Dear little-sparrow:
You wrote that you are a professional and deserve respect. I think you deserve respect regardless of being a professional or a skilled worker or any person at all, Chinese or not. I hope that you show respect to others regardless of whether he/ she is Chinese or not, professional or not. Do you? If you show more respect to a person who holds a professional job than you do to a person who sweeps the streets- than you are guilty of the same thing you are complaining about. Focus on your behavior and correct it- you do have control over that. Then worry about others’ and figure out if and what you can do about that…
anita

Dear little-sparrow:
So you think that maybe older people in China that you come across have been disrespecting you because they think that you are in China illegally? And/ or because they may think you are there without a job or doing a dob that is not helping people? Maybe. It is likely in my mind, if you observe that those people act differently with Chinese people/ their peers of national origin- that they disrespect you because you are not Chinese. That may be the only reason. Maybe the younger people are more tolerant of non-Chinese because they have a wider persepective in some ways because of television, movies, internet, a wider experience with people of other nationalities and a greater acceptance of differences.

In that case, it would be irrelevant how you are dressed and what job you do, or not do- you may be of the “wrong” nationality/ genetics. Then there is nothing at all you can do to change their behavior, only the way you deal with it, not taking it personally.

If it is too distressing, maybe do what you can to leave China.

Or maybe you can ask one of the younger people there:what is the deal with the older folks and look for advice as to how to deal with it..Maybe you can learn something in Chinese that you can say when disrespected- something that at least will make you feel better for standing up to yourself?
anita