China Seeking White Males, No Experience Needed

My brother did a DJ gig out in Beijing last year. The owner of the club offered him a job to stay out there and work at the club for 70k a year. He turned it down as he said he couldn't imagine living in China, especially not speaking Chinese. He had to carry a pen and pad around drawing pictures of the Mcdonalds arches and KFC signs, just so he could get a normal meal out there. It's a long way from home too.

Some of you sound completely rediculous. Although my experience in Taiwan on business may have been a "fall guy" type of scenario. So that one was kinda funny to hear.

Anyways, I'll get on with the story.

I'm a caucasian/white guy with a Japanese name that can't speak hardly any Chinese. I have visited mainland P.R.C 8 times. One stay was nearly 30 days long. I also LIVED in Taiwan R.O.C. for nearly 5 months, and have visited that country over 15 times. (ALL trips were business)

Did you know the average person in China loves his life, loves his country and very much loves his fellow countrymen?

You can claim all the propaganda blah you wish, but the simple fact is that YOU are far more propagandized than they are.

YES, I want to die in Taiwan or China. Either one will do fine. I grew up in North Los Angeles, Ventura County, The best climate in the entire world in my experiences. I still will go there to live, and eventually die.

If they are looking for people like me. Tamen Zhou!! (lets go)

To edit my own post.... I do believe the story of the person reporting, but we have those types of things in the west too. Have you ever seen a Loreal or Revlon commerical? You get Cindy Crawford to sell your product, and even FAT women will buy it. The white guy is probably a figurehead, being used to promote western sales to the other attendees (possible prospective business partners) YES ITS A PLOY, A well thought out one. So is all advertisment in life, A PLOY..... The guy may have had the easiest job in his life, and he ridicules it. Sounds like an IDIOT to me.

Now you tell me why Lebron James deserves 27 million a year when people are dying of starvation right here in our own neighborhoods.

LOOK IN THE MIRROR.. yes, it's the same everywhere.. it has nothing to do with China, or China politics.

[edit on 27-6-2010 by sticky]

[edit on 27-6-2010 by sticky]

Originally posted by Firefly_
Being paid $1000 a week for doing nothing, while in the same country and for the same companies there are workers slaving for next to nothing. It ceases to amaze me what people get up to. What happened to ethics?

You haven't heard?

It's the age of greed?

Africans are starving while others are dying from being too fat.

Hey world, haven't you heard, it's the ager of greed?

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
Guys, do you want to laugh your arse off?

The global collapse explained, why america is so powerful and china's involvment!

Seriously the above video explains it all.

So as far as this "white males wanted" in china, expect to see more of that.
This is only the beggining.

Star for you and that little video. America owned by China huh, that sure was a shocker for me

Originally posted by mobiusmale
It is odd that on one hand they like to have a foreigner around to show off...like a status symbol of some kind...but on the other hand they have just about no respect for Westerners, firm in their belief that they are superior to us.

Our cultures couldnt be more different and it seems there has always been an undercurrent of mistrust - on both sides.

I once worked with a girl who asked the cook of the local Chinese restaurant to translate her name into Chinese cause she wanted it tattooed on her foot. He provided her with the appropriate symbols.

I always thought it was odd that you would be able to translate an English name into Chinese and i wondered if the translation was genuine.

I suspected the cook of having a laugh at her expense, but why not, thats what i would have done!

I have done the same type thing in the US.

One time I was a bodyguard/muscle/goon in a suit for some one that wanted to look important for someone from a company in japan.
I had a head set hooked up to a radio and the fun part was watching everyone try to come up with who i was talking to.(no one)

Another time i was a mining engineer for a client/investor(a PI) checking to see if a mining operation was run by a promoter or legit.(it was not)

People see what they want to and will see what they think they see.

Its use all the time.

I will bet these Chinese also are looking for westerners that understand foreign languages.
These people will stand around and act like they don't understand what others are saying. then report to the Chinese just what was said.

The joke is if the Chinese think there tricks work with Americans they are in for a surprise.
The Americans will ask a few question to the quality control guy and know its a show. but they will never let on to the Chinese that they know its a show.

"Am I the white man for the job?"

Oh, this is too funny. This has happened to me before, but I did not know this practice of placing white, fake employees in a company was so rampant in China. Although I should have known - because business in China is like a never-ending train wreck.

Here's my brush with the high-powered, exciting world of the fake executive:

One day someone called me up and asked if I wanted to pretend to be a spokesperson for a pet food company. A weekend in Shanghai, all expenses paid.

Since I am the type of under-achiever that likes to turn down work - even when it's 'fake' work - I politely declined.

Just so you know - China IS the twilight zone.

Originally posted by mobiusmale
While attending to business in China I was asked, by a recruiting Company, if I would be able to help them recruit other Westerners that I know for weekend work doing promotions.

I wasn't able to get much of a straight answer as to what these people would have to do, so I suggested that I attend one of their event to see what happens. They told me they had something coming up that would require a Western male of about my age group. So I agreed.

I asked what I would need to do, and was told "nothing" just stand around in a suit and be "western".

On the appointed day, I was picked up by a van and was driven to the gig along with four young and attractive female westerners. Once there, we went to a Hotel and sat around for about half an hour. We were then picked up by a convoy of black Audis and BMWs and driven to the real venue.

I was surprised to find that I was seated, in the car, next to the CEO of a Chinese company that has about 400 stores across the country. I was asked to behave as though we were old friends and business associates when we arrived...and, oh by the way, I was going to be asked to say a few words.

We arrived at a new retail location for this Company, part of a French franchise...and before I knew what was happening I had to give a speech to about 100 people - pretending to be the President of this Company who had flown in from France for the occassion.

I did my speech in English...nobody understood a word I said anyway.

Needless to say, after that ambush I had no further dealing with this promotion company - but this type of thing is apparently quite common.

The long-term "expats" in China call this White Monkey work

OMG, you have me dying here.

That has to be the funniest thing i have ever heard. Really. That story has to be told at every family function or watercooler meeting you have.

This is the most bizarre thing, but i must say i am not surprised. China, and the oriental portion of the asian culture, is very strange. Japan and China in particular do some very strange things.

Gotta marvel at how calculating China is . Fools who go after this cheese will sadly be disappointed in due time . Those behind this in China understand the importance that males serve in a society . They did write the book about war after all. Some members of the Chinese government must giggle them selves senseless at night imagining how silly and immature the people in the west are .

[edit on 27-6-2010 by OpusMarkII]

[edit on 27-6-2010 by OpusMarkII]

reply to post by univac500


Hmm. I doubt your story, to be honest, and feel like I should balance things up here a bit.

You got a call from whom? No Self-respecting Chinese company would ever, ever, EVER, call some random in the US to represent them, let alone an unemployed random, who has a history of turning work down and is not motivated. There's plenty enough riff-raff lao-wei in China, no need to fly a random in from the US. Unless of course, your call was from a US company who doesn't have any connections, or Guanxi, in China.

And mark my words, the so-called 'monkey' element in China in so far as white-boys with no experience, is not rampant at all. It is minute...as in mine-ute.

Most companies round the world, irrespective of nationality, have a habit of making a good appearance in public. Ever been to a trade show, in the US, UK or Europe? Hate to tell you, but all those chicks at the booths are not full time employees. Nope. Casual or temp workers, hired for the week.

So, while there is truth to the OP's post, it is in no means symptomatic of business in general in China. Chinese are much smarter than that - especially when it comes to business - so, while the 'monkey' element may happen from time to time, it is not a staple of business in China. Too easy to see through the ruse.

What happens when the new client, 'impressed' with said foreigner, starts doing business with the company, only to learn said company has had to let the poor lao wei 'go'? Or, once they start up business relations, they ask any single person in the company about such and such lao wei?

Point being, it is not rampant at all. It is a practice done throughout the world, but in no more a rampant way in China than it is done in the UK, Europe, Australia or the US.

Chinese

quality control

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA



Wait...what was that? They're serious?



WAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

China has this HUGE productive capacity, and internet websites for every raw material or component you can imagine. They spend BILLIONS of dollars on english-language web presence for marketing.

Now, as a supply source person, try to buy any of it in the West.

They don't use Paypal. They don't take Visa. There are no click to buy buttons or International shipping through postal options.

You can't buy it. Not direct, from manufacturer.

I end up using JIT manufacturing or distributor sourcing for anything they sell. It costs more, but I can actually ORDER and BUY stuff from Misumi or McMaster that arrives on the shipping dock with A CLICK OF A BUTTON.

This money they are WASTING on corporate gigolos should be spent on Paypal buttons and postal customs clerks.

Taking advantage of the Chinese will backfire on you in the long run.

Show respect, and don't be a gigolo.

reply to post by joyride0187


For a $1000 a gig I'd actually do some qc for them, someone has to show them what the concept is all about.

Originally posted by Firefly_
Being paid $1000 a week for doing nothing, while in the same country and for the same companies there are workers slaving for next to nothing. It ceases to amaze me what people get up to. What happened to ethics?

Just the way of the world

Sink or swim...

Less money than i make now for about the same effort. No thanks. Have fun in China!!!

Originally posted by joyride0187

Rent a White Guy

www.theatlantic.com

Not long ago I was offered work as a quality-control expert with an American company in China I’d never heard of. No experience necessary—which was good, because I had none. I’d be paid $1,000 for a week, put up in a fancy hotel, and wined and dined in Dongying, an industrial city in Shandong province I’d also never heard of. The only requirements were a fair complexion and a suit.

“I call these things ‘White Guy in a Tie’ events,” a Canadian friend of a friend named Jake told me during the recruitment pitch he gave me in Beijing, where I live. “Basically, you put on a suit, shake some hands, and make some money. We’ll be in ‘quality control,’ but nobody’s gonna be doing any quality control. You in?”

I was.

And so I became a fake businessman in China, an often lucrative gig for underworked expatriates here. One friend, an American who works in film, was paid to represent a Canadian company and give a speech espousing a low-carbon future. Another was flown to Shanghai to act as a seasonal-gifts buyer. Recruiting fake businessmen is one way to create the image—particularly, the image of connection—that Chinese companies crave. My Chinese-language tutor, at first aghast about how much we were getting paid, put it this way: “Having foreigners in nice suits gives the company face.”

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 25-6-2010 by joyride0187]

[edit on 25-6-2010 by joyride0187]

[edit on 25-6-2010 by joyride0187]

Originally posted by cloudbreak
reply to post by univac500

 

Hmm. I doubt your story, to be honest, and feel like I should balance things up here a bit.

You got a call from whom? No Self-respecting Chinese company would ever, ever, EVER, call some random in the US to represent them, let alone an unemployed random, who has a history of turning work down and is not motivated.

Sorry, I should have been more clear.

1) I live in China.

2) There are no self-respecting Chinese companies.

3) I am not highly motivated to work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, like the average Chinese office slave. I turn down work all the time.

Any more questions?

reply to post by univac500


Yeah maybe it would have helped were it a bit clearer – I got the impression when you said you didn’t know this practice was so rampant in China, that someone wanted to fly you in from overseas for a fake gig.

When the reality is there is no need for this, and is way unlikely to happen.
As you’d know laowai are a dime a dozen in China, and are increasingly starting to work for a pittance as well as far as I can tell.

I was disagreeing with the general trend in the thread that somehow this practice was rampant in China (when in fact it is not), and for every time it does happen to happen, it can and does just as easily happen in any country the world. In other words, it’s not a China-specific thing. I may have seemed a bit unduly rude to you, sorry, when in fact this was the point I was trying to make.

Don’t fully agree though that there aren’t self-respecting Chinese companies around, I know of plenty. Know of plenty of dodgy ones too, but that’s besides the point.

reply to post by cloudbreak


Until this ATS thread I had not known much about this 'hire the white guy for the fake job' phenomenon - aside from my own personal experience.

I guess I don't get out of the house much.

Now...just for conversational sake...while there may be companies that 'respect themselves'...I don't believe there is a single Chinese company, from the largest State Owned Enterprise to the Guy Who Fixes My Bike on the streetcorner, that is NOT corrupt.

Originally posted by poet1b


They wouldn't be able to hold you responsible for anything.

Who cares if they can hold you responsible for anything. In China, they execute managers who perform badly!

On a more serious note, take notice how the economic powers are willing and skilled at dressing people up in suits and paying them to pretend to be things they are not.

And remember that when you cast your next ballot.

reply to post by univac500


That's a big call about corruption, and is not my experience. What makes you claim that, and how do you know they are corrupt? Or maybe you are talking cultural differences in conducting business, like bartering and not having a consistent, set price for things? Or are you talking about fapiao and the issuing of official reciepts?

Sorry I couldn't fully agree on this one. Yes I have come across alot of dodgy pricks, and on a business level, but at the same time once you weed out the dodgy ones, I know of many decent companies who stick to their word, give a fair deal, and have a degree of self-respect.