Technical writing in China?

Subject: Technical writing in China?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 16:23:04 -0500


Bonnie Granat wondered: <<Companies such as ZTE, in Shenzhen, China, employ English-speaking technical writers. Would any US technical writer on this list, if the technical writing climate in the US got very inhospitable, consider moving there to work?>>

How about a Canadian? <g> I spent a couple weeks in China back in 2002 as part of an international delegation, and loved it. Since then, I've been corresponding regularly with several people, and doing a lot of editing work for Chinese researchers. In my experience both then and now, the people are wonderful. Of course, the Chinese are every bit as human as we are, which means they have their unpleasant characters too.

With a very few exceptions, nobody there has heard of technical communication and those who have (again, with some exceptions) don't really understand our profession. If you're pondering a move to China, read through all the "I don't get no respect" messages in the techwr-l archives and put yourself in that frame of mind. You can certainly earn respect there, just as you can here, but you won't get it for your profession alone, even if you do good work.

You'll need to learn a lot about Chinese etiquette--which can be quite tricky--if you hope to fit in well. Scott Seligman's "Chinese business etiquette" is a good primer, though it's a bit more formally polite than you may find people to be. In my experience, people were charmed (and often astounded! <g>) by my overly formal politeness, and I didn't make any major faux pas, but I was always excruciatingly careful because of some horror stories I've heard. Westerners do get considerable tolerance, but that only carries you so far.

Would I move there semi-permanently? No, though I'd happily spend a month. China is a Very Different Place, and much though I loved my time there, I'm not sure I'd want to abandon Canada (a country I love). If you're pondering this, read a lot about the culture. For example, culture shock strikes many people quite hard after they've spent enough time there. I found the book "Dear Alice: letters home from American teachers learning to live in China" (P.L. Thompson, 1998, Univ. Calif. Press) to be a good primer.

<<If prosperity means freedom, and freedom means peace, does helping other countries become more prosperous become something that you might consider doing?>>

I'm a firm believer in the principle that international peace and understanding is far too important to leave to the politicians. But I have little faith that prosperity equates to freedom or that freedom equates to peace; these pairs can certainly coexist, but the relationship is not obviously causal. Since that latter statement leads rapidly into heated political disagreement, I'll be happy to leave it at that and hope that we can keep the communication on this topic related to the first point Bonnie raised, namely technical communication.

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Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com
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