A tale of two expats
economist.com
economist.com
Many of my friends went to study abroad (mostly US and UK) and hope to settle as long as they can like my uncle and aunt who had done the same thing 20 years ago.
About 2 years ago, I saw a change in tide where most of my friends (or friends of friends) were going back home. Most of them prefer to go back home because they would get a better job, which is normal for western educated young worker.
I went back home twice since 2009 and traveled in SE Asia a bit. I see why people wanted to go back: it's not just the job, it's the culture, the networks, friends, family. The whole package.
It's easy to "connect" with people who have big businesses there. Often you meet them in odd places like noodle shops, outdoor markets, food courts.
Night life is definitely better. By night-life I mean strolling down the Clarke Quay in Singapore, eat dinner outside style food court in Jakarta, or wandering around Ginza in Tokyo, enjoy Seafood in Jimbaran (Bali) mostly with your husband/wife and kids. Not necessarily means clubbing or bar. Thus better here is relative.
After a while, the fried chicken and the filet mignon became dry and tasteless to my wife and I. We've decided to pursue ways to go back to Asia starting this year. We'll see if we can go back there soon enough before our retirement (plan was to go back to retire).
(I don't have any political motivations here. I love my country. But I'm curious as to your perspective.)
US used to be a symbol of pride among SE Asia tourists: you have to visit US, smell the air, buy their bands, etc. These days, Japan and other exotic locations seem a lot more interesing.
It used to be working there is like some sort of symbol of success. These days, only IT and blue-collar workes who still want to go to US. The rest stay put.
There's not much of a 'lower middle' class, but there's a sizable 'upper middle' class. If you can get there, you can live very very well.
There's less foreign population than in Beijing (can't comment on Shanghai, some people like it more, some people less). I still get a lot of looks if I'm not in the 'heavily foreigner populated' sections, but you get used to it eventually.
Compared to Beijing, the air is much cleaner, the food much better and diverse, and the english ability is much much better.
Biggest problems: Learning chinese is hard, hot humid summer
Having said all of that... I have no interest in living in Mainland full time. The air is too dirty, the people are too rude, and the great firewall is too annoying.
As an American, I find the public service strikes in Europe pretty disconcerting as well. I don't know if there are major legal differences in the US, but it's much less common here.