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Rent-a-Foreigner in China
- sly010 11y agoMy girlfriend took me to a club in her hometown in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Multiple times random people came over to shake my hand and congratulating me for - basically - being a foreigner. One guy told me "I will kill you", but then he told my girlfriend "Thats the only sentence I know in english and I don't know what does it mean".
- voidlogic 11y ago>"Thats the only sentence I know in english and I don't know what does it mean" I hope she told him... and his reaction?
- javindo 11y agoI had a very similar experience - I'm also quite fair due to Albinism which I think raised far more attention than the average white person over there! I had many people wanting to take their photograph with me, constant staring and quite a few girls approaching me on the street/subways/shops. One of the most endearing things was when somebody would try to test out their very limited knowledge of English on me at random, they'd often seem quite proud of themselves and I was always happy to oblige. (Incidentally my girlfriends home province is also Xinjiang!)
- dongchongyubing 11y agoI think you will have different experience in big city .
- fatihdonmez 11y agoAs a foreigner in Nanjing, I always get similar reactions from people. Especially night clubs are very friendly, free drinks, priority for vip and etc.
- seanmcdirmid 11y agoBeijing here. No stares anymore, not for a long time.
- jliechti1 11y agoBut if you take a 2 hour train ride to Shijiazhuang, you'll get stares all day. :) And for those that don't know, it's not a small city (urban population: 2.7 million, metro population: 4.7 million). I had some young kids there tell me I was the first westerner they had ever seen.
- yourapostasy 11y agoNot a small city by US/EU reckoning. There are 30+ cities in China with populations more than 2.7M in the urban area. That is an order of magnitude more than the US. The children in China grow up with a concept of scale that overshadows what we intuitively grasp in the US and EU (and most of the rest of the world, for that matter). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_China_by_population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_China_by_popu... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by...
- bzbarsky 11y agoComparing the "urban area" numbers is a bit misleading because the structure of cities is so different in different places (even in the US, where for example Chicago officially annexed various suburbs over time while Boston did not). If you look at the metro area numbers, Shijiazhuang is 26th in China according to your first link, with about 4M in its metro area (assuming "Built-Up area" is the metro area, of course; it's hard to tell from this Wikipedia page). Tehre are 12 more cities with 3M+ in the built-up area. For the US there seem to be 10 urban areas that are at 4M or more (see <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_areas> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_ar...). Obviously fewer than 26, but not an order of magnitude less. There are 14 urban areas with 3M or more people. More interesting would be to just flat-out compare list positions. #26 on the list of US cities by actual city population is Baltimore. On the urban area list it's San Antonio. Neither one is what one would consider small (nor large, of course).
- morpheous 11y agoThis: "One guy told me "I will kill you", but then he told my girlfriend "Thats the only sentence I know in english and I don't know what does it mean"." ROFL. You made my day ! :)
- PopsiclePete 11y agoThis reminds me of my time to the "Floating Markets" near Bangkok. Pure tourist trap. On one of the "islands", there's a group of Japanese (I think) tourists looking disinterested at various trinkets. My girlfriend and I instantly became the attraction. They approached us hurriedly, squeaking with excitement, took our pictures, had us pose for them, then they took turns posing with us, one by one or in groups while someone else was taking the picture and directing us. This went on for multiple rounds. It really, really made their day. To this day I'm not sure if they mistook us for celebrities or they were just excited to see white people in general. It was hilarious.
- restalis 11y agoI wonder, can one (such "international rented person") make a living out of such business?
- fredsted 11y agoVICE did a segment on it on their HBO show recently. The people in the segment definitely could, one got 2 offers a day. But noone knows how long it'll last.
- VLM 11y agoIts poorly documented but "everyone knows" that around the peak of the previous housing bubble, female models were hired to sunbathe at neighboring condo units during open houses. Hiring attractive people to make an area/company/whatever more attractive to increase sales commissions seems to correlate with bubble era operations. That would imply a relatively short lifetime for the business model.
- tormeh 11y agoThat's really clever. The same concept could probably be used for cars. You could probably stretch it a little further. If you're selling really expensive sports cars you could hire models to pause, stare and smile at the client during test drives around the neighbourhood. Manufacturing proof that "pretty women like men who own this" sounds like a winner, honestly.
- zhte415 11y agoTo an extent. It is mainly a source of income for those time rich but money poor. If a musician or dancer, two roles mentioned in the article, then making a living out of it is the definition of success! I've also met some non-dancers non-musicians that do it full time. But less misrepresentation, more connection to a career and as a consultant. For example, a chef that visits restaurants when they're opening; while not famous, gets his photo taken enjoying what he's doing.
- UweSchmidt 11y ago
- amolgupta 11y agoHard to read articles with autoplay views at workplace
- kbart 11y agoAgreed. [AUTOPLAY] tag would be nice.
- hiby007 11y agoSo basically using white people to increase the valuation of the project? I wonder if there is some data around this?
- wozniacki 11y agoLargely correct. Vice covered this recently [1]. Available on HBOGO [2] [1] Rent a White Guy: Sneak Peek (VICE on HBO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPW83Bzv-dA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPW83Bzv-dA [2] Egyptian Tomb Raiders & Rent a White Guy ( Season 3 Episode 8 ) http://www.hbo.com/#/vice/episodes/3/30-egyptian-tomb-raiders-and-rent-a-white-guy/synopsis.html http://www.hbo.com/#/vice/episodes/3/30-egyptian-tomb-raider...
- tegansnyder 11y agoThat Vice episode was really amusing.
- chkuendig 11y agoSee also the record of a model hired as a fake beauty queen to promote all kind of events in the provinces: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/life-as-a-fake-beauty-queen-in-small-town-china/382409/ http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/lif... “I’ve been Miss Brazil, Miss Poland, and Miss America, and I’m still pissed I was never Miss Canada,” Lora, a model from Toronto whom I met in Beijing, told me recently. “Some Polish girl got it instead.”
- ianstallings 11y agoDude, rent-a-foreigner is not the preferred nomenclature. Models that serve, please. Edit: I guess I'm supposed to have a serious response to this. Uhm, I don't have one. This is bat shit insane and should be mocked and laughed at. Not discussed and analyzed. Or better yet, how about we talk about how goddam offensive this is.
- clamprecht 11y agoHas the whole world gone crazy?
- kalleboo 11y agoWas it ever sane?
- tormeh 11y agoHow about hiring strippers for a funeral? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/24/china-to-citizens-stop-hiring-strippers-for-funerals/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/24... (the reason is that the funeral is regarded more as a goodbye party for the deceased than a mourning ceremony for the ones left behind)
- flockonus 11y agoAre you serious? It's just like "renting" a model for a day.
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- Aqwis 11y agoThe most odd and/or concerning thing here is that the buyers are naive enough to be fooled by a few white people standing around in otherwise empty buildings. I'm sure those random expats they rented aren't exactly top actors either.
- clamprecht 11y agoIs it much worse than Americans being fooled by good looking models on cigarette ad billboards? It worked so well they had to outlaw it!
- xkcd-sucks 11y agomaybe it's an expression of 'face' or a signal that the business owners know what they're doing because they had the wherewithal to hire foreigners to stand around?
- madengr 11y agoIf you "rented white people" to sell housing in the USA, there would be a shitstorm of controversy.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- henpa 11y agoThis happens all over the world: not just China. Take Abercrombie & Fitch for example. The only difference is that, when only "white people" won't do it, then go for fit models, sub-celebrities, etc.
- ekianjo 11y agoIt's not exactly the same thing but there is a similar kind of attitude in Japan, where foreigners are kind of used to promote products or services - giving it a "cool" factor that a Japanese person would not have (presumably, because I find that silly in the first place).
- LLWM 11y agoTommy Lee Jones has to pay the bills somehow.
- ekianjo 11y agoIndeed, poor Tommy must be riddled with debts to accept being used in that way, promoting one of the worst can coffee brands of Japan... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-CKxRWiMoY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-CKxRWiMoY
- droidist2 11y agoFor a relaxing time, make it Suntory time.
- jordigh 11y ago"And if you truly can't squeeze out the funds, but still want to project an international atmosphere, I suggest using black people. They have a very open personality yet are quite cheap." Oh. My. God. I do wonder why does this seem to happen universally in the world? Why does apparently every culture think whites are pretty and blacks are ugly? I think it's more than European colonialism. It seems to be ingrained even in children. The following example from Mexican children comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrMUnw4Xt-k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrMUnw4Xt-k I could translate it if anyone's interested, but they basically show kids a white and a brown doll and ask them which one is good and which one is pretty and they all uniformly point to the white doll.
- tim333 11y ago>why does this seem to happen universally in the world? I think there are two factors in play Firstly the average white is probably richer that the average black globally and so would give a better impression for plugging real estate. That could be negated if you can get a high status black guy to promote your thing. Secondly people tend to use white for good and black for bad I think due to the association with daylight and seeing things. Light shows up bad stuff which hides in the dark.
- halviti 11y agoNothing in your quote suggests blacks are ugly. It does suggest they will work for less money, and if you're looking at demographics, blacks actually do tend to make less than whites in many places. You can easily debate the merits of that, but I don't think you can draw a straight line between price and beauty here, as there could be many other factors at work, such as basic economics (supply and demand). i.e. - there could be a supply of 200 black people and 2 white people, making the whites more valuable simply because they are scarce. I mean I agree with you, but I don't think you can directly jump to those conclusions based on this.
- ryanmonroe 11y agoI think the fact that they are paid less, in the context of the video, implies there is less demand for them (probably much less as I assume they are also in shorter supply. Could be wrong about that though). If there is less demand, and their value in this context is their appearance, that means their appearance is seen to be less valuable in impressing customers. Hence, the conclusion that black people are seen as less good looking than white people.
- dmritard96 11y agoBeing white in china is totally bizzarre. Been doing it for the last 4 months. Automatic celeb status.
- KMag 11y agoA friend got married in Shanghai in 2008, a month or two before the Beijing Olympics. I went to Beijing for 10 days after the wedding, and there were lots of tourists from the Chinese countryside in Beijing. Lots of people stopped me and wanted photos of themselves shaking my hand, asking my Chinese-American friends to step out of the frame. Once or twice I thought maybe I had been mistaken for an Olympic Athlete.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- doctorstupid 11y agoAt Japanese weddings there is sometimes a white man dressed as a priest. I guess that Asian restaurants in the West often have a similar 'Hire-an-Asian' policy to make the food seem more authentic.
- droidist2 11y agoAsian restaurants usually have all Asians running them, although I'm from the Northeast US where we have lots of Asians, maybe it's different elsewhere? I think maybe the UK has a dearth of East Asians. Actually when they say "Asian" they typically mean Indian and Pakistani.
- corin_ 11y agoYou're right that generally "Asian" would be used more for countries like India/Pakistan than China/Japan/etc. but, at least in the south of England, there's no dearth. Oriental restaurants and takeaways that I've seen have nearly all been run by east Asians (I couldn't 100% say I always know from which country, but imagine largely inline with the cuisine they're serving) - in Oxford, London, Cambridge, Peterborough, Northampton.. and that's been my same experience pretty much anywhere else I've been in the UK. But could well be different up north for example.
- nicholas1849 11y agoThere's actually a sophisticated semi-underground network of Chinese food workers and laborers, it's a fascinating read: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/cooka%C2%80%C2%99s-tale http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/cooka%C2%80%C2%...
- LordKano 11y agoIn my city, there are several "Japanese Steakhouses" and pretty much all of them have a staff made up of mostly asian employees. Once, after our hibachi chef was finished cooking our meal, someone at the table asked him if he was Japanese. He looked around and in a hushed tone said "No, we are all Korean."
- SagelyGuru 11y agoHow low have we, the whites, fallen! First we let all our jobs be outsourced to the Chinese and now we work as performing monkeys for them.
- pavel_lishin 11y agoRelax, Robert Childan.
- lanaius 11y agoI selfishly want this reference to always be obscure.
- pavel_lishin 11y agoI actually just finished the book last week, after sitting on it for a year. I honestly have no idea how I feel about it, but something about his writing style kind of makes it stick with me, even though I think I disliked most of it. I'll probably re-read the whole thing later.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- bigtunacan 11y agoIn my mind at least, this is both quite odd and yet fascinating at the same time. It makes me think though of a Chinese intern that used to work for me. She would make comments about how "good looking" white people were from time to time, and how she thought Chinese people were ugly. When she would see pictures of my kids she would say things like, "You have the cutest children ever; Chinese kids are so ugly." On top of this there was another Chinese intern who was quite close with her, and obviously interested in starting a relationship, but while she liked him she said she could never be more than friends because he was ugly. In reality he was a very normal attractive young Chinese man. He was friendly, well educated, well groomed, but he never stood a chance with her because she was repulsed by her own race. I found the whole thing to just be very sad.
- mc32 11y agoIt's not sad. People can like whatever they like or dislike whatever they dislike. It's easier to understand if you neither see her nor him as Chinese, nor foreigners as foreigners, just see them as people with different attraction characteristics. Thinking that her preference is sad is the other side of the bias coin. Let people like whomever they like for whatever reason they state or function under. It's like a flavor preference in food. Preference for one flavor over another, whether indigenous or not, is not sad.
- jordigh 11y agoNo, it is not just a matter of flavours. It's a deeply ingrained and institutionalised bias that happens all around the world. You see it in Mexico, in India, in France, in China, in Nigeria: white is pretty. Sweden and Norway are widely regarded as the ultimate in beauty. I wish I knew why this happened and how to fix it. It's a giant problem that should not exist.
- hnrem 11y agoThis seems one sided. Many white guys love a darker tone. What about Brazil turning out supermodels? I couldn't list or count any, but every time I hear something about models there seems to be a Brazil reference.
- penonthedesk77 11y agoCan you imagine the outrage that would ensue if such a thing were common in the US? Is holding other countries to 'lower' standards implicit racism?
- nmyk 11y agoIt is common in the U.S. White men fetishize Asian women like crazy. Though, what's even more common is cultural appropriation of material goods. E.g.: http://whitegirlsandindianheaddresses.tumblr.com/ http://whitegirlsandindianheaddresses.tumblr.com/ This isn't the same thing as what OP posted, yes yes I know. Rather, these are all instances of the same larger thing.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
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- toolsadmin 11y agoNo big deal really - just shows that there is a market for everything in this world.
- yellowapple 11y agoStop trying to make autoplaying videos happen. They're not going to happen. On another note: this looks fun. Where can I sign up?