laowai is just chinas word for wai guo ren. a big part of this video is the white monkey jobs, the film maker was even doing it for the company. so its pretty specific.
Lao wai is for non Chinese. It’s exactly who they were hiring for these performers. I don’t particularly like the term but then again all these performers and the whole business around it werent exactly ethical either !
I do feel very sorry for the lady who was abused just doing her job and running her business , it’s clear she was deeply hurt and it led her to question everything about what she was doing and also to feel unsafe. Also there is a lack of care from her business partner about what happened to her.
i feel sorry for her but on the flip side she was pretty naive or just ignorant about it at the start.
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Thanks to the OP for the doco.
The doco maker may speak Chinese well, (he made sure that compliment on his Chinese skills made it into the final cut), but does he understand anything about Chinese culture? He basically shamed that woman into resignation, after going to her on camera about the protesters, implying these people being ripped off was somehow her responsibility. She was a pretty small cog in the machine.
As for her partner’s business, the film ended with a summary that business was not so good, but all signs point to the bubble continuing. Evidence like the link below of the bubble continuing didn’t fit with the doco’s narrative I suppose.
All in all just another take on the “China is going to hell” narrative. Audiences love hearing about how gruesome this train wreck is going to be…
What they showed in that doc was all about irrational exuberance combined with millions of newly cashed up people with little knowledge of the outside world.
I actually saw similar stuff in Taichung a few years ago but they don’t bother with foreigners pretending to be famous singers and all that…
There will be a bust in their property market at some point but they can probably handle it in many cities and just let some developments fall apart. A lot of it was to juice the economy (and line officials pockets ) by pouring concrete anyway.
A bigger issue is when the the pyramid reverses and the single kids have to pay their parents and grandparents hospital bills.
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you can’t just use ‘you don’t understand Chinese culture so the bubble won’t burst’ as an excuse. the bubble not bursting defies all logic if you have seen whats been going on. this can only have a bad ending.