If you are born in the UK and you are a British national, why do you think you are Chinese ? Are you discriminating yourself ? 

why exactly you want to teach english in china anyways?

Just for travelling?

Save 3 month of your salary at home and you have more then enough than you would earn here in the whole year as a teacher.

If you are interested in living in china, you would be better of in finding a real job here. But you will always face the problem that they try to pay you like nationals.

I have a friend who found exactly the same problem. She's a Chinese national who lived in the UK for 10 years, spoke perfect English with a BBC accent and had become a British citizen so had the right passport. She couldn't find a decent paying job teaching ESL here as all the places she approached wanted to employ a Caucasian as that's what the students expected. 

Good of luck but it's going to be hard for you. 

You can't get around the discrimination. You'll have to realise that the Chinese are racist as f**k.  And as an added bonus for you, being a BBC, if you don't speak any Chinese, all you will hear everyday is, "Why don't you speak Chinese? You're Chinese so why don't you speak Chinese."  Or the equally as fun, "Why is your Chinese so bad?"

With a degree in business management, I would have guessed you don't plan to make a career out of teaching English. If this is true, coming to China to teach English isn't going to help you much is it? It will look pretty pointless on your CV when you head home and apply for a job in a totally unrelated sector.  

You would be better either taking dom87's advice and coming here to travel, teaching English somewhere else if you really have your heart set on teaching English abroad, or look for a job in China that's not English teaching. Granted the opportunities open to you might be pretty crap (probably only sales), but if you're just looking for a way to fund a year long holiday here then it doesn't really matter  much except the hours will be longer than English teaching.

I would say have a good hard think about what you plan to do with your life, your newly acquired degree, and why you want to come to China. If it's because you're Chinese, you might be hugely disappointed.   I don't want to put you off coming because you might love it, but seriously think about why you want to come to China and teach English if you have a degree in Business Management. I know you said "doing what I've always wanted to."  but that sounds pretty fake I'm afraid. Why did you do Business Management if you've always wanted to teach English abroad? Why not learn a foreign language?  You sound a bit confused to me.

Anyway, take my advice or don't, I don't really care. Black people have a hard time finding work here and you're pretty much in the same boat but worse because everyone will see your skin colour and say "I don't want my kid to learn English from a Chinese person. I want a real authentic white person."   Good luck and keep us posted.

To start with I would like to restate Xunliang's advice on thinking what you want to get out of your China experience and whether or not teaching would really be right for you. Have you travelled in China and seen the place on the ground so to speak? You also mention that you have a BA in Business management which would suggest a better career in sales or management than in teaching. 

If you do decide you want to teach English in China I should start by telling you to avoid agents and recruiters as much as you can. Most of these will try to cheat you if they ever do offer any positions. It is far better to contact employers directly and to get some form of teaching certificate (TEFL, TESOL, CELTA) so as to gain some credential with the better schools. Generally speaking the better schools tend to be public schools and colleges as well as international schools. 

When applying for jobs it is also important for you to say that you are not Chinese if you are a British national and want a job as a native English teacher. But to finish off, it would be better for you to think hard about what you want from your experience of China and whether or not this would best be served from teaching English. 

*edited*As Scan pointed out, the problem is with your mentality. That is the same mentality that exists in China. You think of yourself as'Chinese'. You are in fact British, that is the same attitude you will face in China, they will see you as Chinese and not as British.
This also highlights a serious growing problem in countries like Australia, UK, US and possibly Canada; we give out 'citizenship' way too damn easily. China may go too far, but they are on the right track.

Big cities, large schools and universities... although, as you said, you're lack of teaching experience will be a drawback.

Ain't it ironic.... that for the Chinese guy, they're going to impose the min 2 year bit a little more stringently?? And that the sort of jobs you'll be looking for won't cut those corners as easily.....

Also, advertise around the local community you're in that you can teach British Business English. Maybe do a session over the phone. Although, in those bigger cities, you should be able pick up customers easily.

My IELTS tutor is Asian, from Chinese parents, but she's a UK citizen and grew-up there. She's teaching English since decades, and she seems to do well. So it's possible ! She's a teacher in a UK university in China (Liverpool-Jiaotong in Suzhou), and she also do private classes. The discrimination because you're Asian, sadly, it's not the first time I hear this kind of stories. You gotta grow a thicker skin... Courage !

More than half the Chinese who graduate abroad don't come back, for various reasons.  The ones who do come back face stiff competition and, ironically, discrimination.   You would think that the Chinese would welcome one of "their own" who has made some accomplishment overseas but the fact is  Chinese society suffers from a case of self hate.  Not many of them will look beyond your skin and eyes.  A pity aint it?  But here is the good news.  Your creativity and wider range of thinking can get you somewhere here.

 Can you speak Chinese?  Do you have family here?  Pool your resources together and make your dream come true.  I don't like your last sentence.  Nobody can stop you from doing what you want to do except yourself.  Good luck and don't stay too long.

Most of the education institutions are Mickey Mouse teaching. They cater to racist expectations of parents, and care little for fairness or even education as long at the parents are happy. The parents really just want high points in exams, and a white monkey teacher for their kid to brag about in the tea house. You could try to convince parents that you *do* have what it takes to raise their kids' exam scores, but you'll be battling a huge wall of unthinking prejudice just for the "privilege" of teaching some rude government kids. It's really not worth the trouble.

If you're committed to education, look for more serious (often foreign) institutions in coastal cities. They'll sometimes hire Asians and blacks with equal salary, and you will be judged by your abilities. But competition and pressure for those coveted positions is fierce, so be sure you have what it takes.

This post is kind of funny, a Chinese person I know well told me a person from China that goes overseas for their education and then returns is called a sea turtle. A person of Chinese ancestry who is from another country and comes to China to work is called a banana (yellow on the outside and white on the inside).

Welcome Vincent

I have no doubt that you are and will suffer discrimination in China because of your ethnic background, but is this the real cause of your issues?

If you were really serious about being a teacher you would probably have done a teaching degree, then do your work experience, get a junior position in a UK school, then after a few years start applying to international schools abroad.  You know the schools I mean.... the really expensive ones...

As it stands at the moment, the top schools won't give you a job because you are not qualified or experienced enough. That makes sense. Would you apply for an English teaching job at Eton?

So, assuming that you want to do a year or two as an ESL dude in China, why not apply for a Q1 visa ( if you have any relatives here), come over and see what happens. Maybe do some "voluntary" work till you have the required experience. Once you have that you can apply to a teaching company who will put you through a TESOL and sponsor your Z visa.

Alternatively, put your trip off for a year until you have the experience.

It may just be that you have graduated just as the glory days of ESL teaching in China is coming to an end. If the Government stipulate experience and qualifications then you just have to play ball.  Of course employers will try to bend the rules for the " blonde haired blue eyed studs", but that just because they are marketable.  Or at least, that's what the school owners think.

Remember, you need the qualifications and experience to get the Z visa.  If being a teacher is what you want to do why cut corners from the very beginning of your career.

Good luck .

but you can get at least some teaching job in China..

I am not a native speaker just an Asian  still I was able to get a few good situations in Beijing.

My advice: try looking harder you will definitely be able to get a job at some place or another.. Don't expect 10000rmb the first day... you may succeed in getting atleast 6-7000

Or you can do some part time teaching by the hours

As Scandinavian said... why are you calling yourself a British-born Chinese, if you are British (assuming you are British, and not a person born in Britain, who immigrated to China, which it doesn't sound like)? If you are a British citizen, you are British, and not Chinese. If you're saying you are Chinese, then the recruiters aren't really interested, since they want English native speakers. If you are British, then just say you're British (you don't really see people talking about being German-born Americans, or Canadian-born French. If I went to Poland to work as a native speaker, and identified as an American-born Pole, I wouldn't expect to get hired, as they are looking for native English speakers).

The ideology that your race is tied to your nationality is the type of ethnic nationality prevalent here in China... not something that really should be perpetuated.

I know an American with Han ancestry, but he doesn't identify as Chinese, since he is American, and considers himself to be only American, as he is only American. He's had no trouble finding good paying work. The jobs you will be missing out on are the ones wanting someone who "looks foreign" (i.e. not yellow), regardless of actual nationality. You won't get to experience being objectified as a white foreign monkey... and honestly, you're not missing out on much there. 

If you really want to get the full China experience that all the non-yellow expats get, you can ask some friends to have their kids point at you and shout ethnic slurs regularly, tell you your kind doesn't belong in China, maybe even get taxis drive past you and pick up someone more "Chinese looking". 

Your own kind is racist against yourself and would choose a white or a black face over you anytime. That is not the fault of anyone but Chinese mentality. How does it feel?

Hi Vincent,

I'm going to be very blunt with you on this.

If you come here with no Chinese relatives based in the city where you want to teach It's going to be tough, especially if you identify yourself as Chinese and not British.

Also you are going to need to prepare yourself for face to face discrimination, Iv mentioned my own experiences in previous posts but here's one for example: I got in contact with the principal/owner of "Ladder Children's English School" Stella Ziying through this website 2 years ago, we organized an interview and when I got there she outright asked me where I came from despite already knowing that I am Australian, she replied "no, I think you are Chinese" I replied "I'm not" she then yelled "what are you then?" before verbally harassing me about my previous teaching experience. I offered to show my passport to her and she wasn't having any of it so I left abruptly.

It was the last time I applied for an English teaching position in Shanghai and honestly you are better off applying for a job in your own field of study, you don't want to be wasting a year teaching english when you could just get an internship here followed by full time work at a marketing firm, its much easier.