To give their businesses some class. Story here.
Hmmm, maybe I ought to take a trip up there. But then I look ridiculous in a suit.
Odd. Far weirder than White Weddings in Japan.
Reminds me of the bit in Mad Men where they got a token Jewish guy to meet with a Jewish company, though. 
China says ‘face’ is what matters, but what about honor? How can they honestly think they are saving face when it’s all such a total farce? While I’m no expert in either culture, this reminds me of the Japanese distinction between public and private opinion… For some reason, it often doesn’t matter with regard to the truthfulness of the situation. As long as public ‘honor’ and ‘harmony’ are kept intact, then all is well and nobody gets hurt.
To that, I say “ptooie.” spits vehemently on the dirt While the subject matter I’m touching on is huge indeed, covering a mixture of philosophy, sociology, history, politics, theology, and more… I hope I’m allowed on this board to say that my emotional reaction to all this is “fuck that with a jumbo-sized hedgehog.”
You may not be an expert, but you get it pretty well.
I’m not in China but sometimes I and my colleagues get a bit of that awkward “attention” at the office.
This reminded me that the place were I learned SCUBA diving asked me to “star” on an instruction video to be displayed during a diving expo. No pay though, I did it just as a friendly gesture to them.
Face is not honour. It’s just reputation, so honesty is not big part of it…until you get found out, which then is a lose of face.
I did something like that for a real estate company when I was in Big Red. They were selling generic, over-priced apartments in a new suburbia development named “International Garden” or something like that and needed some white faces to stand around the models. Every second development will probably have 国际 (international) in the name and like to market themselves as a place that expats would choose to live while in China.
I like to think that consumers in China are more shrewd than that (and most probably are) but a lot of middle class folks like the idea of their precious Little Ming having the opportunity to use English on any unsuspecting foreign residents in the compound (most new suburban developments in China are gated).
That seems like it would be a lot of fun. Unethical, but fun.
What kind of salary could you make doing these gigs? I just skimmed the article but saw that one guy got paid about 300 bucks for a gig but didn’t see anything about long-term earning potential.
At least it subsidize your bar bill if you were over there anyway.
Good enough!
Not to mention eating really well during the gig! It mentioned banquets a few times. They often bring out the fancy dishes that you would never order by yourself. I haven’t been approached to do this yet so I must be doing something wrong.
I get this stuff ALL the time.
One thing they don’t mention is that communication in China is rarely straightforward. People never invite you to go work a job. Instead, they invite you to a “party” or a “dinner.” Then, maybe, they will mention there will be something happening beforehand. When you ask for specifics, suddenly the language gap gets wider. Next thing you know you are spending six hours doing something utterly ridiculous.
One day an official at my school said “I’d like you to attend the opening of my friend’s clothing store.” Because of the give-and-take nature of relationships in China, I’m fairly obligated to do things like that. So, I agreed. Then I was told that “they will give you some clothes.” That’s when I knew something was fishy. Next thing you know is I’m being stuffed into a tiny Spanish flamenco dress and told to wander around greeting people in Spanish. I spent six hours with a fake grin on my face getting my picture by gawkers. In exchange I got a free dinner and thirty bucks.
Other stories- one of my friends was invited to a “birthday party” and the hosts were, as usual, a little coy with the specifics. A car came and picked him up at the appointed time. After going on a drive lasting several hours, he got out and was taken to a door. When he walked through that door, he was surprised to find himself on stage in front of a bunch of people. A huge frosty mug of beer was set in front of him. He looked to his left and right. A line of people had beers. A whistle blew. Suddenly he realized he was in a beer drinking contest! What could he do but drink up?
Another friend was invited to a weekend in the countryside. Being a savvy foreigner, she badgered them into telling her what she was expected to do. Over and over again they told her she wasn’t going to have to do anything. They swore up and down it was just a trip to the countryside. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t. She arrived and was taken to a very serious conference. They introduced her as an American expert on flowers, and said she was going to make a speech about camellias! At this point you kind of lose sympathy, so she made the most hilariously Chinglish-filled speech she could think up on the spot. You have to get revenge while you can.
Another disaster- once I was invited to “a newspaper Christmas party” with a friend. Knowing how boring these things could be, we took advantage of our host’s offer to buy us beers with the pre-party dinner. We got a bit smashed. Imagine our drunken surprise when the “party” turned out to be an event for elementary school students. We were badgered to get on stage and sing. I think our basically-falling-down drunk rendition of “Jingle Bells” was enough to make them regret inviting us! I feel bad for being drunk in front of a lot of kids- but the party started at ten PM. How were we supposed to know? The whole thing could have been avoided if they just told us the truth!
Sometimes things are not so innocent. More than once I’ve been pressured to take gigs that were basically prostitution. Having a “foreign hostess” can add a lot of prestige to your event. It makes me want to take a shower to think of the things people- often trusted friends- have asked me to do. And they don’t take “no” for an answer. The idea that there are some things you won’t do for any amount of money is a tough one.
A friend of mine got paid money to pretend to be a mine-safety expert. Anyone with experience in China knows that mine safety is a huge problem, and having fake experts hawking dubious products probably contributes to the problem.
It’s also common to hire foreigners to represent themselves as teachers at English schools that they do not work at. They will be hired to hand out flyers or give speeches. The unsuspecting parents of course think their kids will be taught by foreigners. Once I was invited to “visit my friend at work.” I discovered that I was actually going to be expected to pretend like I work at the school. I refused. I think that is despicable. Eventually I was pressured into “giving a short speech about the importance of English.” Of course, this was translated to the parents as “Hi! I’m Sven and I work at this school every day!”
To me, it’s not worth it. I spend enough time feeling like an animal in a zoo. While thirty bucks will buy a lot of beer, I like to think I’m not so easily bought. And if I want dinner I can go out, earn money honestly, and buy my own damn dinner with people I actually know and enjoy the company of. I honestly think it’s kind of sad that so many people are willing to sell their dignity for a plate of food and some pocket change. They think it’s all fun and games, but the idea that foreigners are a big joke or spectacle that can be bought for pennies is something that hurts all of us. I fight every day to be seen as a person and not a freakshow.
One thing in the article jumps out at me:
Those are also excellent qualities for getting mugged for everything you have.
My personal theory (feel free to think it’s BS) is about the difference between “shame” and “guilt.”
In the West as an individualist society, we are raised with a healthy dose of shame, which is fundamentally an internal pressure. Our fundamental myth is that Jesus died because we are just inwardly bad people and we should feel really ashamed of ourselves. When someone does something evil, the question we ask is “how does he live with himself?” Right and wrong are internalized and rather black-and-white.
In the East as a collective society, people are raised with guilt, which is an external pressure. The fundamental myth is how your parents and ancestors have sacrificed so much for you, and now you must live up to their expectations and bring them glory. When someone does something evil, the question is “How can he face society?” Right and wrong are externally enforced and contextual.
Of course, if you don’t get caught, you can face society just fine. If you get the contract, you’ve done a good thing even if you had to bend the rules a bit.
This emphasis on proving yourself to society creates this sense of what looks good to others is actually good. One way I challenge my students is telling them that in America a middle-aged man who buys a flashy BMW is considered pathetic. This is an utterly alien concept in China. For my students, to look rich is to be rich. In fact, that is the whole point of being rich- to look rich. Why would you bust your ass if you aren’t going to go for the respect that comes with being rich? The concept of “he’s trying to hard” is hard for them to make sense of.
Another example- I was baffled when I got my first end-of-semester evaluations and the number one remark was “you are a beautiful teacher.” I didn’t see what my looks had to do with my ability to get them to learn English and was kind of upset that was what they got out of the class. We tend to break things up and categorize them. “She’s pretty” exists on a different plane than “She’s a good teacher.” They don’t have anything to do with each other. We say “Sure, she’s beautiful but is she a good person?” But in China I think things are taken as a whole. Being beautiful is good, so of course the beautiful person is a good person.
The article is just marketing. Just like when you drink Bud somehow a fat middle aged white guy can get hot chicks. I’ve done pleny of this kind of “fluf” over the years.
The Greeks said Beauty is Truth, but I think in this context Socrates would be choking on his hemlock 
Anyway, based on my time in Japan, my knowledge of Confucianism, and my study of individual-versus-social societies, I find your personal theory to be highly compelling. Sad, but compelling.
If you are beautiful in Thailand, it could largely be a reward for being a good person in your previous life, so people associate it with continuing to be a good person in this life. Ugly people with deformities are being punished for their past-life transgressions and are probably so pissed of about it now that they’re continuing to be bad. That’s the basic theory anyway.
That lends itself to a lot of prejudice: dark-skinned people are being similarly punished, light-skinned ones are being rewarded for their inherent goodness.
How utterly fascinating and bizarre.
It’s really sad how white the people are in Chinese and Indian advertisements.
And Thai. Skin-whitening creams are big business in Thailand.