It's true that many Chinese students want to learn about Western culture particularly in relation to Britain and the USA. To many Chinese students, these countries are the land's of "milk and honey", and opportunity. It's also true that there are students who are actually taking English courses where the main focus is on Western culture.

What we need to realise, though, is that the objective of most English courses in China are simply to improve the student's English, and in non-cultural courses when students express a desire to learn about Western culture it's usually simply from a position of interest, rather than practical or economic reasons.

Earthling, you mention that 25% of your classes have to do with culture. While I don't doubt this, and do agree that is quite a large percentage, I also think that it is not typical of the amount of culture taught by most FTs in China. On average most teachers teach a lesser percentage and when they teach it, it is often for the sake of interest or inquisitiveness rather than anything else.

Even in cases where schools require FTs to teach "culture", it doesn't mean that all non-natives will find it difficult. Britain and America are among the most cosmopolitan countries on the Earth, with many non-natives having resided in these countries for a longer time than some native speakers who teach in China, have been born.

Another thing that would aid non-natives who have been residing in the West for a long time, is their business experience. Many from other countries who settle in the West invariably start their own businesses. Surely years of this experience would help when teaching business or finance classes in China or elsewhere. Here they would actually have an advantage over native-speakers insomuch that they would be able to relate to students who want to follow in their footsteps in studying or doing business in the West. If these non-natives have "been there" and "done that" so to speak, then they will have a huge amount of practical knowledge and experience that they can pass on to their students. They will be able to relate to their students in a way that few, if any, native-speakers could ever do!

Another plus that a non-native speaker has in teaching ESL, is that they have had to study English before they could teach it. So again they can relate to all the difficulties that their students have in learning English that native-speakers cannot.

Yes native-speakers are generally the first choice, when it comes to teaching ESL in China, and probably will be for quite some time. However, they are not the only choice and I can see signs now where Chinese schools are realizing this. As time goes on, more and more Chinese schools will realize, that in some important aspects, the well-qualified, English-proficient, non-native ESL teacher, often has more to offer than a native-speaker.