Chinese company seeks white guy

File this under "They do things differently in China."

For those curious about the Chinese "rent-a-white-guy" phenomenon, in which a Chinese company will employ a foreigner part-time to sit near the front of an office or to attend meetings because it apparently adds a level of sophistication, here's how they get hired.

I received the following letter recently from a contact in Beijing who agreed to its being posted. The letter is not edited in any way except to delete some identifying information. Try to count how many American anti-discrimination laws it violates:

"I hope all is going well with you. The reason I'm contacting you is because today I had a meeting with a contact of mine [deleted] who asked me for some assistance in finding people for some part-time work in Beijing. Essentially they are in the business of [deleted]. They are looking for some Americans to act as assistants in meetings with potential investors, and essentially act as the 'white face' to give some more credibility to the project. He said it would need assistance for about 3-4 meetings per month, maybe more, maybe less — it all depends on how the business goes. Of course this will be a paid job, but I have not discussed any payment amount or payment terms so you would have to negotiate that yourself.

"The first requirement of the job is that you must be an advanced Mandarin Chinese speaker, since the meetings will all be with Chinese people. Also men only, no females. The other requirement is that you must have some sort of background that Chinese people typically value. My contact is [deleted] and is slightly obsessed with Jewish people and thinks they are the smartest, so he naturally prefers this person to be Jewish. If he can't get someone Jewish, he would also like someone who went to a famous university —Harvard, Yale, etc. Besides those 2 qualifications, I'm sure he'd be happy with someone who has some sort of connection to someone famous or important, or maybe someone who is really tall and handsome. Basically any characteristic that Chinese people are impressed by — he is looking for in this person. Of course it wouldn't hurt if this person was good-looking, well-dressed, etc. — I think you can get it. [Deleted]."

Despite reports of increased xenophobia in China, it's nice to know there's still a part-time job available in Beijing for a tall, white, male, Jewish, Harvard-educated fluent Mandarin speaker.