My day as a "Rent a White Person"

When I first moved to China my brother Dan, sent me this article from CNN. I just laughed about it and got my first job as a proofreader. A year later I had my first opportunity to be "rented."

Nick called me last Wednesday and said an English school he had been working with wanted to know if I could attend their graduation ceremony on Friday. I had no plans, and the pay was decent so I agreed to go. All I can say is I wish I had my camera with me that day.

I got to the university where they were holding the ceremony about 8:30am. I was one of 4 foreign teachers. There was one other American, a guy from India and another from Pakistan. We were given corsages and led to the front of the room. The ceremony started at 9 so we had a few minutes to observe the kids. They had all participated in a big English contest the past few days and this was the final event.

This was a very big deal for these kids parents. They have all spent tens of thousands of dollars on their children's English training so they want to see some results. The kids were all done up in some of the craziest get-ups I have ever seen. I will try to describe them, but I don't think I'll be able to do some of them justice...

First of all I have never seen little boys wearing eyeliner and lipstick before, but there were at least 5 0r 6 there with it on. The girls were in all kinds of glittery, big, puffy dresses. I saw a boy in tight black spandex pants and a red top...looked like Michael Jackson. I think the closest thing I have ever seen to the way the kids were dressed up is the show Toddlers and Tiaras.

So the event started and there were a lot of speeches in Chinese. Then the awards started. Each of the foreign "teachers" had to take turns presenting the awards to the kids. We put flower necklaces around their necks and handed them plaques and then smiled for pictures.

After about 2 hours of awards we had to gather for a big group picture. Then the madness started. All the parents wanted pictures of their kids with me. No idea why when I hadn't really been their teacher, but I just smiled and posed. Some of the kids have been studying English for years, and I watched their parents forcing them to ask me to take a picture. Some of them couldn't get the words out at all. That must be so frustrating.

The event ended with interviews. The company had hired a guy to film the whole thing, and at the end he wanted to know how we felt watching the kids. So we all pretended we were really proud and that their English was really good.

Overall it was a pretty good morning. I had fun people watching, and I got paid for it. I can't wait for my next "Rent a White Person" opportunity!