Stuart Beaton is back with another fabulous guest blog post. This time he explains the difference between shopping in China and shopping in the west. Here’s Stu!
Deng Xiao Peng once famously said, “To grow rich is glorious!”
Unfortunately, the path to glory isn’t through my wallet.
It seems that there’s a trend amongst Chinese merchants to regard foreigners as cash cows, ripe for the milking. One glimpse of blonde hair or pale skin, or a syllable of English can cause prices to instantly treble – on a good day.
On a bad day, they’ll be inflated out of all proportion.
Recently my wife (who is Chinese) and I were out shopping, and she was feeling footsore. I suggested that we take a three wheeled bike to our next appointment, and she agreed. Then she told me to stay where I was, while she went and negotiated the price with the driver.
So I waited until I was beckoned over by her, and got in. Where upon the driver suddenly let loose with a long stream of what sounded like very heated words indeed. Not understanding any of it, I asked her for a brief summary.
It transpired that if he’d had known that the second person involved was a foreigner, he would have charged ten yuan instead of five. To top it off, he was disgusted that my wife had robbed him of this extra five yuan by not telling him!
Now, you might view this as a rather trivial thing. “What difference does five yuan make?”
Well, it makes a big difference to me. To be charged extra because I am not Chinese is hardly fair, is it? Why should I be penalised for an accident of birth? Are disabled people charged more for the same things as everyone else?
I think not.
Unfortunately, such overcharging isn’t limited simply to quick rides in pedicabs. It’s a scene repeated time and again when I attempt to buy anything. I’ve stopped buying things outside of shops where the prices are marked, simply because when I do so, I am charged more than a Chinese person making the same purchase.
And before you doubt me, I have run a couple of experiments. I’ve sent my wife, or students from my class, off to buy items from local markets. When they come back, I note down the price, and then I go off to buy exactly the same thing myself. Almost every time, I have found the price to be higher, merely because I am foreign.
Perhaps this behaviour harks back to an earlier time, when barbarian hordes rampaged across China? Maybe then merchants charged them more, merely to try and earn back what had been taken from them? Or is it a reaction to Colonial times, when foreigners came and took what they wanted, and paid little for it?
All I know is that I am not, by any definition of the term, “wealthy”. In a way I was much more wealthy in my youth, teaching in Korea. Now, I have a mortgage, bills and other expenses to pay. I have to feed and clothe myself, and provide for my wife. I am not a spendthrift, I must make every yuan count. So to be deliberately overcharged wounds me to the core. That money, once gone, cannot be spent again, and something must be gone without.
If I was to set up a shop in Australia, and charge foreigners over the odds, the Office Of Fair Trading would come and have me punished for my actions with a fine or imprisonment. Word would spread, and I would go out of business for my greedy actions.
Even here, if I sold things at a lower price to non-Chinese, I would be punished – maybe not with a fine or jail, but more immediately, with a beating. Yet on a daily basis, some Chinese merchants look up from their wares, see a foreign face, and make leaps of mental arithmetic.
It’s enough to make you remind them that, whilst “To grow rich is glorious”, the flip side of the coin is also true – “poverty is not socialism”.
You can catch Stuart’s amazing author podcasts at http://rastous.podomatic.com.
Yeah, “foreigner price” is an unfortunate phenomenon in China. However, the flip side to this is that there is also the “foreigner privilege” that many take advantage of to the full. All things considered, the life of a laowai in China is pretty good. Just keep your shopping to formally established stores and businesses to avoid paying the foreigner price.
What “foreign privilege” would that be? Is it the “privilege” to be treated badly?
The only “laowai” who have a wonderful time here are those who are being paid the same wage as they would be back in their home countries – I’m earning less a month than unemployment benefits pay in a fortnight in Australia. I don’t see that as “privilege”.
Added to which, I’m subjected to casual racism on a daily basis.
Yeah, it’s a great bloody privilege… would you care to expound upon it further?
Go on… tell me again it’s wonderful here.
C’mon now, you can’t tell me that you have no idea of the perks that Western expatriates enjoy in China. You mentioned your low pay in comparison with what you would expect to be paid back home (Australia), but that’s disingenuous. How does your salary compare with that of the average Chinese?
“Foreigner privilege” (as applied to the typical Westerner) is a pretty well-known phenomenon in East Asia and evidence of this can be seen in everyday activities such as the foreigner’s ability to cut in lines with impunity, his/her access to trendy nightclubs and other social venues, and the way Chinese people go out of their way to accommodate the foreigner. In terms of employment specifically, Westerners in China usually have little trouble in securing a respectable white-collar job – despite the inability, and unwillingness, to learn the local language. Can you imagine a Chinese immigrant who can’t speak English being hired for anything other than a menial job in Australia?
Certainly, I’m not suggesting that being a foreigner in China is all good, and I can even accept that you personally have not experienced any of the privileges. But, the fact of the matter is that the typical Westerner enjoys a higher status than the average Chinese and with this status come the perks.
Thanks for your comment. Many expats have incredible perks, but not all of us have lived the posh life. If my memoir is ever published, I hope others can see how some foreigners lived a rustic life in China, not just physically, but also emotionally.
T, I did a bit of digging about, and found out that I’m being paid roughly the same, if not less than most Chinese academics here, with the same qualifications.
As for “cutting in line” or “getting into nightclubs” – I don’t do that outside of China, and I’ve never done it here. A lot of social venues don’t welcome foreigners, they see them as too much trouble with local authorities.
When I was working in another city a few years ago one foreign idiot did try to push his way into a club, and was stabbed in back and thigh for his efforts – that’s a great perk.
Living in China as a foreigner, I don’t have access to a lot of the other “perks” that Chinese do – permanent residency, basic healthcare, and many rights under Chinese law.
If we chose to have a child here, that child wouldn’t have any of those “perks” either – despite my wife being Chinese.
By the sound of it you probably don’t get out and mingle much to know what goes on out there. I would say that the guy who tried to push his way into the club probably got a dose of the backlash that is beginning to emerge in response to “foreigner privilege”. Or maybe the guy just picked the wrong line to cut in. In East Asia more broadly, often the Westerner does not even have to wait in line like everyone else and just walks straight in; some establishments have even gone as far as to invite Western expats to just sit there and look pretty, providing them with free food and beverages, because their presence is seen as some kind of endorsement, a status symbol.
Even more disturbing is the particular segment of the expat community that has gained a reputation for going to China (or East Asia in general) for the specific purpose of sleeping with women, and they’re able to do this because of the premium that is placed on their Western (or white) status. You can find discussions (which can be rather crude in nature) on this subject on expat forums. It’s become something of an open secret, and a joke, depending on your perspective, that East Asia has become a refuge for losers from the West. Those who can’t find a job back home go to Asia to “teach English”, and those who can’t get laid back home go to Asia to get their fill. It’s absurd, but the typical Westerner — with no knowledge of the local language at all — can just go to China, Taiwan, S. Korea, and etc. and expect to get some kind of gainful employment. That’s the reality.
Anyway, like I said, I can accept it if you personally have not experienced any of the perks that are afforded Westerners. But regarding your lack of access to public services, your circumstance is no different from that of a Chinese person who does not have the relevant hukou (residential permit). And your hypothetical child would get all the services; you’d just have to have him/her legally processed to become a citizen of the PRC first as he/she would not automatically be one.
(And Susan, I appreciate your comment.)
I’ve been in close contact with Stuart and he’s living a very local life in China. I’ve known other westerners who have married locals and chosen to live in Asia indefinitely, and they fit in very well and adapt to their new homes. It would be nice if foreigners could get some kind of social security if they work in China for decades and want to stay there after they retire. In the US, we grapple with that, too. People can give their whole working lives to the US and then not have anything to thank them for that service when they reach retirement age. Sigh.