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How I learned to stop worrying about my visa and love the 2008 Olympics
By Cindy Carter, published May 8, 9p.m.
Although this may be of limited interest for those of you not resident in China, the recent confusion over visa renewals has caused some consternation in our circles, the little campfires around which yours truly, and her fellow translators-in-arms, are bivouacked.
Here’s a post from Danwei.org related to the great summer 2008 visa kerfuffle: Visa, visa, where are you.
You might ask why, in light of these changes, we translators don’t simply find a related day job or link up with some corporate sponsor willing to support our endeavors. The answer: there is no such thing as a company dedicated to literary translation in China. Ditto for film translation. Translation companies, such as they are, offer rates that fall tragically short of a living wage (particularly for our Chinese colleagues; we Chinese-to-English translators are somewhat better off), and they tend to focus on technical, legal, medical or commercial translation.
Advertising companies pay handsomely, but who wants to spend four or five hours per day convincing the Chinese populace to buy more cars/smoke more cigarettes/consume more meat, imported or domestic? Wages aside, there’s a way to be a person, and a person’s got to sleep. Besides, after a decade or so of studying Chinese, wouldn’t our time be better spent translating authors and filmmakers such as Yan Lianke, Li Er, Wang Xiaobo, Wang Xiaoshuai, Tian Zhuangzhuang or Luo Yan, rather than salvaging cheap ad copy for Audi, Pepsi, Avon, Budweiser or Ford?
A far more common option is to cadge or chivvy a friend or colleague into putting one on the books as a foreign hire, the recipient of a coveted “Z” work visa. In the short-term, it seems an easy solution...but keep in mind the old adage about favors: “The most expensive things in China are free.”
The upshot of this diatribe is that, effective July 7 of 2008, I honestly don’t know where I’ll be.
Addendum: July 4, 2008
As it turns out, I did manage to renew my visa (for a princely sum) and am now legal and registered to live in China until September of 2008. By September or October of 2008, things should be back to normal.
Comments
Another option, which is working out well for me but won't be available to everyone, is to marry a Chinese person. I'm loving my brand-new 'visiting relatives' visa.
Being a Republic sure hasn't done much for our diplomatic situation.
Mildly related: I came back to Beijing from the US last night to find my apartment management people had installed a new 'safety policy', whereby all foreign-looking people have to writetheir name and apartment number on a little notebook every time they go in or out of the building. The warm embrace of the Olympic spirit is comforting, indeed.
Good luck, Cindy! Worst comes to worst, you can always do what the North Koreans do...
Eric, May 9, 7:15p.m.
I've heard that the marital visa regulations are in flux as well - is there any truth to this? Might just be a rumour, but it's causing a lot of discussion among Chinese friends married to expats and vice-versa. No one seems to know.
The new pre-Olympic "safety policies" call to mind the safety regulations enacted during the SARS scare. Our apartment complex (typical Chinese housing, nothing fancy) issued photo I.D. cards for all the residents, and we were required to display them upon entering the main gate. Of course, most everyone forgot to bring them when they went out, so the security guards spent most of their time arguing with people trying to get back in without their cards...
CIndy Carter, May 12, 2:14a.m.