Chinese code farmers in Silicon Valley: Homesickness, India's three brothers and return to business

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Sina Science and Technology Zheng

There is a big China supermarket in the main city of Silicon Valley. This is a supermarket chain in China, the supermarket is usually surrounded by a circle of Chinese restaurants. The sight of the Red Ranch 99 signifies the arrival of the Chinese major gathering place. Entering Silicon Valley's Dahua supermarket and its surrounding restaurants, if you see a young Chinese man wearing a T-shirt and wearing glasses, it is a ten-way programmer and engineer in a major technology company. They also represent the Chinese power of Silicon Valley, the global innovation Mecca. (The work of programmers and engineers is different, this article refers to the Chinese science and technology elite in Silicon Valley.) )

There is no telling how many Chinese yards are in Silicon Valley. But in the major technology companies, Chinese programmers have become a force to be reckoned with. Whether it's a veteran giant like Google, Apple, Cisco, or a powerhouse like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, Chinese employees are everywhere. They are also one of the leading foreign employees in the major technology companies, some of which have exceeded 10% per cent.

Despite the increasing number of people, the life circle of Chinese code farmers is not big indeed. If you're in Silicon Valley at a party in China's yards, even friends who meet for the first time can talk to each other, and you'll find that both sides may have been looking at Facebook and LinkedIn, or at least a few common friends. Two more words, perhaps each other will find incredibly still alumni, have roughly the same life experience.

The Bay Area of California has always been a major gathering place for Chinese, but the common language of old immigrants is Cantonese. The new immigrants, represented by Chinese code farmers, are more from other parts of the mainland. The Chinese code farmers, who can come to Silicon Valley, are almost the most talented computer professionals. Their life experiences are similar: After graduating from a top university in China, they came to work for a master's or Ph. D. In the famous schools in the United States.

When it comes to universities in China, they may come from prestigious universities such as Tsinghua, Peking University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University, Wu, Bupt, and universities in the United States, and they may graduate from Stanford, Berkeley, Mellon, USC and other top universities. The computer elites who graduate from China's top universities, like the world's technology elites, gather in Silicon Valley's technology companies to contribute their own power to technological innovation.

After years of living in the United States, Chinese farmers got their green cards and then got through the year of naturalization. But regardless of nationality, they represent Silicon Valley's Chinese technology talent. Many successful Chinese science and technology elites also help the next generation of Silicon Valley Chinese technology people through various means.

The elite of the code farmers: Robin Li, etc.

In terms of time, the emergence of a large number of Chinese computer elites in Silicon Valley began in the late 90. Until now, Silicon Valley's technology companies had barely seen much of the Chinese, but as the mainland opened, more and more elite students came to study in the United States. After their studies, they did not return home, and for various reasons chose to come to Silicon Valley, in Intel, Cisco and other established technology companies began their careers.

Among the group of Chinese computer elites, there are many outstanding people who have left their mark on Silicon Valley. In the late 90, some of their Silicon Valley ventures have made a legendary Chinese in Silicon Valley, and some have returned to business as a leading figure in China's internet industry, and some continue to struggle to become top Chinese executives in technology giants. Whichever path it chooses, the Chinese programmers who are now over the age of 45 are the most legendary generation in the history of China's Internet and technology.

In that generation of Silicon Valley Chinese entrepreneurs, Harper, Xie and others are undoubtedly the most successful. Harper and Xie, the founder of the network security company NetScreen, in 2001, the United States, the successful launch of the scientific and technological downturn, and in 2004, 4 billion U.S. dollars by the network equipment giant Juniper acquisition. This amount is still a record for the Silicon Valley Chinese start-up company. After being acquired by Juniper, Harper, who got huge sums of money, started a career as an investor and founded the Northern Lights venture. Northern Lights investment projects include red children, exhibition technology, Lily Nets, Zhuhai torch power and other companies. Xie, the founder of his own network security equipment company Flying Tower (Fortinet), and successfully listed in 2009. The current value of the tower is close to 4 billion dollars.

The people who chose to return to their businesses laid the cornerstone of China's internet industry. Robin Li is undoubtedly one of the most successful home entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. In 1999, Robin Li, encouraged by his wife, bid farewell to the engineer position of InfoSeek, the Silicon Valley search company, and returned home to create Baidu. Now Baidu is China's largest internet search company, with a market capitalisation of $54 billion trillion, and Li was once the richest man in China.

And the most prominent representatives of the generation of Chinese technology elites who have chosen to work for the tech giants are Lurkey, Microsoft's global executive vice president. Lurkey, who has worked for IBM, Yahoo and Microsoft, is also the highest-ranking Chinese in the U.S. technology giant. Also one of the top executives in tech giants is Xu Liangje, Sina's co-president, who was the first Chinese global vice-president for ebay and Cisco, and was hailed as "the pride of Silicon Valley Chinese" by former Vice President Al Gore.

The topic of ridicule: three brothers in India

After that, Chinese engineers and programmers appeared to have a power fault in Silicon Valley. Although there are a steady stream of Chinese people pouring into Silicon Valley every year, no Chinese have ever held a senior position in Silicon Valley's key technology companies. A large number of Chinese science and technology elites in technology giants seem to encounter an invisible ceiling, always stuck in the middle to the top of the promotion road.

Although Indians and Chinese have many similarities, Indians prefer to live in colonies. In areas such as Sunnyvale and Cupertino, where Indians gather, they can smell a sign of curry flavor as they enter the neighborhood. Although the proportion of Indians to the total population of Silicon Valley is only 6%, 15% of Silicon Valley technology companies are founded by Indians. India's software engineers, dubbed by the Chinese as "three elder brothers", have also become the subject of China's technological elite.

In Silicon Valley, China and India are the main sources of foreign staff for technology companies. When the Chinese are on the road to the ceiling, Indians seem to be in the wind of the development of Silicon Valley. One-third of Silicon Valley technology companies have an Indian-American executive and technical director, according to a 2012-year study by Berkeley University. Sanda Pichai Sundar Pichai, the joint executive of Android and Chrome, is one of Google's most powerful executives, and the most often heard in Google's press conference is the English pronunciation of Indian characteristics. Even in Silicon Valley, Microsoft chose Satia Nadra (Satya Nadella) as the new CEO.

Silicon Valley's Chinese programmers have a more complex attitude towards their powerful and rising Indian colleagues. When Chinese people get together, they also start to spit out all the bad workplace behavior of Indian engineers. "Love to the top of the work, in the office of the gang, repression of Chinese employees," these are typical features of the Indian tri-Gothic.

Speaking of the differences between Chinese and Indian programmers, a Chinese programmer who spent more than 10 years in Silicon Valley said directly, Indians are famous for their cliques, and to say that it is unity, they are accustomed to arch a person in charge, then cover all the Indians in the team, and recruit a large number of Indian compatriots to hinder the development of the Chinese people; And the Chinese may be used to fighting each other, without a group like Indians.

For that, Indian programmers say otherwise. Manish Arrola Maneesh Aurora, an Indian software programmer who once worked for Google, said that more and more Indian workers were holding positions in Silicon Valley technology companies, perhaps because Indians were more sociable and had more language advantages. Nisha Deo, an Indian PR Shah Dio, argues that there is no difference between Indian and Chinese employees in Intel's internal relationships.

Code Farmer's Silicon Valley life: healthy But boring

The conventional Silicon Valley includes the 100-kilometer strip from San Francisco to the San Jose. The north of Silicon Valley is the San Francisco Bay, and the south is the winding mountain range. This strip includes San Mateo, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Kings View, Sunnyvale, Cuputino, Santa Clara, San Jose. San Francisco and the smaller cities have almost all the technology companies, and they have attracted all the Chinese programmers and engineers in Silicon Valley.

Their daily activities are the company and the home, rushing around 101, 280, 237 and 880 of the main thoroughfares in Silicon Valley. Although it does not take morning and evening to punch in, the main roads of 101 and 237 are no less congested than the four loops in Beijing during the rush hour. The most congested rush to work is the 101-speed exit to Google's headquarters, while at the end of the day, from Kings view to San Jose Airport, the 20-minute journey would have even been a one-hour gamble. Chinese code farmers dubbed this commute "Fight 101".

There is no doubt that living in Silicon Valley is a lot more attractive than living in a big city in China. Although the Silicon Valley PM 2.5 index is hovering between 20-40 and a year, it is a relatively poor air quality region in the United States, but compared with recent years in Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities in the haze days, here almost every day is sunny and blue sky white clouds. Living in the sun-strong Silicon Valley, sunglasses are essential equipment. Every year from April to October, Silicon Valley almost rarely rains, the distant slopes are almost yellow, only to the winter rainy season will be green grass oil, showing the classic Windows XP desktop scene.

The California Bay Area, where the Chinese are gathered, and New York and Los Angeles are among the most densely populated areas of American restaurants. Many Chinese restaurants set up around China's supermarkets are also the main venues for Chinese programmers. When the sun sets, the program workers will rush home, while the single farmers will meet at the Chinese restaurant. Every new Chinese restaurant is almost always in the life circle of China's code farmers. Because at night the Silicon Valley, in addition to Palo Alto Stanford University near, there is little leisure entertainment, in addition to watching movies seems to be only the gym exercise.

After a busy week, Chinese farmers usually choose to have an outing on weekends. Drive or north to the wine-producing Napa, or south to the sea-view town of Carmel, or east to Yosemite National Park, or west to route 1th overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Go into nature, climb the mountain to see the sea chat to become the main leisure way. They often laugh at themselves "foreign life is good mountain good water is boring, domestic is dirty and disorderly and carefree."

The troubles of marriage: getting married and buying a house

To get married in Silicon Valley, Chinese programmers have to face the trouble. Silicon Valley's standard of living is one of the highest in the United States, especially housing costs. Now in Silicon Valley, the monthly rent for a new apartment with one room and one hall is already at $2000 trillion-2500 dollars, while prices range from 40.5 million US dollars. Palo Alto and Kings View, with many technology companies, have also become the highest-priced cities in the Bay Area. The price of single-family homes here is basically more than 2 million dollars.

But in the case of Beijing and Shanghai, buying a house in Silicon Valley may be expensive, but it is not a distant dream. Can not afford to buy a single house, but also to live in an apartment, not to buy South Bay House, also can choose half an hour drive outside the East B. area. An apartment or a house, for Silicon Valley programmers, is just a few years ' income. Programmers in Silicon Valley's big tech companies start their annual salary around 80,000. After two or three years of work, the annual salary, including bonuses and dividends, usually reaches around 200,000 dollars.

But the most magical thing about Silicon Valley is the myth of wealth creation here. If you have a good eye, join a promising start-up, and you may become a millionaire if you meet a company that has been bought or listed. The dream of buying a house in Silicon Valley can be realized instantaneously. The listing of Facebook and Twitter has also brought rich equity wealth to many of its Chinese employees. Employees who joined Twitter before 2009 are now worth millions of dollars in stakes.

In contrast to buying a house, the problem of finding a target makes Chinese programmers more headache. Because in Silicon Valley, most Chinese men will find Chinese girls to marry. In the Silicon Valley where the technology elites converge, the proportion of male and female engineers in China is seriously maladjusted, presenting a "wolf more meat and less" situation. More disturbing is that many Chinese programmers have a smaller circle of life and have little contact with the opposite-sex compatriots. In such a case, two red beans such a dating site, not sincere do not disturb such activities in Silicon Valley by the Chinese single Code farmers widely welcomed.

Nostalgia for returning home: Focus on China's love of food

Although they have been abroad for many years, homesickness is still a lingering episode of Chinese programmers. It is a luxury for Chinese programmers to return to the Pacific Ocean and the limited annual holiday. Almost every person who wants to leave for home will be admired by the friends around China. Apple and other companies close to the Chinese business, the relevant positions of Chinese programmers will often return to travel, but also to the surrounding friends envy.

Food is the most common homesickness among Chinese programmers. They will be set on the Internet to watch "China on the tip of the tongue", to stimulate their taste buds, and then in the surrounding search for possible Chinese restaurants. Even though Silicon Valley is the most densely populated area of American Chinese restaurants, it is not possible to provide a complete home flavor for programmers from all over China. Homesick for their special food, they will even do their own to learn to do a variety of snacks.

Domestic film and television blockbuster, they will be through the video site to watch in time, for the gathering of small talk to provide funding. Occasionally, one or two Chinese films are released at AMC theaters in San Francisco and Cupertino, attracting a large number of Chinese programmers who have learned about the news. Eason Chan, May days, wanting and other Chinese singers to the Silicon Valley to open concerts, but also to the Chinese people in Silicon Valley excited abnormal. I remember last November, Eason Chan in San Francisco and San Jose concert, attracted almost all of the Silicon Valley Chinese attention, that night, their micro-trust friends circle by a round of Eason Chan concert brush screen.

Chinese programmers drifting abroad are also concerned about various domestic news. They used to learn about China's dynamics through the forum, and now they are learning about the news through Weibo (19.07,-0.48,-2.46%). If there is a disaster in the country, they will be sad. Domestic corruption cases, they will also be outraged. But relative to domestic netizens, these people in Silicon Valley Chinese programmers usually more peaceful, micro-blog speech is more rational, very few of the language of extreme abuse.

Entrepreneurial dream: Return to business or wait for a green card

Silicon Valley is a mecca for entrepreneurship and innovation. Like all the tech elites here, Chinese programmers have entrepreneurial dreams in their hearts. But compared with local talent, China's technology elite has more realistic problems-visas and green cards. That thin card is the biggest worry for many Silicon Valley Chinese. When to get a green card, can be free to start a business or return home, become their most desired realistic goal.

Returning to business is a common topic. Compared with more than 10 years ago, the difference between China and the United States is now significantly reduced. For Chinese programmers, it is easier to go back to China to start a venture and open up a huge market than the ceiling of Silicon Valley. More importantly, this is their original home. In a 2010 survey, nearly 80% of Chinese students in Silicon Valley considered returning to their businesses, most of them between 30 and 45 years of age.

In many Chinese programmers who aspire to start a business, the opportunity to start a business is more important than a green card. A Facebook Chinese employee told Sina technology that there is not much room for Facebook, and that it has always had the idea of returning to business, but has been weighing the various trade-offs. Life in Silicon Valley is very easy, the family is very happy, and the return business will face various changes. "But there is a good chance, I certainly still want to go home development." ”

But for future choices and family considerations, many Chinese programmers will wait until they get a green card (permanent Resident card) to consider a job-hopping or entrepreneurial choice. If the regular U.S. master's degree to work in Silicon Valley, take the EB2 channel to apply for green card, according to the current schedule also need to wait 4-5 years. And the return of entrepreneurship may also face family resistance. Giving children a better living environment is also an important factor in driving them to stay in the United States.

Another Chinese engineer working at Apple has no intention of returning home. "In the United States for many years, to return to the beginning of everything." Although I am also waiting for a green card, but I did not intend to return to the country, I have a wife and children, to plan for them. The future? I want to be the director level at Apple. Apple is not Google, Indians here do not have a clique of capital. ”