Recently a mini-documentary called Rent-a-Foreigner was
published by The New York Times, which shows typical foreigners living in China
attending a promotional event in order to spur sales for a high-end housing
development in Chongqing.
I had known about the value a foreign person had outside
their own country since my first time abroad, and had especially understood the
power that a white American male could have.
You are can be treated as a guest of honor in homes and an expert in
anything subject which comes up in conversation. Foreign English teachers make several times
more than what a local English teacher would make, despite often holding no
training on educational methods. It
doesn’t matter; it is only the face that matters.
It was shortly after the making of this documentary, about
two months ago, that I accepted a couple of offers to actually be a “Rent-a-Foreigner.” Here is my story.
Jilin City, Jilin Province, China
 |
| Pimp hotel room to sleep in ... alone :( |
Karl told me that he was looking for people to help give
product introductions. I am interested
in renewable energy technology, so I gave him my contact information. We exchanged a few emails, and met several
weeks later at a coffee shop. Karl told
me the plan:
“We will go to Jilin province and you will give a small
presentation to demonstrate the technology.”
He handed me a few sheets of paper with powerpoint slides on
them. They were the most basic slides
imaginable, just a few sentences at most about the company, a German firm.
“We will leave at night, then have two meetings during the
day, then return the next day. We will
pay for your meals, hotel and travel, as well as give you a salary. We can pay double your current salary.”
I told him my salary was 200 RMB per hour. After a bit of negotiation, we settled on
4,500 RMB (about $725). He gave me 1,000
RMB up front, smiling and saying “now we have a deal.”
A few days later we met at the airport and took a flight to
Jilin, a province in the north. It was
still cold there. Another colleague
joined, then a network of dealers. We
ate dinner and Karl explained that I was a marketing director from the company
here on business to help sell the product.
They poured me baijiu (白酒- literally white alcohol, but in effect a very strong rice liquor), put interesting food on my plate,
and then proceeded to talk business in Chinese.
Karl had specifically instructed me not to let on that I speak Chinese.
It occurred to me that the guanxi (关系 – the relationship culture in China) culture is quite
involved. I always imagined it being
just two people having a “you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours” sort of
relationship, but it involves multiple people, many drinks and cigarettes and
lots of agreement.
We checked into a five-star hotel. Chinese style, it had a large, open lobby and
one of those giant revolving doors with fake flowers inside, and the room was
quite modern.
The next day we went to meetings at a Chinese power
company. I introduced the company in
English to a group of Chinese engineers and Karl translated. The product we introduced was said to improve
efficiency in turbines. They seemed
satisfied. In the afternoon we went to a
different branch of the same company and did the same thing. Karl was happy. On the way to the airport he passed me an
envelope containing the remainder of the payment.
 |
| The flight back. It was cancelled and rescheduled for the morning. |
Yet as I sat there going through the motions, a curiosity tugged at my mind: do the customers know that I am just window dressing? And if so, do they care?
