I know I'm not the guy you responded to, but I'm sort of in the same boat as you and I'd like to put in my two cents.

But yeah, I realize that China is probably at best going to be a sports team I'm cheering on.

I think we can be more optimistic than that. The Chinese people are not xenophobic by nature, but their generosity and magnanimity have been horribly abused. When China was still desperately poor and opened its doors to outsiders, it welcomed them, showed them gracious hospitality, and shared what little it had with them.

What did it get in return? Well, the gamut ranges from open scorn and derision to the much worse and more hurtful patronizing condescension. Can you blame China today for being a little bit leery? For ethnic Chinese it's not quite the same, that's more, "Oh, you bailed out when times were tough, huh? Now look who's back when things are looking up!"

I may be being idealistic, but I like to think that the current xenophobia (and it's not even really that) is just a phase that China's going through as it's jockeying for position. Once China is established, the people's generous and welcoming spirit will shine through once again.

Plenty of Mainlanders post here, I hope they'll let me know if I'm full of shit.

My Mandarin skills are still rudimentary and in the unlikely scenario I find a job there, I don't think I'll ever be socially accepted by Mainlanders.

China won't complete the rejuvenation tomorrow -- there's plenty of time to sharpen up the Mandarin (and I could definitely use that myself). And if we're a little bit excluded -- hey, it's nothing worse than what we already face in the West.