Qingdao is the largest city in the province of Shandong by population and economic

power. Being located at the Yellow Sea across from South Korea, Qingdao is the province’s

mayor seaport, naval base and industrial center. In 2010 Qingdao had a population of around 7.5

million people (Qingdao Statistical Bureau 2012). There are no official numbers about foreigners

in Qingdao. Do to its location and close business relations, Qingdao’s Korean population is most

likely the biggest among all foreigners. There are direct flights to Seoul from Qingdao as well as

a Korean consulate general and numerous Korean restaurants and supermarkets. A 2009

newspaper article by China News Online estimated Qingdao having about 100,000 Koreans

(China News 2009). Assuming this number is accurate, I would estimate the overall foreign

population in Qingdao to be around 120,000 people. Being German colony from 1898 to 1914

and then occupied by Japan till 1922 and again from 1938 to 1949, Qingdao has a long history of

foreign influence. By having a walk through Qingdao’s old quarters this influence can still be
  29
seen today. According to a report from 1913, there were 3600 Germans living in colonial

Qingdao - with 2000 being marines and the rest mainly civil servants and traders. Considering

the city of Qingdao only had a Chinese population of about 30,000 people during that time,

Germans accounted for about 10 % of the total population (Wagner 1913). Today this has

changed and the German heritage limits itself mainly to the city’s architecture, the famous

Tsingtao brewery, some German influenced words in the Qingdao dialect and maybe a different

drinking culture. Germans itself make only a very small part in the foreign community of

Qingdao nowadays. With 315 Germans being registered in whole Shandong province in 2012,

the German population in Qingdao should add up to around 200-250 people (Public Security

Ministry 2013). As there are no detailed data on Germans on a city level, numbers can only be

assumed according to talks with Germans at place as well as diplomats in Beijing. Today there

are 88 German companies operating in Qingdao with Stiehl power tools being the biggest

(Chamber of Commerce 2014). Even though the number of Germans living in Qingdao is higher

than the number for Chengdu, the number of German companies is even slightly smaller.

Considering the recent extensive Sino-German efforts to attract German companies to settle and

invest in the coastal city as well as Qingdao’s close historical connection to Germany it is

surprisingly how little “Germany” can still be found in Qingdao (see also Geinitz 2012). Still it

seems the German community is better connected than in Chengdu. During my five-day stay in

April 2014 I had the feeling most Germans knew each other and there were different German

communities in Qingdao.

  30
Interview Protocol
The interview protocol was divided into four main parts: 1) background, 2) transnational ties, 3)

perception of social norms, and 4) perception of official norms. In the following I want to

explain each section in more detail. Please see also an English translation of the interview

protocol in the appendix.

The first section had its aim in getting a better feeling for the participants’ life in China as well as

their background. After collecting general demographic data, I looked into the participants’

motivation to come to China as well as their current professional situation and future prospects.

To get a better feeling of the interviewee’s closer environment and position in Chinese society, I

also asked for the participant’s work and social environment, Chinese proficiency as well as his

or her life partner.

The second part asked for transnational ties to Germany and in how far the participant was still

connected to his family and friends back home. Furthermore I tried to assess in how far the

interviewee felt up to date with local and national, political and cultural events happening in

Germany while the participant is abroad.

The third part asked for perceptions of social norms and how people behave in society. Here I

first clarified what I meant with social norms in my research following a general description of

Jay Jackson (1965). To not give to many examples, I always first described social norms

theoretically as “group-held, informal beliefs about how members should behave in a certain

context. These behaviors vary in time, place and different groups of society”. If participants were

not sure what I meant I was giving them striking examples of norms in China and Germany.

After clarifying the term social norms, I was trying to get a better picture of how the interviewee

thinks social norms constrain peoples’ behaviour in China, and more specifically compared to

Germany. In a second step I tried to find out in how far the participant feels these norms hold for
  31
him the same way as for Chinese people and in what areas norms might be stricter or softer for

Germans in China. Furthermore the protocol asked for experiences with breaking these norms in

China but also in Germany. If the participant had experiences in this field I asked for special

cases in which the participant changed his behaviour in Germany as a result of his or her stay

abroad. The section also wanted to know in what fields the interviewee likes or dislikes certain

norms in both countries and in how far he or she adapts, discards or adjusts his set of norms

when living in China.

The fourth and last part dealt with the participant’s perception of official norms like laws, rules

and regulations. Here again I first clarified the term official norms under which I understand

“laws and regulation by an authority that are implemented by penalties if not followed. In most

cases these official norms are in written form and monitored by an authority”. If the participant

still was not clear about the term I would add examples to visualize the subject. After

clarification I was asking for the importance of rules and regulations for daily life to get a better

feeling of the participant’s general view on rules. In a second step I was asking the interviewee

about differences between both countries’ laws and peoples’ adherence. Furthermore the protocol

asked for situations in which the participant thinks it is justified to break laws and rules and his

experience with authorities in China. In the end the protocol asked for the interviewee’s view on

differences between Germans and Chinese when it comes to contact with laws and regulations.

  32
4. Analysis

Normative Adaption Categories

Different types of migrants interact to a varying degree with the host society and make sense of

their experiences abroad while using interpretive frames they bring from home. Following Peggy

Levitt’s works on transnationalism and social remittances, regarding adaption, we see similar

groups of German migrants in China like in her work The Transnational Villagers (2001) on

Dominican migrants in Boston, USA. Like in her book we can divide German migrants in China

into three main groups: observers, adapter, and innovators6. In the following I want to adapt her

concept on my findings in China and give a brief classification on the different categories and

their patterns to cope with different norms when confronting this new environment. These three

groups should be seen as a simplification of a very complex group of German immigrants in

China and is only used for practicality reasons. All three groups are intertwined and cannot be

taken separately in any case. Categories can be more seen as phases, which can change over time

and usually do not stay over the entire stay abroad. While most people come here as observers,

some stay observers for their entire stay, while many others develop into adapters or innovators

and sometimes even change back into an previous phase.

Observers

Most of these individuals work for German or multinational companies. Their working

environment is very international with many co-workers being Germans or other foreigners.

Their Chinese colleagues very likely speak fluent English if not German and often had studied or

                                                                                                               
6  Levitt  names  these  categories  slightly  different.  In  her  work  The  Transnational  Villagers  (2001)  they  are  
called  recipient  observers,  instrumental  adapters,  and  purposeful  innovators.    
  33
worked abroad. Their social life is generally centred in a foreign community if not mainly

German community. As most of these people enjoy a comparatively high living standard here in

China, they can easily escape public life and only have a minimum interaction with Chinese

society. In many cases they live in comparatively insular living environments like the numerous

gated communities in Chinese suburbs. Observers do not actively explore their new environment

because their lives are structured such that they do not come into close contact with it. Instead,

they take in new ideas, practices but also perceptions by passively observing the world around

them. Most frequently seen within the group of observers, many of their old norms and practices

go unchallenged in their new environment, as they have almost no interaction with members of

the host society. These people do not necessarily need to change behaviours, as their life abroad

is relatively similar to their old life home. Most of their inputs about their new world derive from

reports by others or they learn about it by reading western online news or streaming TV

programs. Most observers had no connection to China before coming here and usually only plan

to stay in China for a limited amount of time. Most of these individuals do not speak Chinese and

sometimes not even English.

From all 29 participants I would count 14 people into the group of observers, which makes it

almost half of my sample. Here a big part was working in multinational companies or language

schools or were enrolled at Chinese universities. Almost all participants from this group were

sent to China by their company, institution or university in Germany. A majority of this group

lived in comparatively international neighbourhoods - often in so called gated communities - and

in most cases had no Chinese friends. Still many - only male - participants had Chinese life

partners they met here. Most participants from this group did not speak Chinese and some not

even English. Life was mainly organised that they barely were meeting Chinese people in their

leisure time. Especially business expatriates almost never take a bus or subway as they all had a

company car. Many participants told me their closes Chinese contact person besides colleagues

was their cleaning lady at home. Many interviewees from this group came to China for career
  34
reasons and nobody thought of staying here for a longer period of time. Before they came to

China they had no or almost no connection to China or Chinese people. If not sent by there

company, coming here was very often the wish for something new, something exciting far away

from home, but China usually wasn’t their only choice.

Adapters

Individual counting to the group of adapters are generally more integrated into life in China than

observers. As motivations to come to China were of different nature for adapters they can be

found in almost all parts of the German expatriate community. Their interaction in daily life, at

work or in school, on public transport, when shopping, or with medical professionals forces them

to change their reference frames. Still mostly having a better living standard then the average

Chinese, these people still have comparatively more contact points with Chinese society than

observers due to their financial situation. Adapters need new skills to be able to get along in their

new environment. They expand the range of practices they engage in without modifying their old

habits or ideas. Mostly found among the adapters, this group sticks to their old norms while

adding new ones to get by in their new environment. Furthermore, these new social tools do not

confront old ideas and attitudes and can stay along with the old set of norms. Most of these

people already speak some Chinese or started learning it in China. They change and add to their

routines for mainly pragmatic reasons. While not changing completely, these people adjust the

way they think it is necessary in their new environment to meet the challenges of being a

foreigner in China.

Following this description I would count 10 people of my sample into the category of adapters,

which makes it my second biggest group. My sample of adapters mostly consists of people who

are working in multinational companies, research institutes, international organisations, have

  35
their own business or work as artists. A big part of this sample was looking for jobs when they

got to China and only two were sent over by a company or institution in Germany. The majority

of this group speaks a bit of Chinese and some even fluent. These people live in mixed

neighbourhoods and their friends come from China and other countries. Their income would

count them to the Chinese middle class if not sometimes upper class, but their interaction with

Chinese people is still comparatively high. Many see China as a time limited experience for

some more years, while others do not have a clear plan when to leave the country. Some

participants from this group have Chinese partners and some even children here.

Innovators

In contrast to adapters, innovators are actively seeking out to learn new things. These people do

not adapt because they have to, but because they want to learn and benefit from their new

environment. Different to all other groups who come here with a clear purpose, this group of

people mainly migrated to China because of sheer interest in this country. These people try to

dive into Chinese culture to be more part of it. Therefore they add and combine what they

observe with their existing ideas and practices. Here the old set of norms is combined with a new

set that can be found here in China. To make sense of the new environment many people

combine both sets of norms into a hybrid system that tries to fit both cultures. These people

mostly speak good Chinese and have many contact points with Chinese people in daily life, at

work, in school or at leisure time.

From all my participants, 5 people can be counted to the category of innovators. This group of

people works here in diplomatic offices, multinational companies and culture institutes. These

people all have been living in China for more than five years and some even up to nineteen. All

of them speak fluent Chinese and some have a Chinese life partner and children. They all live in

  36
mixed neighbourhoods and have Chinese as well as foreign friends. These people interact

comparatively much with Chinese people at work and in leisure time. They all have close

connections to China and not few feel uncomfortable when being back in Germany for a visit.

China can be seen as their home and only two of them had concrete plans to go back to Germany

in the near future.

In all groups - in some more, in some less - people abandon some of their social tools they bring

from home. These old incorporated behaviours all of a sudden seem to be irrelevant in their new

habitat or the new environment makes them too difficult to use. Attitudes and beliefs also

weaken and behaviours become unfamiliar once migrants do not use them regularly. Behaviours

are being exchanged for new ones, as it seems the new environment makes it necessary. Living it

the old way becomes harder and can sometimes even lead to social problems.

In Peggy Levitt’s works on Dominican migrants in the USA she found a positive correlation

between the migrant’s wealth, education, and social capital regarding their interaction with the

host society. While this might be also applicable for German migrants’ education and social

capital, for wealth this has proven to be converse. In my categorisation this correlation can be

seen as negative, as many cases showed wealth and a higher living standard lead to exclusion

and less interaction with local Chinese.7

                                                                                                               
7  Levitt  (2001)  writes,  “The  degree  to  which  migrants’  interpretative  frames  are  altered  is  a  function  of  how  
much  they  interact  with  the  host  society.  This,  in  turn,  depends  upon  their  socioeconomic  profile  and  
opportunity  structures  available  to  them.  Miraflorenos  [the  researched  Dominican  migrants]  who  have  
enough  money,  education,  and  social  capital  to  start  their  own  business  have  much  more  contact  with  the  
broader  community  than  those  who  work  alone  cleaning  offices.”  
  37
4.1 Social Norms

Process: From observation to understanding

If people migrate to a country without speaking the host country’s language and only barely

know about cultural norms, the easiest and most obvious way of making sense of your new

surrounding is simply by observing it. When I started interviewing Germans in Beijing,

Shanghai, Chengdu and Qingdao, I very often heard that many people were surprised about how

little norms mattered when they first got to this new environment. Luisa8, who is working as a

teacher in Chengdu, reviewed her first impressions in China like this.

When I first got to China I was surprised how little norms matter here. Especially

compared to Japan, where I immediately felt traditional norms have a huge meaning.

Here, right from the beginning, I thought daily life was relatively uncomplicated.

Everyone can be as he likes. Pupils for example, they can be as they like to be.

Luisa’s statement is representative for a large group of German migrants when they first get to

China. When entering this new environment only a little number of participants spoke any

Chinese, neither did they have many social contacts to Chinese people - most participants found

themself in the position of observers. When describing their first impressions people further

pointed out how open-minded and tolerant Chinese people were and how little foreigners needed

to change their behaviour here. They did not see any big constraints for their behaviour here and

felt Chinese people accept them like they are. This reasoning comes from their daily

                                                                                                               
8  All  names  in  this  thesis  had  been  changed.  

  38
observations were they see Chinese people doing “what they want” or “don’t care about what

others think”. Talking about her observations of Chinese doing morning sports, Luisa put it like

this.

I really like that everyone can do whatever he or she likes here. For example in the

morning I always pass by a park. Here people sing, people dance, people tap [tap one’s

body for relaxation], people do gymnastics. A German would fear people could see

him. In Germany we go jogging, but to sing or do gymnastics like you wish? No. [...]

In general I think its cool how Chinese people think “I don’t care what you think. I just

do it like I want.“ That’s an attitude that becomes a good strategy to live a healthy life

in a country with so many people.

Or Anna from Qingdao, who is working in the office of a language school, who talked about her

observation at work and the way Chinese people dress.

I think in China everything is okay. I just got an application photo from a Chinese

student on which he was wearing a jacket and jogging pants and headphones in his ear.

I feel it doesn’t matter in China. When going out I also already saw people wearing

jogging pants or others who were super dressed up. It doesn’t matter that much.

Except for work related things. If we meet the vice dean of our school. Then we have

to dress up a bit more formal. But except that, China is a country where everything

goes. […] For example the way people dress on the street. I don’t mean it in a bad

way, but people don’t care what others think of you. It doesn’t matter what your group

of friends or society is thinking, I just do it my way. They don’t think about it, they
  39
 just do it. They have their group of friends when they’re in the restaurant being super

loud. They don’t care about the other people in the restaurant, what matters is them

having fun at their table.

Luisa and Anna’s statements are both good examples of how people make their own conclusion

from just watching people in their daily lives. Even though Gelfand et al (2011) described China

as tighter in norms than Germany, as habits and behaviours are different to what would be

accepted in Germany, both assume Chinese people to be more tolerant and almost everything

being accepted in society. Social norms are not being seen as different and constraints might just

be rather unobtrusive. This perception is even strengthened by observations from talks to

Chinese people, as Luisa talked about peculiarities when talking to Chinese colleagues.

Chinese people seem to more follow the concept of to live and let die. You are just the

way you are. People say things to describe something for example. In Germany this

would immediately have a certain meaning, positive or negative. So everyone would

know how the person thinks about this. Here I think people leave this out and don’t

value so much. It is more about giving an information, without any value.

During her talks with work colleagues in English, Luisa’s feeling of Chinese being rather

tolerant got strengthened by the observation that her colleagues often share information without

putting any value in it. Here like in their observations on the street, many participants reason this

as China being more open than Germany regarding social norms.

  40
Very often this perception is also paired with foreigners having a special position in China’s

social construct. As it seems for many new arriving migrants Chinese society has almost no rules

to follow, foreigners are even more exempt from this. Moritz who is a student in Chengdu, was

asked if he feels foreigners had to follow the same social norms like Chinese people.

Not at all! As a foreigner you are free and welcomed. As a foreigner you have the

liberty for more things. Here in Chengdu I think its extreme! Especially when it comes

to drinking. Chinese people never drink alcohol in public, except for bars. If we

[foreigners] do it, Chinese people see us with curiosity.

Even though Moritz observed Chinese people usually do not drink alcohol on the street, he does

not think it is wrong to do it as a foreigner. Drinking on the street is just encountered with

“curiosity” by the Chinese, it is seen as different but accepted. With not knowing the culture or

barely speaking Chinese, this group of people makes their own conclusions from what they see

and assume China as being more open than Germany, even to an extent that it is tolerated that

foreigners break certain social norms. Works by Sander (2013) and others showed similar

findings where (especially white) foreigners were experiencing “a special status” or “positive

discrimination” when not following social norms.

The perceptions described in the examples before usually do not stay forever. When first arriving

in China almost all participants can be counted as observers. As people most likely do not speak

the language good enough and barely have social contacts to Chinese, people make sense of their

new environment by simply observing it. As soon as migrants started to learn Chinese and felt

more confortable in their new situations, they also reached out and interacted more with Chinese
  41
society. Their position slowly changed and differences between German and Chinese social

norms became more striking for them. But this process usually is not planned by the migrants as

their style of living and interaction with the host society is also connected to their work and

leisure life here. For example, while immigrants individually decide whether to learn Chinese or

not, contact points with local people are still mainly determined by factors harder to asses by

them. It can be seen as an intertwined process of external circumstances and individual

motivation that determine the degree of interaction with the host society and therefore also the

degree of adaption. Many participants now counting to the group of adapters and innovators

stated they needed to “learn it” and would say they “behaved outside the norm” before they

realised any differences. Their perception of social norms in China changed over time from a

feeling of an almost norm-free country in which foreigners can even enjoy more freedom than

locals, to an awareness of social norms that were just rather unobvious for someone who was not

interacting with society and could not see the subtleties. This process occurs among the big part

of German migrants here in China with a varying pace. While some observers stay in this group

for their entire stay abroad, this process develops only very slow and sometimes not at all.

Among adapters this process is faster and for innovators the fastest. While innovators go out and

actively look for differences to use for themselves, adapters do this more slowly and directed

after practicability. As especially business expatriates in high positions very often have almost

no interaction with the host society at all, these migrants very often do not change their

perceptions and even after several years perceive China as a country where everything is

allowed. Works by Lehmann (2014) and Sander (2013) on expatriates and expatriates’ children

in Xiamen and Shanghai tell of similar experiences and give a good picture of expatriates’ life in

China.

  42
But usually this process does not end with the recognition of social norms but often goes a step

further. For example, even when participants were not willing to follow social norms they

adapted ways how to deal with these norms. Michael, who works for a German-Chinese joint

venture in Beijing, talked about how he “escaped” the social norms at business dinners.

In the beginning I never said no. I don’t know why, but I felt I had to. You also don’t

want to be impolite. So I was eating all their “delicacies” [being ironic] and drank

baijiu [Chinese hard liquor] until I felt dizzy. I don’t know, I couldn’t say no. […]

Now I know how to escape these things. I learned it from my [Chinese] colleagues. I

asked them if they also had to do all these things and they said no. They taught my a

few general rules how to act at these dinners and I feel it worked. Of course sometimes

I feel bad to lie, but if there is no other way, I have to do it.

Or Christian, a student from Beijing, who talked about his experience at his girlfriend’s

hometown.

[…] no matter where we went, I always got cigarettes offered. Like a fixed ritual, I

always got offered cigarettes. In the beginning I thought it was funny and I accepted it,

I mean I occasionally smoke so it was okay. But at some point it annoyed me and I

didn’t always wanted to smoke. From then on I only accepted the cigarettes but didn’t

necessarily smoked them. And it worked. I also watched other people and they did the

same, I guess I subconsciously copied them. […] It’s not about the smoking itself, it’s

more about this ritual of giving out something, a cigarette, if you meet people.

  43
Michael and Christian’s experiences are good examples of how people over the time understand

social norms and their subtleties. While Michael has very limited contact to local people outside

his work, at work he interacts comparatively much with Chinese colleagues and work partners.

During different business dinners he learned how to deal with norms he before was unhappy

following. Christian who speaks fluent Chinese and has a Chinese girlfriend interacts almost

daily with local people. During my interview with him in a little Chinese restaurant he told me

his trips to his girlfriends hometown showed him the “real China” and he still very often

encounters very new situations in this environment. Both reports showed there are certain ways

and rules that are accepted if one does not want to participate in certain social activities and

foreigners over the time realise these details. These experiences can be found among all three

groups but are especially strong among the adapters. Once migrants notice a social norm it also

needs time to understand this norm in more detail. While these people in the beginning simply

followed certain social norms, at some point they discovered ways to deal with it so both sides

are satisfied. On the other hand, among the observers many participants refused to participate in

work related social activities and stated that they did not care what their work partner thinks and

that there are certain limits in social openness for them. This blocking might come from

uncertainty and problems to explain oneself, but it certainly show that some people do not adapt

at all.

Differences in leisure and work life

As stated by Anna earlier, an area where it seems social norms were present from the beginning,

are work relations with Chinese people. Anna as well as many others felt from the beginning that

there is a difference in the importance of social norms in work life and daily life. Luisa

summarized it like this.

  44
 There are some situations, especially work related or more official, in which people

expect me to behave the way they want me to. The less these situations are official, I

feel people see I am a foreigner and foreigners are just different. […] The more

official, the more rules I feel there are. A dinner with the principal will always be a

dinner with the principal. Every time it’s the same procedure. Without evaluating it I

mean. In many cases it is actually easier like this, because I already know how to

behave. For a foreigner I think it’s sometimes hard to get this. Now I would say I very

often put a foot in it in the past. Nothing harsh. But I am sure some Chinese must have

thought “oops, what is she doing?“.

Or Renate, who was asked if she thinks there is more social pressure in China than in Germany.

I think in business life it’s definitely harder than in Germany [to not follow certain

social norms]. In Germany I think business is more logical and coherent. Here

sometimes the character of the boss plays and important role. He has to safe his status,

by hook or by crook, and people have to follow the [social] rules.

Most of the participants felt social norms were more present and stricter in a work related

context than in daily life. Many participants further stated they felt uncomfortable with not

following certain norms in work life, while their leisure time was without any constraints for

them. Especially Germans who have been in China for only a few years and mainly lived the life

of an observer felt it was very hard to escape these social norms even though they did not always

want to follow them. As Chinese work relations are very hierarchal many participants did not

want to object their superiors in the beginning of a work relationship. Participants from all three
  45
groups later partly changed their mind and stated it needed time and a closer relationship to get

acceptance for not following certain social norms in work life. Still, work life was the strongest

field in which participants from all three categories adapted to local habits and norms.

Especially common among the group of observers, some participants perceived their

subordination regarding social norms in a work environment as exploitation by their seniors and

sometimes felt social norms were specifically being used for that reason. Luisa for example

talked about her experience at her language school.

I am representing a German language program, it’s some kind of figurehead for the

principal. […] They want to use me to get publicity. Always when there is a public

event I have to participate. They expect me to hold a speech, that I’m there, that I am

standing next to the principal on the picture. No matter if it’s a sport fest or

commemoration day for the victims of the earthquake, I always have to hold a speech

– in front of everyone, and always offhanded. My colleagues always think “oh, poor

her!” They would die if they always had to talk in front of 4000 pupils and teachers.

But they just expect this from me, me offhanded holding a speech.

Luisa’s experience can be found among many German employees here in China who put

themselves under pressure to follow certain orders seen as social norms. Even though Luisa’s

colleagues usually do not hold speeches at public events in their school, she still perceives

herself being pushed for this speech as a social norm. Reasons for this behaviour are complex.

As Luisa speaks no Chinese and the principal only moderate English it is very hard for her to

explain herself and define her position against her supervisor. Besides, she perceives these orders
  46
as social norms and her “duty” as an employee of the school. A strengthened command in

Chinese and better understanding of the relationship between employees and their superiors

might change her thinking and help her to better position herself in this context.

Similar experiences of migrants putting themselves under pressure to follow certain social norms

in China can be collected from Sören, who talked about his experience with cultural trainings

before coming to China.

You already have this imprint. You get this intercultural training and they try to

prepare you with what is all different here [in China]. And you immediately get the

feeling you are about to go into a country that’s completely different. The people are

different, they burb, they fart, the sing at the table, they get drunk, they sleep, this

feeling they give you. They say you have to be careful, you have to look into their

culture, live their culture. With this feeling you get here. And then you sit here with

your Chinese management colleagues and it starts and you think you have to join and

follow them. Drink like there is no tomorrow. Or treat them very careful, all this back

and forth. Bullshit! For me all bullshit now. Hard but fair. Join the game, do your

thing, follow the rules, but do your work. Before there were always these thoughts

“these are all Chinese, they have a completely different culture and way of thinking

and you have to follow their rules”. No, not anymore.

Sören’s statement describes how intercultural trainings try to prepare migrants before their move

to China, but sometimes cause an overambitious behaviour among the new arriving migrants. As

Sören was very careful with how he behaved in the beginning, after six years being in China, he
  47
now more understands actual norms and can better position himself in his social environment.

Luisa, after living in China for almost three years, on the other hand still has problems in

positioning herself and perceives the school principal’s orders as social norms she has to follow.

While she realises her colleagues do not always have to hold a speech, she as a foreigner is

expected to do so. Both examples show how wrong perceptions of social norms can lead to

misinterpretation and dissatisfaction on the migrant’s side.

Social integration through assimilation

As things are being handled differently in China, in many situations it is more efficient to do it

the Chinese way – even though this sometimes means to do it different to the set of norms

migrants brought from home. As living your old norms would mean more effort, extra time and

or costs, many Germans in China follow the concept of “In Rome, do as the Romans do”.

Another reason is migrant’s wish for more integration into Chinese society. Even among the

participants who had been living in China for more than ten years, were married to a Chinese

partner and spoke the language fluently, only two participants felt integrated into Chinese

society. For many others, assimilation is seen as a way to become more integrated into Chinese

society. Silvia, a teacher in Qingdao, has been living in China for 15 years, reflected on her

development from an outsider to become part of the society.

If I keep on living like in Germany, I won’t get to know China. Then I would decide to

stay on an outsider position on which I could stay, but I really would be outside of the

society. Like most [business] expats here. In the first years I was looking for their

contact because it gave me foothold. Because I had no foothold. But from time to time

I left this community because I could more dive into Chinese society. I said to myself

  48
 this is too superficial. Most people just stay here for 2-4 years and usually don’t learn

the language.

Furthermore, Silvia describes how adaption helped her to position herself in society again.

No, I definitely changed. In the beginning I had to learn all this. I didn’t understand

how it works, how contacts and relations are being build. Over the years I participated

“learning by doing” well-behaved following all their rules. I didn’t understand a word

in the beginning but that helped me to learn the language, so I could slowly position

myself individually. If I did this on purpose - I don’t know. Now I think, when I came

here in the beginning there was “me” and my “China-me”, very far from each other.

Then I slowly learned, like a new-born baby. I adapted, 100 %. I learned and brought

my two “mes” closer together. Now I feel I found my position. This took me a long

time. After 10 years I first thought I am myself again. I don’t think everyone could do

that. I think many people don’t stay that long and don’t find their own position here.

Silvia’s description is a good example of integration and self-positioning through assimilation.

Visiting China her first time in 1999, she now already lives in Qingdao for more than twelve

years, speaks fluent Chinese and has a daughter with her Chinese husband. During my interview

in one of her classrooms, I immediately got the feeling Silvia was part of the school’s staff even

though she was the only foreigner. While she saw herself in a “foreigner bubble” [Ausländer-

Blase], she now re-positioned herself, being part of Chinese society.

  49
But Silvia’s case is still very rare and besides Silvia and a second participant from Beijing,

nobody of my participants felt integrated into society. Especially among people who have been

staying in China for more than ten years and speak fluent Chinese it has become a dilemma they

do not feel integrated at all. Many participants told me they were annoyed of unsubstantial small

talks with strangers on the street or being called “laowai” [foreigner] and pointed at. As white

Germans will always stick out of Chinese society, many participants saw having Chinese friends

as an indicator of being on a path to integration. Here many interviewees felt it was very hard for

them to establish close friendships with Chinese people. Besides language barriers, many

participants stated a lack of possibilities to meet Chinese people outside work as a main reason, a

finding similar to Sander’s (2013) experiences of expatriate children in Shanghai. Gustav, who is

working for multinational company in Beijing, put it like this.

I really don’t know when to meet Chinese people. I mean of course I don’t speak the

language, but even if I would, I couldn’t meet people outside work. Here life is

different. Here I work more. You need an hour to work and an hour back home. There

is no flexible work time here. I get home around 6 or 7 and there is no real time to do

anything. With our gliding time system I could be home at 4 in Germany. Then I could

meet friends. Here life is different. You work, eat and sleep. For Chinese it’s even

harder. Some need more than 2 hours two work. […] Chinese people don’t like to go

out that often. And if, it’s mainly girls. They don’t have any sport clubs or hobbies or

so. They just work. They don’t go to bars. I really don’t know where to meet people.

After living in China for almost eight years, Gustav’s complaints about him not making any

Chinese friends is representative for many of my interviewees from the observer group. While

  50
most people think their difficulties in making new Chinese contacts is due to their lack of

speaking Chinese, many people also point out the different lifestyles of Germans and Chinese as

a reason. As business expatriates very often receive high financial benefits and packages that

include fees for premium health insurances, travel costs, car leases, housing, and private

international schools, most of their daily life does not interfere with the host society. With

keeping up a lifestyle almost similar to their life in Germany, many Germans here almost never

interact with Chinese people. As only a few Chinese interact in these foreign spheres or “only

girls go out”, many Germans assume Chinese people to not do anything. Nobody from the

observers group once tried to change their way of living and joined Chinese people for more

local activities. Similarities can be found in Farrer’s (2011) work on Shanghai’s nightlife as an

“ethnosexual contact zone”, where bars and clubs are almost the only contact points for foreign

business expatriates to have casual social contacts with the host society. While these places

might foster sexual contacts between foreign men and local women, friendships are hard to

develop.

The migrants’ difficulties in finding friends are even strengthened by a feeling of exclusion by

the Chinese society. Many interviewees stated that they felt excluded from the Chinese and not

really welcomed in China. Many see China’s openness for foreigners as a means to an end.

Foreigners are just welcome because of their know how, once this is exploited Chinese people

are not really interested in the people itself.

Within the group of adapters but especially innovators this is different. As these people usually

speak good Chinese and interact with many Chinese in their daily life, many can say they have

close Chinese friends. Here many interviewees pointed out they “can be as they want” with their

  51
friends and there are no big difference in behaviour compared to German friends back home.

Friends are being specifically selected after this criteria. Most Chinese friends in the group of

adapters and innovators have lived abroad, speak foreign languages and were exposed to foreign

culture for most of their lives. Even though most conversations are hold in Chinese, the Chinese

friends speak fluent English or even German, so they are confident in both languages. Both sides

know the differences in social norms and do not think of any being weird or unacceptable. As

many of these Chinese friends sometimes feel excluded in Chinese society, their friendships with

foreigners gives them hold. Both groups of people are internationalised and social norms are

being mixed. Jessica, who is working for a multinational company in Beijing, described meeting

with her circle of friends like this.

With my German and Austrian friends I am like I would be in Germany. A little bit

mixed maybe. The big part of foreign friends I have here grew up here and went to

school here or the like. When we do things its always a mix of Chinese and foreign

behaviours. Because everyone knows both, nothing seems to be weird. For my

Chinese friends it’s the same. They grew up in a multicultural world. They don’t think

we’re weird. [laughs]

This group of Chinese people still practices Chinese norms and behaviours, but also adapted

foreign ones. As both groups live in an international environment, both groups established a set

of norms from different cultures. In some cases it was so distinctive that they felt uncomfortable

when visiting Germany. Jessica described her visits to Germany like this.

  52
 I feel Germany is really stressful. There, all of a sudden I have to follow certain norms

I am not used to anymore. I like the way things work here, the way people live here.

That’s why I am here for so long. […] I clearly see the advantages here in China.

There are a lot of situations where I don’t fit in Germany and I feel how Chinese I

already have become.

Jessica, who clearly belongs to the group of innovators, is a good example for how people

develop a mix of social norms from different cultures that sometimes causes a feeling of

exclusion or not-belonging when visiting your sending country. Jessica’s circle of friends is a

colourful mix of people from different cultures with different social norms. When coming

together these people unintentional exchange social behaviour and adapt norms from more than

one culture. Even though many of her new norms might be from different cultures, the fact that

she is seeking for Chinese cultural input and tries to understand different social norms, puts her

in a position where it is hard for her to offend someone here.

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 4.1 Official Norms

Process: understanding the rules and the rules beside

During my interviews I often realised the borders between social and official norms are

sometimes very thin and norms are highly interwoven. Regarding participants’ perceptions this is

also mirrored in similar trends in both norm fields. As almost all interviewees had experiences

from Chinese traffic, most findings regarding official norms derive from this area. Even though

China has an almost similar set of traffic rules and regulations, its adherence is in some areas

very different to Germany. While Germany at first glance seems to be a country of “blind rule

followers”, China again seems to be a country where everything goes. Similar to statements

about how to behave in society, many interviewees describe China’s traffic as “wild west” and

“free from every constraints”. Dieter, a consultant who lives in Qingdao for more than ten years,

described the traffic situation like this.

The Chinese people’s inconsideration still fascinates me after ten years already here.

In a negative way. I also drove my car here sometimes, thank god not often. If you

drive in China like in Germany they would pull you out of your car and smash your

face because you drive considerate and careful. I experienced it myself. If you keep

the safety distance, five cars will try to sneak into this space. That’s impossible, at

some point you also start to become inconsiderate, because most people here do it like

that. […] For example, if you stop at the zebra crossing because someone wants to

cross the street, in 90 % of all cases he [the pedestrian] will stop because he thinks

now I want to drive him over. He can’t believe what he is seeing - a car stopping.

Consideration and friendliness isn’t common here. That’s sad and a pitty, but that’s

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 my experience. Here you sadly have to adapt because if not you will attract to much

attention.

Even though Dieter is living in China for more than ten years he only drives occasionally and

usually only observes traffic from a pedestrian’s position. Sören who drives his car almost every

day for more than six years in Beijing and outside had a very different view on Chinese traffic.

In the beginning I thought Chinese people literally drive like they wish, no matter the

rules, I do it my way. But over the time you learn there are rules, they are just

different. Of course here you can pass by someone on the right side or cross the

crossing without stopping. But actually there are rules. Unwritten rules. For example if

you cross the crossroad without slowing down and honking you might have someone

crashing into you. At the crossing everyone expects you to give a signal, show them

“hey, I am coming”. That’s something you have to learn. But don’t stop at the crossing

like you would do in Germany – then somebody might drive into you from your back.

Sören’s description shows how he slowly adapted to “unwritten Chinese traffic rules”, which

sometimes seem to be more important than the actual rules in the law. His experience was very

prevalent among people who drove regularly and have been in China for longer than five years.

But also Luisa, who never drove in China and has been in Chengdu for only three years, talked

of a similar experience.

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 […] Here you adapt fast. You start thinking it is maybe more dangerous to actually

always follow the rules, because all others have their own system. There is this

unwritten law that you shouldn’t pay attention to traffic rules but to other road users.

The moment other road users can’t anticipate my behaviour because I am doing it

different than a Chinese, it could get dangerous for me.

Regarding traffic, as Germans arrive in China it often seems to be very unclear what is allowed

and what is not because it seems like a majority does not follow the rules. Many Germans told

me about problems from the beginning of their stay where they did not know how to behave in

certain situations and just copied the Chinese behaviour. They felt it was dangerous or “weird” to

actually follow the official rules because nobody did. Over the time this changes and people

recognise rules beside the official rules and also assess official norms in more detail. Very

similar to my findings regarding social norms, this development can be seen as a process. When

arriving in China, Germans most likely find themselves in the observer position, trying to

conceive their environment by simply observing it. It is a passive position in which for example

traffic rules are only observed from the pedestrian or passenger’s angle. Over the time this might

change and people actively take part in Chinese traffic, explore new areas of the city and

encounter new traffic situations. These new experiences very often make them realise there are

rules beside the actual official rules that are followed by a majority of road users. Furthermore,

people get a better feeling for what official rules are followed and which are maybe replaced by

an unofficial rule as well as when official rules are better be obeyed and when not necessarily.

As mobility is hard to be analysed among the three groups, it is hard to make any suggestions for

different development path. For example, while observers in general are less of an explorer type

and rather stay in their familiar environment, they very often have a company car or own other

transportations they can use. Regarding traffic, many traditional observers adapted very fast and

  56
even praise the benefits of the Chinese traffic system, while adapters and innovators were still

very afraid of “unpredictable situations”.

Once understanding the relationship of official and unwritten traffic rules in China, many people

start to adapt to them - even when breaking them. Similar to social norms, where the participants

slowly understood the subtleties of certain social norms and adapted ways to avoid them,

regarding official norms people also find ways to cope with situations where they break the law

and got caught. Official and unofficial rules as well as their loopholes need to be understood in

its complexity. Hans, who gives workshops for mechanics in Beijing, told me about his

experience at a traffic control.

As a foreigner you’re lucky. They don’t want your mafan [trouble, stress]. Most

policemen don’t speak English. […] If they see there is a foreigner on the bike they

wave you through. You don’t have to blow [for the alcohol test]. Just watch out

they’re not in a group. If they are in a group, they catch you. Try to get checked by the

policemen who is standing alone. If they’re in a group, they feel they have to check

you.

Even though Hans did not break the law in this case, his description shows how Germans in

China find ways to circumvent certain official norms by adapting to the local circumstances.

Following his explanation, Chinese policemen do not want to check foreigners because it is too

much effort. But once policemen are in a group, the group controls its individual members,

which makes the group to control the foreigner. Similar examples were given when participants

had to hand over their driver’s licence to the authorities due to repeated traffic law violation and

also found ways to avoid their penalties. Different to the cases regarding social norms, these

  57
loopholes were often learned from other foreigners or own experiences, as many of these

loopholes do not work for Chinese people. After eight years of riding his motorbike and

numerous traffic controls, Hans found his loophole described before mainly through own

experiences in different controls. Almost all participants, regardless their group, had a story like

Hans, where they knew of loopholes how to avoid certain rules and regulations. “Special

treatment” and a “foreigner bonus” are common pictures among German migrants in China and

clearly influence their perception of official norms.

Reasons for adaption

Similar to the experience with social norms, many Germans feel it takes more effort, extra time

or costs to not adapt to these unwritten rules. It is seen as a disadvantage to follow the official

norms properly, so many people adapt here and discard their old behaviours. Statements like “if I

actually follow all requirements, I won’t get my licence in ten years” or “don’t even try to do

what they want from you, this will never lead to anything” are common among German migrants

in China. Justified by the feeling that most people do not follow the rules, many Germans take

the easier (less effort, cheaper, faster) path and adapt to illegal practices. This feeling is even

strengthened by participants’ experience of Chinese authorities being incapable in dealing with

foreigners. Regardless the group, many of my interviewees reported on cases where Chinese

authorities could not speak English or forms where only set up for Chinese claimants. Similar to

the findings from Zhu and Price (2013) about the complaints from Africans in Guangzhou, in my

sample many Germans were unsatisfied with the basic infrastructure of certain authorities in

China and even if they wanted to follow the rules they could not. Even for adapters and

innovators this situation is not considerably better because even though most of them speak

Chinese, sometimes the authorities infrastructure is only made for Chinese. One participant told

me of an example where she had to fill out a form on which one could only fill in a Chinese ID
  58
number, that is different to German passport ID numbers. I generally got the feeling that these

experiences strengthen a feeling of resignation among many Germans. As many people do not

feel good in breaking the law day in day out, even if they try to follow rules properly it is

physically impossible.

Another similarity to the perception of social norms is a feeling of exclusion. As many

participants sometimes follow the rules according to the written law, they often get negative

feedback from their friends or people surrounding them. Many interviewees were telling me of

examples where he or she was looked at weirdly when waiting for the traffic light to turn green

or the like. “Did you again make a fool of yourself for your honesty?”, once the answer of one

participant’s wife when he tried to follow a certain regulation as wished by the officials. As

breaking certain rules and laws is common in Chinese society, people who try to do it differently

sometimes seem to have an outsider position. Like in the social norms section it seems like

adaption is seen a way to integration.

Unpredictable rules

But perceptions change if rules become vague and hard to assess. As all rules described before

follow a certain scheme and are transparent in their individual way, many rules and laws seem to

be not. This puts many migrants into a dilemma, as they do not know how to handle these

circumstances. Even though some traffic rules were mainly not obeyed, people could rely on the

unwritten rules instead. With other rules changing from case to case, many Germans seek for a

different solution. Sören told me about his experience at work and transparency of Chinese laws

and regulations in general.

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 I can’t read it, I can’t understand it. But even if I try to get information from the

internet – no – there is nothing. The laws here, I often deal with authorities, that’s

really difficult. You always have regional differences, different interpretation of

things. Not transparent at all. There are some mayor regulations you can find. But if it

goes into details, it’s all very shallow, I can’t understand this. […] You have to accept

it, these regional differences. And then you have to handle it in their region. Before I

had a different approach, it made me really angry. […] Then you have some authority

in you office saying this and that is wrong. My approach was always I first want to see

the legal foundation for that, why he is bothering us with this. And if he’s right, if it’s

actually his right to get this information, how is he going to get the information. I was

fighting for this a lot, actually I still do it, it’s still my demand. But today it is more

like it becomes a bilateral thing, an agency is included and somehow there is a

conclusion. That annoys me, that costs a lot of energy and time. I would like to have a

general regulation so we could have a better process.

Sören’s example is a common case of how people here try to rely and follow the laws and

regulations but get thrown back again once they realise there is no reliable order they could

follow. Here especially observers find it difficult to cope with these situations and only adapt in

so far as they seek for help. Adapters and especially innovators more try to prepare for certain

situations or take them like they are. Many interviewees told me about how they became more

patient in China and now see problems more relaxed than in Germany. Even though many

adapters here always expect complications to emerge, if an actual problem arises, many

participants stated they do not get upset and try to immediately force a result like they would do

in Germany. “Problems sometimes are being solved themselves overnight” was a common

phrase among participants who had been in China for a comparatively long time. While in

  60
Germany there is the perception of “every problem has an answer”, many Germans here feel

there is sometimes no answer to every problem and in the end it still will be solved.

Luisa put her perception of official norms into a different context, saying this derives from

Chinese laws are not being developed on a democratic consent.

[in Germany] there is the current law, current regulations. You feel you have to follow

them, because they are build on democratic consents. You would never expect any

arbitrariness. If you don’t agree to a certain rule or law you would complain in

Germany and maybe even get involved in changing it. I don’t think people would just

pragmatically seek for a solution without any feelings.

[…]

Sometimes you need to do things that are kind of contradictory, where you have to

look for a solution. In Germany I would have had the feeling I needed to persuade the

authority [I am dealing with] that this regulation is contradictive and ask for a solution.

I would never think of trying to fiddle at work or so. I would say there is a

contradiction, how can we solve this? Here you sometimes have the feeling nobody

cares about this contradiction. Even the people at the office don’t think about it. And

then you start thinking I need this [paper] from the authority which I can only get if I

have a certain stamp on another paper. To get this paper I need to get a signature from

this authority first though. A clear contradiction. So here I know of many cases where

we solved it in buying an own stamp and stamp it ourselves. Because at some point

you don’t know what to do to solve the problem. In Germany I wouldn’t do it. There

this would cause even bigger problems. I wouldn’t do it too much here either, but
  61
 sometimes you need to look for own solutions. Very often there is no way to do it

properly.

Both her examples show how many Germans in China have difficulties following the law

properly. In the first case it seems many rules and regulations aren’t transparent, neither

accessible for foreigners without speaking Chinese. Furthermore, many people see a

contradiction in certain rules and have no other choice than finding an own - often illegal -

solution. While many Germans say they would try to point on these deficits in Germany and

maybe even try to change them, in China they feel “nobody cares”. As many of the participants

felt rules and laws were not always made for the people or under a “democratic consent”, a big

part did not see the necessity in following certain rules. Once rules were seen as not useful or

without any benefit for the people, many Germans seem to portray this on official norms in

general and begin to develop a feeling of suspiciousness towards rules and regulations in China.

This attitude might be even fostered by feelings of superiority and a teaching mentality among

many Germans. In many interviews I had the feeling many people were judging over Chinese

laws and rules as “stupid”, or an “easy extra income for the police”. China was described as in

transition and “law enforcement needed time in all developed countries”. As almost all

participants could tell me stories about “useless laws” nobody followed, Chinese laws in general

were seen as arbitrary and only enforced if there was a benefit for the monitoring authority.

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Other General Findings

In the following I listed up general findings during my interviews that do not exactly fit into the

findings displayed in the two subchapters before. All findings could have been researched in

more detail but were not included before for simplicity reasons. The following list should more

be seen as comments and observations I did during my research. In all cases further research

needs to be done to give a more profound conclusion.

Comparison with Gelfand et al

Contrary to findings from Gelfand et al. (2011) it seems German migrants (mainly observers)

perceive Chinese society as more loose than Germany regarding social norms. The comparative

study showed a higher tightness for mainland China (7.9) than for both former East (7.5) and

West-Germany (6.5). Even though results for Germany and China are very close, observers’

perception showed a feeling of a particular more loose Chinese norm structure. Even when

separating participants from former East and West Germany in my sample results do not change

significantly. As Gelfand et al conducted their study with only local people within each country

it further shows how migrants and host society perceive norms differently. Reasons for this are

complex and need further research. Furthermore, I do not see Gelfand et al.’s work as generally

applicable for my work because of its generality in data. (see also debate in literature section)

Language is most crucial

It seems Chinese language is the most crucial factor in the process of understanding Chinese

social norms. As many German migrants had been living in China for more than five years and

had comparatively much interaction with the host society, participants who did not speak

  63
Chinese mostly still did not recognise Chinese norms and their subtleties. These people had

significant more contact points with the host society than observers, but still did not show the

same results like migrants with a good command in Chinese. It seems their interaction with

mostly English or German speaking Chinese does not have the same effect like interactions in

Chinese language.

No significant differences between the four field cities

Even though the German expatriate communities of Shanghai and Beijing, and Chengdu and

Qingdao are very different, it seemed this did not have a bigger impact on the perceptions of

Chinese norms. It seems that even cities like Chengdu and Qingdao, whose internationalisation

just recently gained momentum, in some parts already supply an international surrounding very

similar to Shanghai and Beijing. This is even fostered if migrants mostly stay in the most

international parts of these cities. Even though interaction with the host society might be more

likely in Chengdu and Qingdao than Beijing or Shanghai, still its difference is too small to have

an impact on my results. All four cities had the infrastructure for German immigrants to have a

minimum interaction with the host society. Only reports of visits or work engagements in

smaller, less internationalized cities showed differences in the participants’ perceptions.

Unfortunately these experiences were rare among my sample and need to be explored in more

detail.

No significant differences for Germans compared to other western foreigners

Being German in China was mostly received as very positive. Especially participants from

Qingdao told me of their positive feedback once they told local people they were from Germany.

Even though Germany’s colonial rule in China’s Kiautschou Bay was not totally pacific,
  64
especially younger people from Qingdao receive this time as very positive for Qingdao’s general

development (see also Mühlhahn 2000). Nevertheless, my interviews and own experiences

showed me there was no significant different treatment or perception of the host society for

Germans in particular. It seems like Germans in China belong to the group of white western

foreigners who are generally received very positive. From my own experience I can tell that the

biggest part of Chinese people cannot distinguish between different western foreigners from their

appearance.

Normative Adaption Categories need a more detailed approach

Different categories of German migrants are highly intertwined and cannot be taken

independently. While these categories give a good guidance about participants’ perceptions of

Chinese norms, there were many exceptions that showed converse results. For example, even

though observers’ interaction with the host society was generally very limited, in some areas like

business dinners or traffic, they showed high interactivity with the host society. One the other

hand, some adapters and innovators who generally interact comparatively much with the host

society, in some areas were completely in an outsider position in which they showed typical

observer perceptions. In general one can say the degree of German migrants’ interaction with the

Chinese host society highly varies in context. These findings show a need for more nuanced

categorisations of different German migrant types.

  65
5. Conclusion

With interviewing Germans on their perceptions of social and official norms in four Chinese

cities I developed three broad main findings for this study.

First, the recognition and understanding of Chinese social and official norms must be seen as a

process. While most Germans come here as observers, who mainly perceive their environment

by observation and feel there are almost no social norms for them, a big part of them slowly

moves out of this position. Over the time German migrants reach out of their familiar mostly

western surroundings, start to learn Chinese and interact more with the host society. While doing

so people make sense of their new environment and begin to recognise Chinese social and

official norms. In a second step expatriates learn to deal with these norms and obey or even use

them for their advantage. However, the degree of German migrants’ interaction with the Chinese

host society highly varies in context and therefore calls for a more nuanced categorisation within

the different groups I used. Furthermore, this process is highly influenced by external factors that

can hardly be assessed by immigrants. Being observer, adapter or innovator is just partly

influenced by the immigrant himself as external factors like their living environment, means of

transportation and income are crucial for one’s interaction with the host society.

Second, social norms in work life seem to be more predominant from the beginning and are

therefore very often misunderstood by new migrants in China. Here time and a closer relation

with colleagues and supervisors seem to be crucial factors in earning acceptance when not

following social norms. Furthermore, various examples showed that overambitious carefulness

regarding social norms lead to misunderstandings and dissatisfaction among the migrants. Very

  66
often orders by superiors were seen as social norms from the new migrants. Culture trainings

before migration seems to foster this trend in some cases.

Third, many migrants see adaptation as the best way to get integrated into Chinese society as

well as to position oneself properly. This process of extensive assimilation and still staying

oneself takes time and can also be seen as a process. Another crucial factor for migrants’ feeling

of acceptance in society seems to be having Chinese friends, even though these friends mostly

seem to have an international background.

Some of these findings can be used for policy implications to adjust to the increasing influx of

foreign migrants in China. While misunderstanding or overlooking of norms in China, only in

very few cases showed bigger obvious problems, subliminal consequences are large. Germans

living completely excluded from the Chinese society and not recognising social and official

norms lead to problems in relations between individual from both countries. Policy makers,

companies as well as other researchers can use these findings to further apply to their policies,

business plans or research respectively. The high presence of external factors for migrants’ paths

of normative adaption give huge room for intervention and possibilities for policy makers and

companies to intervene. As Chinese is full of infrastructural barriers fostering the segregation of

foreigners and China need for improvement is huge. Besides, individual factors like language

proficiency can also be fostered by these two groups of people and call for a rethinking. But also

companies can learn from these findings as many of my results were influenced by the work

environment of the immigrants in Germany and in China. While business expatriates count for

about half of the total German population in China and many of these individuals can be

categorised as observers, intervention especially in this group is important.

  67
These findings as well as the general findings listed in the section before need further research.

As my research only focussed on Germans in China, who are generally perceived as western

immigrants, comparative research on other groups of foreigners as well as similar studies in

other countries would have a high value. Furthermore, even though my research showed no

significant differences between the four cities analysed, different interviews showed other

findings for less international cities in China. As here normative structures seem to be more tight

than in Chinese bigger cities and foreigners are still very rare, I suppose results to be different in

these areas. Also it would be interesting to take a closer look on the Chinese side and more

observe how Chinese people receive the local social norms especially if having contact to

foreigners. All my interviews showed only German perspectives and did not research the people

who apply the normative structure by nature. I also only had a very limited sample, which made

it hard to develop a more nuanced categorisation of the different normative adaption groups.

Overlapping and exceptions showed a need for further more detailed categories. But these

categories need focus group research, which can only be done with larger samples.

  68
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