As an Asian journalist working in a Chinese newsroom, I am often left in limbo, not quite fitting into the American/Australian/British expatriate crowd, and not quite part of the Chinese editors' clique. It is a voluntary isolation that allows me an objective view of the changes that seem to have taken place overnight in the last five years.

It is both an enlightening experience and a unique education.

Not so long ago, any native English speaker who could string together a sentence could hire himself out as an editor or language teacher in China and earn the price of an air ticket home. Not any more.