Pandemics aside, more and more foreigners have made their way to China to find jobs in recent years. According to China's latest national census, there were almost 850,000 of us in 2020. Most get legitimate, serious jobs, but that doesn’t stop us from being offered some work that can only be described as “strange.” Here are seven of the strangest jobs for foreigners in China, cultivated from my own experiences and from those of my friends.

 
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Make the meat kosher

It was 9am on a beautiful Saturday morning when I got possibly the strangest call of my life.”Bobby, it's Yi," said my good Chinese friend. "You're Jewish right?” "Yes…why?" I responded. "I have a job for you that only a Jewish man can do," Yi said with excitement. “Good pay, too.”

An hour later we were in Yi's rickety van, bumping through the outskirts of a major city in Inner Mongolia. After a while we arrived at a huge slaughterhouse. There was blood everywhere and hundreds of sheep carcasses hung from dirty hooks. Despite my protests, Yi led me into an office, the only place not covered in blood. A hefty Chinese man took a long drag on his cigarette and rose to greet me."Hello, Jew friend," he said in broken English.

After about 10 minutes of rapid-fire translations between the man and Yi, my friend finally turned to me and said, "He wants you to make his slaughter house kosher.” "Kosher! I'm not a Rabbi. How can I do that?" I responded in alarm. They conferred for another moment before Yi turned and asked, "What is this word ‘Rabbi'?"

That was the strangest job I’ve ever been offered in China, and it’s pretty hard to beat. But let’s give it a go…

White guy window-dressing

The term “face job” refers to the practice of Chinese companies hiring foreigners just because they're foreigners. Although most Chinese companies these days hire foreigners for their English skills, technical expertise or international experience, face jobs do still exist, and are actually more common than you might think.

Chinese companies will sometimes hire a foreigner to pose as a fake businessman or employee. These foreign faces are expected to give their business more clout when selling and making deals in China, as they supposedly give the impression that the company has extensive foreign contacts and/or the money to hire foreign employees.

Foreign media outlets, including the BBC and the Atlantic have run stories on the practice over the years, and there are even dedicated agencies that recruit foreign “actors” and “models” to fill these roles. Most of the time it is limited to Caucasian males, which has led to the term, "white guy window-dressing.” This life-affirming experience is also open to other demographics from time to time, however.

The fake CEO

One step above white guy window-dressing is fake CEO. Two years ago, a black friend of mine was paid by a Chinese company to pretend to be an oil tycoon from Africa. All they told him initially was to dress nice and that they would pick him up in a car in the morning. Ten minutes from the destination they gave him the lowdown.

The company that hired him had computer software they wanted to sell to another Chinese firm that made machinery for oil refineries. My friend had to make out that if the machinery company bought the software, his “oil company” would buy the machinery for use in Africa. He only had to play the part for one day, but I’ve heard stories of some fake businessman jobs that ended up lasting for months.

The fake significant other

Another odd type of face job is the fake significant other. For some rather shallow and short-sighted Chinese men, having a foreign girlfriend is a status symbol. It not only speaks to their openness and modernity, but also to the size of their… bank account. After all, why would a foreign girl come all the way to China to date a poor guy? However, many of these Chinese men don’t want to go out and do the work to find a real foreign girlfriend as they are anxious about the cultural and language barriers. It’s therefore much easier to just rent a foreign girl.

On the flip side, single Chinese women are constantly being badgered by their families about finding a husband and settling down. This can become particularly intense during the annual visit home at Chinese New Year. Rather than deal with the usual questions, therefore, some like to change the narrative by turning up with a foreign fella in tow.

Both scenarios are odd to say the least, but what better way is there to show off to family, friends and business contacts than parading around with a tall Russian model on your arm.

The foreign face

Sometimes, a face job can be as simple as it sounds. A few months ago, a friend of mine got paid just to show up at a party at a posh hotel and mingle with the Chinese crowd. His employer told him he got hired because he looked “cool.” Nice to hear, I suppose, and he got free drinks!

The foreign muscle

Many Chinese people believe that foreigners are bigger and stronger than them because they eat more meat. If you happen to be male, large and strong looking, therefore, you could have access to a booming job market in China — being a foreign bodyguard.

The agencies that provide bodyguards to some of China’s most important people take advantage of this stereotype by charging their clients over twice the hourly rate for a foreign bodyguard. Just make sure you get a little training in propelling bullets and making manly grunting noises.

English expert extraordinaire

If you’re from an English speaking country, or at least can pass as that, a whole slew of interesting jobs may open themselves up to you. Some of my favorites are dressing up like Santa Claus at Christmas (yes, the real Santa only speaks fluent English) and interviewing flight attendant candidates.

A guy I know does the latter almost every weekend. Group after group of young, attractive Chinese girls pour into the room. He, along with the other Chinese judges, check them for scars and height while judging them on their beauty, composure, English level and Mandarin fluency. In China, there are many dialects, so candidates from far flung provinces are not always too good at the “common language.”

So there are some of the weirdest jobs for foreigns in China that I’ve come across in my time. Think you can do better? Drop yours in the comments box below.

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