【外交家 20150505】“耍猴”：外国人在中国

满仓

【中文标题】“耍猴”：外国人在中国
【原文标题】'Monkey Shows': Being a Foreigner in China
【登载媒体】外交家
【原文作者】David Volodzko
【原文链接】http://thediplomat.com/2015/05/monkey-shows-being-a-foreigner-in-china/



2010年，米奇•默克斯利在《大西洋月刊》上发表了一篇文章《租个白人》。故事内容是他来到东营市，假装是一个根本不存在的加利福尼亚州公司的首席代表，声称要在当地建一座工厂。他的加拿大朋友厄尔尼被请来扮演一位总监，在一大群听众前致辞，“吹嘘这个公司一长串的国际客户名单”。发言之后，“五颜六色的纸屑在台上落下，周围爆竹声震耳……厄尔尼与市长合影”。文章并没有提到这个事件后续的影响，米奇•默克斯利和他的朋友厄尔尼是否推动了当地商业的发展？出席会议的人是否把钱投给这家根本不存在的公司？

2011年CNN报道了《北京人》杂志上的一幅广告，内容是“租个外国人”。文章中说，有一天，一个外国人的家被警察造访，“他几个月之前工作过的西安一家金融公司……被怀疑诈骗客户数百万元人民币”。

在中国，经常会看到外国的舞蹈演员、歌手、乐手或者模特被奉上极为优厚的报酬，无论他们是否有能力做这些事。我曾经见到过条件糟糕的模特、对舞蹈一窍不通的舞者、根本不会唱歌的歌手。我的一位朋友曾经得到一笔慷慨的佣金，在一个现场音乐会上演奏贝司。问题是，他根本不懂怎样弹贝司，于是他的乐器干脆不插电线，他在现场装模作样地拨弄贝司，假装是个高手。还有几位乐手也用身体语言和面目表情配合预先录制的音轨，但是乐曲中并没有贝司的声音，所以我的朋友其实是在假装演奏一个根本不存在的声音。观众中似乎没有人察觉到这一点，他拿到的佣金比中国乐手的两倍还要多，而那个中国人其实对音乐颇有天份。

每当看到这种令人脑洞大开的事情，我就不禁想起《开普敦韵事》中的一个场景，一个小女孩冲着一只猴子喊：“跳舞，猴子，跳舞！”我的一些朋友甚至把这种表演称作“耍猴”。《纽约时报》在上个月拍摄了一部纪录短片，题目是《在中国租个老外》。一位中国中介说，外国人可以给业务带来国际品味，“我们有高、中、低端的外国人，当然，白人要贵一些。”但是如果客户不愿意付那么多钱，她推荐黑人，因为他们“很便宜”。印度人“和黑人差不多”，显然黑人和印度人都被算作是“低端”外国人。

这已经远远超越了“耍猴”的境界。综合来看，白人英语教师要比掌握双语的中国教师工资高很多，也比华裔美国教师的工资要高，尽管华裔美国人的母语就是英语。如果父母看到一个亚洲人在教他们的孩子学英语，他们通常会认为那个人的英文水平不高（其实他们自己的英文水平远远达不到能得出这个结论的程度）。我曾经遇到过一个俄罗斯人，他在成都的一所学校教英文。他连一个完整的英文句子都说不出来，但工资却是中国人平均工资的4倍。当然，他是一个白人。

很多外国人在中国总能找到比老家更好的工作机会。必须承认，中国有很多严肃、优秀的外国人，但也有另外一种外国人。就像那些对教学一窍不通的醉汉，比中国的医生挣钱还要多。

这不仅仅是外国人自身的问题，聘请这些无能家伙、支付给他们过高薪水的都是中国人。有人或许会说，工资是为了补偿他们远离家乡的生活压力，或者——先把种族优越性的问题放在一边——这些人具有特殊的经济价值。也就是说，外国人让某些地方对某些中国人产生特殊的吸引力。正如纪录片中的中介所主张的，白人英语教师比黑人和中国人更有能力让学校的生意好起来，无论他们实际的水平有多么糟糕。

尽管如此，种族融合是中国的雇主、父母和教师等人需要去积极追求的事物，他们需要更好的理解这一点，因为这是他们明显的劣势。中国人经常喜欢摆出一副反殖民思想的面孔，但是从某种程度上来说，中国依然没有摆脱殖民主义最根本的一个枷锁——就是殖民地心态。



原文：

Foreigners in China — particularly whites — are given economic value simply because of the color of their skin.

In 2010, Mitch Moxley wrote a story for The Atlantic entitled “Rent a White Guy,” relating the story of his trip to Dongying where he pretended to be the representative of a non-existent California-based company that was allegedly building a factory in the city. His Canadian friend Ernie, hired to play the role of director, delivered a speech before a large crowd in which he “boasted about the company’s long list of international clients.” After the speech, “confetti blasted over the stage, fireworks popped […] and Ernie posed for a photo with the mayor.” The article has nothing to say about the extent of the scam. Were Mitch Moxley and his friend Ernie giving a boost to a local company or were the attendees being asked to invest in a company that didn’t exist?

A 2010 CNN report cited one ad posted on The Beijinger by a company called “Rent A Foreigner.” The story describes one foreigner who had police knock on his door one day, “after a financial company he worked at for a couple of months in Xi’an […] allegedly swindled millions of yuan out of clients.”

It’s commonplace in China to see expats paid exorbitant fees as dancers, singers, musicians, or models, often regardless of talent. I have seen unattractive models, dancers who couldn’t dance, and singers who couldn’t sing. One of my friends was once paid handsomely to play bass at a live concert. The thing was, he didn’t know how to play bass — so they left his instrument unplugged and he plucked at the strings as if he had some clue as to what he was doing. Several of the musicians were also pantomiming to a prerecorded track, but the track had no bass, so my friend was pretending to play a part that didn’t exist. No one in the crowd seemed to notice though, and he was paid more than twice what the Chinese band members, who were actually rather talented musicians, earned.

Whenever I see such spectacles, I can’t help but think of the scene from The Cape Town Affair when a little girl shouts at a monkey, “Dance, monkey, dance!” Some of my friends even refer to such gigs as “monkey shows.” In a short New York Times documentary entitled “Rent-a-Foreigner in China,” released last month, a Chinese agent explains that foreigners lend an international feel to businesses. “We have high-, middle- and low-grade ones,” she says. “Now it is true that the price of white people is expensive,” but if clients can’t afford one, she recommends using black people since they “are quite cheap.”  Indians, meanwhile, are “about the same as blacks.” Evidently black people and Indians are considered “low-grade” foreigners.

This practice extends far beyond the “monkey show” world. Generally, white English teachers make considerably more than their bilingual Chinese counterparts and often more than Chinese-Americans too. It doesn’t matter that Chinese-Americans are native English speakers. If parents see an Asian person teaching their children, they often assume the person doesn’t speak English well (even if they themselves speak it too poorly to be able to judge). I once met a Russian who taught at a local English school in Chengdu. He could barely string a dozen words together in English. Nevertheless, he was paid more than four times the average Chinese salary. Naturally, he was white.

Many foreigners simply have far better opportunities in China than they would back home. To be sure, there are many serious and hard-working expats in China. But there are also the others. Semi-functional drunks who “teach” English while earning more than Chinese doctors.

The problem isn’t solely with these foreigners either. The managers and agents hiring these incompetent folk, and paying them their exorbitant and unwarranted salaries, are Chinese. To an extent, one might argue that their salaries compensate for being so far from home or that, matters of racial privilege aside, these individuals have an economic value and are paid accordingly. That is, foreigners make places more attractive to certain Chinese, as the agent argued in the documentary, and white English teachers are more likely to bring schools business than black or Chinese English teachers, no matter how inexperienced they may be.

Still, the commodification of race is something Chinese employers, parents, and teachers alike should actively seek to better understand, particularly as long as Chinese continue to get the short end of the stick in all this. For all its anti-colonialist rhetoric, in some ways China still bears one of colonialism’s heaviest shackles — namely, a colonial mentality.

红色大地

殖民地心态.

hegieer

洋人第一，官员第二，富人第三，老百姓为奴隶的封建主义环境。