A Fact about FACE

Well I know I was supposed to write about five blog posts last Friday, but I got lazy and distracted so I'll write those some other time this week! I'm really busy at work now because I've just been on a three week vacation... I did want to write a post about white people in China (as if I haven't spoken enough on this topic).

I went to Guangzhou this weekend for Stephen's birthday (where I lost my phone... which I don't want to get into because I'm still pretty mad about) and met some guys from Finland and Denmark and Monika, my new Polish friend and her roommate Heidi who is from Holland. So many new people. My point is that we were discussing working for our companies and we think we are somewhat under the job title "Designated White Person". Although we ALL do something or other for our respective work place, we found out that there actually are JOBS where you are the designated white person. To demonstrate, in Beijing you can rent out white people to come to meetings with you (if you're a Chinese company). Equally important is the story I heard about a female working as the "assistant" of one of the directors in Midea, who doesn't really do anything but sit there and look, well... American (no, this is not me). One of the guys' friends whom I met ACTUALLY is the PA of one of his company's bosses and notably he does not speak a word of Chinese and his boss doesn't speak a word of English. The guy just travels all around China with his boss, looking white. Obviously if someone in a Chinese company has a Westerner as his personal assistant, the company MUST be GREAT (ahem to the sarcasm). Furthermore because neither speak the other's language, they made up their own language (mostly just a series of unreal words) so that clients would think they speak some "Northern European language that not many people speak". And no, I am not joking.

This all derives from the concept of face. You have to (HAVE TO!) hold face while doing business in China. It's deceiving, clearly, but oh so necessary here. For example, a new friend is going to quit her job because she does not get any work, cannot practice her Chinese, and didn't come to China to do what she is doing at her company (or NOT doing). Instead of telling her boss what the problem is, she will "save their face" and say she has to return home because of family problems. This is doing the company a GREAT favor because if a foreigner quit because they were unhappy, the company will really be looked down upon, and even worse, the boss or her immediate supervisor will really get reprimanded. Also, her life while still in China could be made difficult by the company if she "screws" them over by not saving face, so she believes this is the best decision (screws THEM over? When actually it seems like THEY screwed HER over. Another problem with doing business in China.) This makes me wonder... how much can and SHOULD I push my company to do, act, and pay how I want them to? If face is really that important, then they will do A LOT to make me happy.

Notably, a few of my Chinese friends said that I should ask and do whatever I please (within boundaries obviously) because I am NOT Chinese and therefore have different standards and they have different rules for me. I should not think of myself like one of the Chinese employees, but should "act American" and demand what I want... interesting. If I were to act like this, I would think my co-workers would really dislike me, but from the looks of it, this is expected from me because I'm American.