One thing people need to consider before teaching in China is the phenomenon of the "Chinese boss." Don't think of a kindly, reasonable man in spectacles, though some may outwardly appear to be so. Think of someone who thinks he's infinitely above you in a rigidly stratified society, and who considers you inferior, or if he doesn't will still treat you as if you are. The boss is held in much higher esteem than in the West, and the gap between employer and employee is enormous in China.

If found myself working for someone who is younger, less educated, less traveled (really no comparison there since he's never traveled), and I dare say less clever or charismatic, but who nevertheless would try to treat me like a chump at any and every turn. It was a bit like a Kung Fu movie, where I got to be Bruce Lee (I appreciate the cultural irony here). I could predict the bosses next moves and effectively counter them, though it was a pain in the arse to do so and resulted in a continual state of stress. The boss lost every fight with me, including the final battle in which I quit, but managed to get all money due to me (despite his efforts to rip me off), and got a better job in the same city.

The overarching problem, other than just the typical corruption of bosses in China, was that he treated me just like he (mis)treats Chinese teachers who are often quite desperate for employment and at least initially before they ultimately quit grateful for the opportunity to work in a school. I didn't end up working for a crappy private school out of desperation, because I couldn't fin a job elsewhere. Rather, it was a deliberate and planned lifestyle choice to do with traveling, experiencing other cultures, and learning from teaching. I wasn't desperate, a chump, or in any way inferior to my boss. And yet, in his mindset, I must be inferior because I am a mere employee and his is my lord and master.

The jerkwad would even schedule monthly inspections of the substandard (for China) shithole of an apartment he put me in. He would brag about, "teach foreigner good habit."

As I said, I managed to extricate myself from the situation without taking any hits other than inconvenience (or from the bong while traveling afterward), and ultimately landed a MUCH better teaching position. But I learned of the danger of working for Chinese bosses, and I've seen it in more than one school and it also applies to the Chinese managers of schools as well. Hierarchy goes to people's heads here. They have no concept of your life in the West or wherever you've been and taught and traveled. You just magically appear in their world one day, little more than a hologram with no tangible reality for them, and they only recognize that you are technically in a subordinate position to them, and hence they only can see you through the dual lenses of manipulation and exploitation.

While it IS true that Western bosses here can be just as bad, taking advantage of the situation just as Western smokers might of lax smoking prohibitions to light up in restaurants without restraint, in general Western bosses heads aren't so far up their arses.

Beware the Chinese boss.