Cody,
You’d be wasting a great deal of time and energy making it to a US Major than moving on to an Asian carrier (btw, you make it sound like getting to a US Major is an easy thing, it isn’t). No you will not be viewed any different if you started at one and then returned. In fact it would probably make you look worse since you quit a perfectly good US carrier to go to Asia and then returned after you didn’t like it. If you want to fly for an Asian carrier than that’s what you should do (and no there are no language requirements) but yes it is VERY different than flying in the US. I’m with Hawaiian and a good number of our pilots are former JAL, Korean Air, Cathay and ANA. I’ve yet to hear anything positive regarding any of them. I also have a few friends working in China and yes it’s worse over there. No unions and therefore no protections. Pilots get fined for mistakes or violations and I know pilots who were literally brought to tears during training. I recently flew with a former Korean Air pilot who said he quit simply because he couldn’t handle the stress the airline put on him. He lived in constant fear of termination.
Your call and yes I can see the allure as I love flying to Asia but I’d do it as a US pilot.
Adam