Opinion | Fewer Westerners in China is bad for China — but worse for the West
- In a soft power shift, the West is losing its goodwill grass-roots influence in China while China’s influence grows
- More Chinese are going to the West to study and understand it – and returning
I’ve heard similar stories. One is from a former student. Decades ago, he briefly taught English in a remote area in Nepal and that also had a profound impact on his life. He admitted he was not qualified to teach, and thought at the time the area was so poor in so many ways that English seemed the last thing those students needed.
I also met English teachers in China many years ago, employed solely because they were from the West. They acknowledged they weren’t good at teaching but all loved the experience. Most did not plan to teach for long. After one or two years, they moved on to other places and careers.
For a long time, the West represented a superior culture in its scientific advancement, economic strength and enlightenment ideals. The English language has an undisputed dominance worldwide. All these factors enabled people like Dodwell to go to less developed places as volunteers or backpackers, take a temporary teaching job, and then move on, whereas the reverse is unimaginable.
Although only briefly, they embraced a tougher living environment, interacted with local people and made new friends. Whether they realised it or not, this sojourn made them goodwill grass-roots ambassadors of the West, bringing different concepts and cultural practices to people much less privileged.
