The 5 Weirdest But Well-paid Jobs For Foreigners in China

Earlier this year, a Business Week article says that China is on longer a land of opportunity, seeking fortune in China is not as easy as every foreigner expected.

In fact, some foreigners who are familiar with Chinese culture still like to live in the country. Some even really fell “spring-like” warmth. Let us take a look at these excellent jobs that are particularly suitable for foreigners in China.

#1. Wear a suit to cut the ribbon and shake hands
Required skills: shaking hands, smiling
Salary: $ 1,000 / week

Just like Americans always need to find an Asian when they need a kung fu sidekick or villain for some hero, Chinese people need to find a white guy when they want to show off how big they are in business.

Mock Shire is a Canadian currently lives in Beijing. One time a company he had never heard hired him as a “quality control expert”. The company had only a few requirements: a white man, the weekly salary is as high as $ 1,000 and the job does not require any relevant experiences. Mock Shire went to participate in a local project’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, received high standard reception and stayed in local best hotel. His daily work was to inspect construction site, participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony and drank with customers. He said local officials are satisfied for they could attract ‘international’ company to invest there; the company’s leaders were also satisfied with his “acting skills” and he easily earn those dollars.

#2. Wear a suit and tie to attend a meeting in hotel
Required skills: read a paper in English
Salary: Thousands of Yuan / 30 minutes

Alex is an English teacher in a university in Beijing, but he has a second job. He has been repeatedly asked to participate in the “non-material cultural heritage protection seminar” or similar “international academic forum”. Of course he is not an expert in every field, but the organizers want to use his foreign face. Sometimes organizers ask him to read a prepared paper and more often, he only shows his face. He said “Some of my friends have been invited to act as foreign experts, generally a 30-minute English speech means thousands of Yuan. Their main job to do is to have fun and eat. The round-trip travel expenses will be reimbursed, and usually you will also get some gifts.

#3. Wear a suit and tie to participate in negotiations
Required skills: a simple introduction to a product
Salary: unknown

A paint company from Shenzhen hired an former postman from Australia to act as chemical engineer, what the company require was to gave an outline of the product in order to create a illusion that the product was produced under the guidance of foreign expert. Most customers like this sort of thing and will immediately sign the contract.

 #4.  Participate in talent show and sing red songs
Required skills: Chinese style show
Salary: income of a star

Hao Ge is perhaps China’s most famous foreign pop star based in China: he is a Nigerian but mainly sings in Chinese Mandarin. His original name is Emmanuel Uwechue, but he is widely known by his stage name – Hao Ge, which sounds like the words for “good songs” in Chinese. He has developed a big fan base, and particularly popular among the young children and middle-aged women. He first gained notice at entertainment show “Xin Guang Da Dao,”a few years after his arrival in China and then performed together with many Chinese super stars.

#5. Talk about current events, write a column
Skills required: talk about Chinese current issues with the identity of a foreigner
Salary: good remuneration

Yoshikazu Kato, born in 1984 in Japan, finished his study from Peking University and has composed articles for a number of important Chinese newspapers and magazines, such as the Global Times, Oriental Outlook Magazine and Beijing News.He write a column for the Chinese edition of the Financial Times.

In addition to his good command of Chinese, he believes that his popularity is because he expresses ideas in a way that Chinese are easy to accept : “No matter how good your Chinese is and how well  your point of view is, you should not ignore the reader’s perspective and attitude.”