'We're happy that Eddy is Irish. He won't need a visa'

Dr Chaosheng Zhang and his wife came to Ireland for work. They're happy to stay but will move on if necessary, reports Kathy Sheridan.

In a new Ireland more accustomed to solemn young Asians hunched over tills, manning discount stores and petrol stations and lashing out fast food at unsocial hours while generating fat profits for the English-language schools and their Chinese agents, Dr Chaosheng and Diane Dongxia Zhang hardly fit the stereotype.

Chaosheng was a fully fledged profes- sor of geography backin Beijing,with a speciality in computer-generated maps and environmental pollution.Diane was an English lecturer before going to work for the Holiday Inn hotel chain and the Nestlé company.

She always wanted to live in an Eng- lish-speaking country,and they had travelled widely before arriving in Galway: a year in Sweden, two months in Australia, a contract in Jamaica. The Jamaican contract was attractive, a three- year one,renewable, but the Zhangs are very clear in their objectives.

"Jamaica was a developing country but not a place we wanted to stay for a long time.However,we really enjoyed our time there,especially the sunshine and coconut water." Ireland wasn’t on their radar at all.

"I never thought of coming to Ireland," says Chaosheng. "I got offers from the US, Sweden and Ireland. The Sweden and Ireland offers were for permanent posts,and it was the language and the job that decided it for us in the end." But,just to be sure, he checked Ireland out on the Internet.

"From that I knew that Ireland was not the best of the EU countries but that it had a growth rate of 9 to 10 per cent. And we wanted that same feeling of growth that there is in China.

"The price to be paid was that the job, in the geography department at University College Galway, was for a lecturer. Three and a half years later he remains optimistic about promotion. In the meantime Diane has used the time to do a masters in information technology as well as producing Eddy, an Irish baby brother for their first son, Leran.

Their attitude to Eddy’s national ity is pragmatic."We ’re happy that Eddy is Irish. He won ’t have to have a visa, and that will be very convenient."

School for Leran was in Claddagh initially, but then an Educate Together multidenominational school opened nearer home, in Newcastle, and a six- month spell on the waiting list turned out to be well worth it.

"We only moved Leran because it was closer, but it’s a new school building with excellent facilities, and Leran loves it so much.On Saturday night he’s already thinking of going back to school," says Diane. Leran happens to be a mathematical and computer genius.

The Chinese and Irish education systems have their pros and cons."The teachers are much more friendly and less strict here than in China. Students are afraid of the teachers there, and school hours are much longer, from 7.30 a.m.to 5 p.m., though that can be good for childcare, of course. Here children learn less and are more creative. In China they have to learn a lot to pass entrance exams."

An unexpected upside of moving schools is that Diane finds the parents more outgoing there and has made friends among the mothers. The subject of friends is one that rears its head more than once. One aspect of Ireland that struck them immediately – ironically, given the feverish debates about immigration – was its "generally monocultural" state. The upshot is that, although they have Irish friends and good colleagues and neighbours, they have few like-minded Chinese peers. And they would love some, ideally from the academic field. But the choice is thin, with only a handful, they reckon, scattered between Dublin, Limerick and Cork.

Does it bother them to see so many of their compatriots almost single-handedly manning the tills and tables in the low-paid service industry? "No, it doesn’t bother us," says Chaosheng mildly.

"They’re young,only about 20 years old. They are usually the only child in the family, and very spoiled at home, and this allows them to get some independence. "They ’re also getting experience which will allow them to get much better jobs when they go back," he says, noting that Diane’s fluency in English enabled her to earn five times the local rates, because she got work with international companies paying international salaries.

They also argue, interestingly, not only that many of the Asian students in Ireland are not necessarily the brightest of their generation but also that they’re here mainly because it was easier to get visas for Ireland than for their first choices, the US or the UK.

"Getting in to university in China is very competitive. So many of the Chinese students here couldn’t get in to a Chinese university for that reason." And Chinese universities cost. They estimate the fees at between €500 and €1,000 a year, "which is a lot when you know that the average salary in Beijing is only €300 to €400 a month. It is really a good opportunity and business for the language schools and third-level colleges here in Ireland to attract more Chinese students, and both sides get the benefit from that. This is a win-win co-operation between the two coun- tries ".

The couple were taken aback when they arrived to find that the immigration rules prevented Diane, as the accompanying spouse, from taking up employment.

"Now that has changed, thanks to the Filipino nurses," says Chaosheng. "That’s a major step. Ireland is changing. "He thinks the Government should go further. "I have a permanent job, but I have to renew my work permit every year and our visa. This country should welcome people like us: there should be a system like the American green card."

Part of the reason Diane was anxious to work, no doubt, was that other aspect of Irish life that struck them immediately and forcibly. Not the weather, which is actually better than in Chaosheng’s home town, in Sichuan, but the prices.

"Dining out in China is very cheap. Here everything, like CDs, is 10 times more expensive. Meat is about five times more expensive." And they miss the food. What passes for Chinese food here bears no relation to the cuisine in Sichuan. They cook using ingredients from the Chinese supermarkets that have sprung up, added to the remains of Diane’s booty of dried foods, brought back,along with some traditional herbal medicines, from her annual two-month vacations in Beijing with Leran.

"I’m good at shredded chilli pork," says Chaosheng, adding that he never buys cheese or butter, because they are not part of the Chinese diet. But there are signs of developing Irish tastes in the Zhang household. Diane’s forays in to Western-style cooking have given Leran a taste for mashed potato.

"He loves it," she says. There are other portents of change. Although China Central TV, from Beijing, is constantly on their screens, courtesy of Sky Digital, Leran shows a definite preference for English sounds. Like many immigrants, he can speak his parents’ native language; reading and writing are the problems. In any event, they seem happy enough to stay for the foreseeable future.

"We’ll stay for as long as the family is happy," says Chaosheng. "Ireland is only a day’s trip from China," says Diane.

With the Chinese newspaper the People’s Daily arriving regularly by post, via the Chinese embassy, the family keeps up to date with Chinese affairs. Chinese magazines,dispatched from the embassy to the Chinese Student Union in Galway, also provide some diversion for Diane.

"We can also watch the latest Chinese movies. The director of the educational section at the embassy comes here and plays them for the Chinese students and scholars about twice a year. And I have to find a big classroom from our university. That’s my pleasure, of course. I hope they keep doing that."

Tomorrow: The Congolese community

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