If indeed Blue is a local, could u blame him for thinking many laowai were miserable in Kunming given the huge amount of negativity shown on these boards?

This thread so annoying, don't think any miserable foreigner stays in china, they go home! If you see/hear a miserable foreigner then give him/her a break, he's just having a bad day like we all have! If we in our own country surrounded by family or friends or we in Kunming, we all have bloody BAD days!!!

@Dazzer, so, the majority of Westerners who are in China and are all teaching/tutoring English are here because it's a casual choice?

casual choice? no. those who are too casual in life and can't gtet a job at home are too casual to get off thier asses to go overseas. i think the majority are here by active choice. i also think the majority are not bar flies, there are teachers here who are involved with some kind of career developmment and no everyone here is a teacher. many in kunming are long termers.

btw is you are an laowai and you sign up to the 'all expats are losers back home' philosohy. well if the cap fits you wear it mate, but i ain't

They're suffering from culture shock, most likely.

Personally, I wonder why unhappy Americans stay in the USA. My years in China have been the happiest of my life! I hope to spend the rest of my life here.

Yeah, in the US the phrase 'the Old Country' has been common for a long time - meaning the country where one previously lived and from which one came to the US, as an immigrant. China is much less a country of immigrants, of course, and visa regulations make problems for those coming here - but one might adapt the same mentality.
Or not - your choice, but 'home' is a word with a floating definition.

@Dazzer. "another pissing contest", and then you're always the protagonist in pissing contests...maybe you're lucky, you should have a lot of spare time.
I was analyzing the differences in laowai's behavior in different part of China. In my experience i found more assholes-laowai here than in big cities. This let me think.

@Alien,
My mother referred to England as home for 22 years. She finally got to go back for a holiday. On her return to Canada she said "England is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there any more". She never called it home after that time. I think we adapt to where we live - sometimes without realizing it.