sofasurfers

Just as Hollywood stars conduct closet commercial work in Tokyo
professing their lifelong allegiances to Suntory whisky, budgerigar
food and polythene nappy bags, so the prestige of a white face has
filtered down to Kunming, the land of my latest couch. So my Norwegian
host was offered (and took up) work posing as an American businessman
for a Chinese-American company who wanted to portray some white
“Americans” in their corporate propoganda (”There were genuine
Americans working for the company, but they were all Chinese
American,” he said). So they wrote him a speech for him to read out,
and took photos of him shaking hands, doing good intercontinental
business. And it was in a way – this stunt paid him about £300 (plus
hotel and expenses). Then I met a Swiss environmental engineer in the
Halfway House (don’t worry – just the name of a bar) whose
going-home-early excuse was that he had an appointment with a Chinese
TV camera crew the next day. They’d be filming him cooking some Swiss
dish (”stew,” he promised) for the Christmas special of a popular
cookery programme – and for his efforts, his Christmas spending budget
would be boosted by £50. He’d previously had work starring in a
commercial for a fertiliser company (a fertiliser company!) posing as
a Westerner signing a fertiliser contract (a fertiliser contract!):
“They think it shows that it’s a good company, if Westerners are
willing to do business with it,” he told me. “I know some expats who
get work just sitting in offices, without actually having to do any
work – just so that potential customers are enticed in by their white
faces.” My host also knew someone that worked in a perfumery
performing as a chemist (no prior experience necessary), mixing
potions in test-tubes behind a glass window for all passing traffic to
see. Apparently, you can make a living off it out here (if, of course,
you can live with yourself and the lie), and there are agencies and
even a scouting hotspot in Kunming – a cafe-filled street where
incidentally I’d been hanging out for several hours, apparently
perfectly invisible.