Ah, now more of the story comes forth. I do wish you'd have told the entire story in your first posting.

You were indeed duped, and used, didn't know about all the advertising being printed up and used to promote the school using your face.

Still doesn't change the fact, at least in my mind, that you really should have seen this coming long before it went so far.

As for the salary you requested, though you may be worth that amount, I don't think it was so realistic unless the school in question was an International school, a real International school. In such schools you can make even more than 20,000. Those are few and far between though.

Bottom line is that, I personally don't think you're expectations were realistic. Idealistic, certainly, fair, likely, on par with what is reasonable to expect in the current market? Not at all. You can indeed hold out for what you feel or know you are worth, and then end up not working much, if at all. If idealism is that important to you, and you can afford it, then I say more power to you. Most people coming here to work need to work, and can't afford such.

Not saying you should have accepted lower, in fact in your case you may have made the right decision. However let's not cast everyone in the same light, or illogically compare one situation to another. Most people don't have the luxury of such idealism, and in truth can only negotiate so much when the current market and saturation of said market by expats is taken into account. A person may indeed be worth what they think, but will they get it? That's the real question, and the truth is, you can't always get what you want, or are worth. That's just the reality of life. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try, but effort should be tempered with reason, not stubborness, and certainly not with idealism if one can not afford it. Pride can be a good thing, or a bad one, in this case, maybe a bit of both.

What I'm trying to say is, in China people need to have a more realistic view of the market, and what it is and is not willing to pay. When you have a dying economy in the west, and expats travelling here in droves to work, I think it might not be wise to pridefully cling to what you ideally believe yourself to be worth if it is unrealistic when one considers the situation at hand.

Personally I think you asked for too much given the reality of the current market and saturation here in China, I won't address the idealism that Turnoi has, as "ideally" I agree with much of what he said. Sadly this is not an ideal world, nor a very fair one, hence we rarely get what we want, however we do more often get what we need.

What you wanted was not realistic by my thinking considering the type of school, and the current market. It's a shame but realistically that's the truth. Did the school lose out, probably. Will they care, almost certainly not. Will they lose business and make even less money then if they had employed you, because the person they hired has less experience and ability? Very likely. That's the other problem here, short term profit over long term gain, something very common in China. Chinese and most working here a long time tend to only see what is right in front of them, not the long term consequences of their actions.

I wish you luck in your future endeavors, but you might want to relax a little on what seem to be conditions that are set in granite. If you do you'll find work a lot easier, and will certainly get what you need. Also, once you have your foot in the door, and prove yourself, Chinese will pay much more to keep you on, they don't pay much attention to resumes. Just the way it is here. Good luck.

I am Australian and I have worked most of my life outside of Oz. I prefer it this way. I have built schools in remote and economically poor lands that ironically burst with precious humanity. It is this precious humanity that draws me into these places. It is the learning of their languages, their ways of thinking and how they manage the earth. Imagine landing in an otherwise unoccupied place where there is no infrastructure and no intrusion of the US, the UN, China or Russia; just a few adventurers keen to help.
But after four decades I decided to move to China where my initial job was at a mere RMB5000 pm. My second job in China really awakened me to the avarice of Chinese in the academic sphere. It was not the laoshi but the 'leaders', that pathetic nomenclature for Communist Party Apparatchiks, who stole enrolment fees from poorly paid rural workers who together managed to send one of two lads from their impoverished village. This woke me up quickly.
After working as DOS in Oman and Bangladesh and China itself I decided that because I am working in China instead of Saudi Arabia or UAE [where salaries are higher than in China] I should not necessarily and automatically downgrade my salary expectations. The profit that franchises such as EF, Webb, Disney et al manage to extract from their businesses is indicative of how capitalism has gripped China by the throat. It has squeezed so hard that the Chinese have been mentally and spiritually starved of their own humanity. Why then should I help these creatures become more obscenely rich?
Rajesh Sehgal of Shaoxing International School contacted me. I didn't apply to run his school. He asked me what my salary expectations were. I told him. RMB20000 plus pre-paid airfares and decent accommodation plus insurance etc and all the things that should go with the job. It suited this charlatan to have me on his books, to be able to publicise my being school principal while he was inviting enrolment from all and sundry. He printed brochures with photos of me and my wife emblazoned brightly. Meanwhile, this surreptitious creep had engaged Gold Star Recruiting's Jim Altrans to advertise for someone else at a much cheaper salary [RMB12000pm] and only three days before my intended departure from Oz to Zhongguo, and after I had emailed him several times, did he enlighten me as to his staggering duplicity.
Age! Bullshit! I was in China earlier in the year, in the same province, with no age hassles to bar me from working on a Z visa.
Rajesh Sehgal cannot disguise his duplicitous nature nor can he hide from his shame.