Are you back home now ?
Bet he was surprised you turned him down. A lot of expats would kill to be offered a uni job out of the blue. But that reinforces what was discussed earlier; social connections count for a lot. The Dean obviously liked you on a personal level and so offered you a job on the spot.
I don’t remember anything (though I understand what you wrote from French).
Singapore and HK yes, West depends (Anglophone yes, pay in France for example is the same as Taiwan), and China is fake news. Their pay is extremely low especially for young PhD grads like you. You can try it yourself though. Many are doing it because there’s no teaching jobs in Taiwan.
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Oh yeah, for a few years now.
C’est vraiment si grave que ça en France? Remuneration‘s not bad next door im Vaterland. Still, every time I’m tempted to feel resentful about what the other guy’s getting, I think of the poor Russian academics. I know one philologist and one physicist there, both brilliant, and both living on a pittance. Beats the gulag though
You’re correct that salaries for academics in mainland China are generally very low, barely enough to live on. But many universities there are willing to pay more, sometimes much more, to attract foreign graduates with research potential who have a strong record of overseas peer-reviewed papers and/or books. Obviously certain fields, such as certain types of engineering, are in particular demand. Taiwanese graduates of prestigious top 100 (however that’s defined) unis with a good publication record overseas would also be competitive for these better paid postdoc and faculty positions in mainland China. I might be wrong, but I doubt that a Taiwanese graduate with that kind of background (which the majority of local/returning international grads wouldn’t have) would have much difficulty getting some sort of a faculty position/postdoc in Taiwan (even if it was outside his or her area of specialty, for example a Taiwanese person with a PhD in History from the uni of Toronto teaching in the English department of a Taiwanese uni)
The downside is you have to live in China.
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China is bearable if you’re making a nice wage and you know you’ll be out of there eventually. But if you’re not making 2-3x the market wage of your current country I wouldn’t.
We’re living in China now.
I say that as a joke. Please don’t throw bottles at me.
Taiwan is the one topic I shouldn’t voice an opinion on, as I always end up saying something stupid and getting myself into trouble. So I’ll start with the disclaimer that what follows is based only on my personal experience, that my personal experience seems to differ from that of most people, and that my opinions about Taiwan may change in the future (it’s possible that I haven’t yet made enough of an effort to experience the more positive aspects of Taiwanese society). That said, I’ve lived and worked in China, and as a foreigner much preferred it to Taiwan (as I’ve experienced Taiwan up until now). China’s drawbacks – the inconsiderate behaviour in public, the corruption, the vulgar materialism, the almost psychopathic absence of a conscience – are obvious, but I feel they also exist in Taiwan (only they’re not so in your face, which to me somehow makes it worse, though I know it shouldn’t). I was able to put up with these drawbacks in China for two reasons.
Firstly, many mainland Chinese people understand perfectly well the flaws that exist in their society. I met countless intelligent, cultivated, ethical mainland Chinese, and didn’t feel isolated. Taiwan, by contrast, gives me the impression of a “solitary flower in love with its own fragrance.” It’d be easier for me to put into perspective the problems I’ve encountered with Taiwanese culture (the widespread unethical and even criminal behavior I’ve seen among Taiwanese businessmen overseas, for instance) if Taiwanese society were less self-congratulatory.
Secondly, in China my status as a foreigner was not the impediment it is in Taiwan. I ran a business, employed staff, signed contracts in my own name, rented things, did banking, etc. Anyone doing business in a big city in China is going to have all kinds of “interesting” problems to deal with whether they’re foreign or not, and my life in China was especially “interesting.” Nevertheless, I was able to deal with all difficulties without being unduly hampered by my status as a foreigner. The most obvious difference here relates to language. No one ever spoke English to me in China (once they knew I spoke Chinese) unless it was specifically to practice English. Speaking Chinese wasn’t even an issue. But in Taiwan, with its misguided emphasis on English, just being able to communicate effectively is sometimes a real problem. Sometimes even buying a coffee is a problem. If you can’t use nuanced speech to discuss complex issues, how can you do business, let alone engage in intellectual discussion? Or make friends, except at a superficial level?
China is a semi-totalitarian country with no freedom of speech, no academic freedom. In this respect, Taiwan is much, much better. Many people in mainland China see Taiwan, in this respect, as a symbol of hope. But I’m disappointment with what the Taiwanese people have made of these freedoms. I’m not sure Apple Daily is much of an improvement over the People’s Daily. At least the propaganda in the latter is relatively well-written…. Ok I’ll stop now before I get more bottles thrown at me…
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I don’t think anything you said was unfair or unfounded about either country. I can totally see where you’re coming from.
However after just moving. I miss Taiwan so much.
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#Me too, (nothing to do with inappropriate behavior in Hollywood)
Same in any country though, they do their own weird shit in their own weird way. I try no keep my own compass.
Oh yea, thats the goood stuff
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It’s not grave. The salary starts at around 2000 EUR, which is the same what an assistant professor gets in Taiwan.
They won’t get a faculty position or postdoc in Taiwan because there’s no vacancy. Why would there be? It’s a mature market, not a young one. A position at NTU for example would have hundreds of applicants. That’s why many Taiwanese PhD grads only make like 20 to 40k (in TWD) in China as a lecturer/assistant professor, and many are still stuck with what a first year assistant professor would get in Taiwan after years.
But the cost of living’s higher in France… for example cost of buying fashionable fringues… no lecturing in flip-flops, shorts and singlet à la taïwanaise over there
And yet there’s still a steady supply of advertised academic positions in Taiwan. Take Academia Sinica’s postdoc program, for example. There’s a substantial biannual intake of postdocs in all fields, with a 38 percent acceptance rate in the most recent intake. So lots of Taiwanese people getting jobs there. The publications record of postdocs isn’t available online, but the academic credentials of faculty at Academia Sincia, NTU, and other universities is available online. If, as you say, an assistant professor position at NTU would have hundreds of applicants, then the fact that such weak candidates (based on publications record) are getting jobs is strange. Why so many faculty with books from notorious vanity presses like VDM Verlag Dr. Müller? If one peer reviewed paper and one co-authored article in a peer-reviewed publication (in a field not directly related to the position) is enough to land a job in the Humanities at NTU, then what about the unsuccessful candidates? No stronger candidates among the failed hundreds? None with monographs with respectable publishers? None with more expensive publications record? None with a single publication in the relevant discipline ? Or are there much stronger Taiwanese candidates not being selected because of corruption?
As for the low-paid Taiwanese arts/humanities profs in China, this depends on (besides guanxi, unfortunately) their academic background. If they didn’t graduate from a foreign top 100 uni and don’t have a strong international publications record (a solid tenure book, say) then they’re not bringing much that the local Chinese universities don’t already have and so won’t be paid more
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The minimum wage per month is like 1500Euro, so like a waiter with no education is better off than a person with a PhD for years until they break even if you consider you can drop out and be a waiter and not spend years in school. Why would Anyone want to lose potential earnings when I’m at school, cost of school when they can just make min wage and be better off for a long long time.
This is not considered acceptable here.
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Bro…
“I value post hole digging more than a PhD”.
isn’t that what Phd stands for?
LOLS
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I note in passing that professionalism and a pleasant personality can make or break a job applicant in almost any field.
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Yeah. I’ve never seen any prof of lecturer dress like that.
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Are you sure? TAS wants qualifications from it’s teachers. Every friend of mine that has taught there had to first get qualified, not a TESL certificate, more like B Ed etc.
Absolutely certain. I work there with a doctorate and experience, but not a teaching certification.