By NBC’s LisAurel Winfree 

BEIJING – Wanted: A Westerner who can pretend to speak intelligentlyabout a subject they know nothing about. No experience needed. Will pay.

What?

That’s right. Welcome to the Chinese concept of a “face job.”

In China, a face jobis when a company hires a white person to pretend to be an employee orbusiness partner, usually for an important event or meeting.

Westerners are thought to be rich – so Chinese companies will oftenhire one to appear at meetings or events so they can give the impressionthat they have wealthy overseas connections, status and prestige. 

I encountered my first face job at a press conference recently heldby the World Luxury Association at a five-star hotel in Beijing’swell-heeled Chaoyang district.

The event featured a series of talks about different aspects ofChina’s luxury market and covered subjects ranging from how to increasebrand awareness to the sale of jewelry and yachts. There was a long listof Western speakers available as experts to discuss their variousindustries and they seemed like the people to talk to – cameramenswarmed around them and Chinese journalists shoved microphones at them.

But their speeches were vague and barely scratched the surface of thetopics they were presenting. Perhaps they were trying to keep thingssimple because of the language barrier? Perhaps some further questioningwould yield something more interesting?

When the opportunity arose, I ran up to talk to one of the Westernspeakers. He introduced himself as “Jake.” I asked him a question aboutthe luxury market. At first, he looked confused, and then he started tolaugh. “I don’t work for this company,” he confessed. “They hired mejust for today.” 

He went on to explain why he believed he’d beenhired. “They had government officials [at the conference] that morning.My guess is that they’re probably trying to get some kind ofdistribution deal. They’re probably trying to legitimize themselves. Ifyou buy into it – that could give the business a lot of legitimacy.”

Jake said that there seemed to be a lot riding on his appearance. Hesaid after he’d agreed to go to the event, “They kept asking, ‘Are yougonna come? Because it will be embarrassing if you don’t.’”

It turns out that four of the foreign speakers at the event werehired as face jobs. It’s a fairly common experience for many expatslooking to make some extra money. Much like acting, the hiring companywill provide a set and script, complete with business cards.
One ofthe speakers at the event had been in Harbin the week before at ahospital, pretending to be a doctor to introduce a new medicine.

“I think you can learn a little bit about the culture,” Jake saidabout the job. “I had a friend when we were studying. He used to go tobusiness meetings and pretend to be a CEO, put his hands on the tableand pretend to be angry.”

But sometimes Westerners find that they’ve accidentally become a facejob. Before arriving at the WLA event, Jake thought he was being hiredto give a talk at a finance conference, according to the onlineadvertisement he’d answered.

“I would never wanna do anything like this again. To give a speech orbe fraudulent, no I would not wanna do anything like that. For me,someone who wants to make a career in China, it’s just bad.”