BEIJING, CHINA– Give Yan Zhang (left) credit for honesty. You ask most expats about life in China and they talk up building bridges, mixing with the locals and their valuable expertise in building government contacts. When I asked Zhang about his expat life over breakfast he looked at me and said, “You do feel a little guilty about this life, because it can feel inauthentic.”

Inauthentic? Tell me more.

Twenty-nine year old Zhang, who has lived exactly half of his life in China, is a ringleader of a brat pack of smart, well-schooled Beijing expats working in everything from media to tech to education. I’ve twice run into him and a giant gang of friends in the Beijing nightlife scene. Said someone the last time, “Oh, everybody knows Yan.”

They genuinely work hard and most have studied in Asian history and Mandarin. What’s more these aren’t the expats of old with rich, corporate relocation packages. Most decided to move here first and figured out what they’d do second—even if many of them have family money that pays the bills in the meantime.

But many nights they al