Rediscovering the ‘China spark’

Move out, move East, ditch the decaying West, strike it rich in happenin' China: These words have been ringing in my ears ever since fall 2007, when I first set foot on Beijing soil, and seem to have only gotten louder inside the echo chamber of young expats in this city. Professional options abound, money falls from the sky, everything is new and bustling - you'd be crazy to miss it.

Not to be a total contrarian, but I am going to have to buck the trend. Though I've valued every second of my time here and the opportunities this city has afforded, the magic has started to wear thin over the years. It's true that for most Westerners inured to the kind of staid, oil-painting communities of our youth, the sheer pace of change in China is intoxicating. Yet as the adventure slowly and gradually transforms into normal life, novelty becomes annoyance; stimulation, exhaustion.

But what else is out there? For all my weariness of Beijing, I am still wildly enamored of China - I find Chinese culture to be a fascinating counterpoint to the Western canon of my upbringing; my Putonghua skills have improved dramatically; I abhor the thought of a day without rice. For that reason, I've decided that my next destination is one that deserves much more chatter in all this talk of "rising China:" Taiwan, a small island with a large influence, and the place I intend to call home while enrolled in an advanced language program over the next year.

In a way, Taiwan is a microcosm of the larger Chinese mainland, as a number of its elements - its vibrant and diverse religious sector, its use of traditional characters, its preservation of a number of ancient cultural products - provide a direct link to Chinese history unaffected by developments on the mainland. For any foreign disciple here, indulging in these influences contribute to the development a well-rounded picture of China as a whole.

In a more tangible, day-to-day sense, Taiwan offers a respite from Beijing's mile-a-minute, go-go lifestyle. During my first-ever visit just a few months ago, these differences were rendered with stark clarity. At just about 2 million residents, Taipei could fit inside an entire Beijing district, with room to spare. Where Beijing often feels like one giant construction site, Taiwan has already got much of its infrastructure in place. Overall, the tempo of life serves far more to settle the pulse, rather than speed it up.

Yet it is perhaps due to this relative stability that Taiwan isn't nearly as large a magnet for intrepid Westerners as the Chinese mainland. Its arena of skilled, creative professions appears fairly saturated, and there's hardly the clamor of foreign companies banging on the door. I have yet to explore the job market for foreigners, but if teaching English is my only possible fodder, I may very well be hightailing it back here sooner than I think.