Chinese Companies Rent White Foreigners 145
The job market may look bad here, but if you're in China, and you happen to be white, all you need is a suit and tie. An increasing number of Chinese companies are willing to pay any price to have a few fair-skinned faux employees walking around. From the article: "'Face, we say in China, is more important than life itself,' said Zhang Haihua, author of Think Like Chinese. 'Because Western countries are so developed, people think they are more well off, so people think that if a company can hire foreigners, it must have a lot of money and have very important connections overseas. So when they really want to impress someone, they may roll out a foreigner.' Or rent one."
Re:The real reason theyre renting us (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, the Japanese and Jackie Chan...
Of course, this is nothing new. Westerners have been "renting" asian women especially for years, especially during armed conflicts...
Re:What a career aspiration these guys must have (Score:3, Insightful)
Unsurprisingly, being white isn't quite the only requirement: ""There are job opportunities for girls who are pretty and for men who can look good in a suit."
Re:What a career aspiration these guys must have (Score:3, Insightful)
How is this any different to 'renting oneself out' as an actor to MGM or Ridley Scott?
Subject (Score:4, Insightful)
After reading the article I see that "Any price" ranges from $44 to $300. Great summary, slashdot!
It the obvious extension to outsourcing jobs (Score:2, Insightful)
It the obvious extension to outsourcing jobs. First American jobs go offshore, then Americans.
Vote for Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman so they can send your job to China! Help restore republican economic policies.
Should anyone blame the Chinese for discovering the republican secret for job "creation"? They want to enjoy the benefits of crony-capitalism too. We wanted them to drop communism and become capitalists. It seems we now have evidence that they have.
Re:What a career aspiration these guys must have (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"What the mind can conceive, the body can achei (Score:5, Insightful)
"What the mind can conceive, the body can acheive."
I guess that explains why Rush Limbaugh is in such great shape.
How does that correlate to Stephan Hawking?
Re:So I'd like to know where (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't think "us" western people are particularly better at doing the stuff that really matters. Everywhere around the world there will be people enjoying the good company of others.
Why is it that whenever there's a story about China, someone feels the need to jump in and say "b-b-but the west..." This "west" you speak of is a vast and extremely varied tapestry of different cultures spread across the entire globe, numbering a good many more people than are in China, so you can't go making sweeping statements about what they are good at or otherwise, especially if its a subtext for "rich white people laughing at poor foreigners".
For all the cultures in "the west", I don't know of a single one that hires people to stand around and look prosperous as a general trend, so this is an interesting cultural artifact, probably unique to China at least, and is worthy of attention as such.
Re:What a career aspiration these guys must have (Score:1, Insightful)
Kinda like the uber-liberal who has the 'one' black friend that he invites to the pub to show he is 'not' racist.