7 Votes
Asian Cultures Fake Bona Fides With White Employees
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Asian cultures obsess over face, ego and status. So it should be no surprise they create a fake sense of status through the use of proxy white employees. Businesses across Asia hire white men to wear suits and pretend to be consultants, board members, advisors or quality controls solely for the sake of making the enterprise appear international, worldly and globally connected.
Some may doubt the truth or the article or attribute it to a minor one-off scenario. I can attest the behavior is quite common, having witnessed it firsthand through the hiring practices in Korea. A hagwan is essentially an accelerated academy focusing on various interests – English schools being the predominant type. They would routinely NOT hire a well qualified Korean that could speak perfect English with excellent grammar in order to hire a foreigner in their place, preferably Canadian or American. Why? Just so they could boast the prestige of having more white, “native” speakers than their rivals. In a world where fraudulent bona fides begins in school, it’s not a stretch to see the behavior carry over into bigger business.
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Token whitey by Occams
Good article Matt and I would not like to see it pass without comment, so I have to find something to challenge.
Asian cultures obsess over face, ego and status.
That is a gross generalization based on race. That is not to say that it is a racist statement, only that it is probably wrong in many cases to such an extent that it would be unreliable for any decision-making.
My experience, however tends help me believe that the Koreans are quite likely to behave like this on a Corporate level. I had a Korean boss (in a UN Org) once who was an extreme micro-manager and she and all her Korean colleagues with whom I worked were unable to handle any criticism of the way they worked. They seemed to be totally committed to the way things were done and to the correctness of everything that came from their superiors.
So, if the idea came from on high that this tokenism was needed then they would all jump to it. It is hard not to attribute this behaviour to being part of the culture of Korean business – but that would be another gross generalization based on race….
This "racist generalization" is TOTALLY 100% TRUE ! by Anonymous
I’ve lived and worked in China for the past 6 years (along with working in Korean, Thai and Japanese companies) and I’ve found that this observation is 100% true.
Asian companies like the “clout” of having white employees working for them. I’ve worked for private companies, as well as state-owned companies and it’s all the same thing.
1) It’s DEFINITELY an EGO BOOST for a company to afford a “rich, highly educated, and professional” WHITE GUY on their team. It’s a POWER TRIP that they need, as Asians, to overcome their in-born inferiority complex.
2) Also, having WHITE GUYS work for the company lends credibility to, otherwise, VERY SHADY business practices… because, as they all know, WESTERNERS are MUCH MORE HONEST than the average Asian.
Closed-minded westerners who have never left the confines of their tiny little box of ideology that they live in will NEVER UNDERSTAND that this “gross racist generalisation” is actually true the LARGE MAJORITY (and we’re talking over 90%) of the time.
I'm not sure if it's all about faces, ego, and status by EyeOfSage
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think the practice isn’t all about faces and status. Nowadays, people care less about such trivial things and more about practical things. Let’s face it, a company with white people in it had a more professional appearance. It’s not a racist statement, it’s the way other people are racist, thus causing this statement to actually be true.
I’m sure many of us have experienced what I am talking about. Go to walmart, pick up a toy, one says made-in-china for 3 dollars. Another similar toy says made-in-USA for 3 dollars. Now…which toy are you going to pick? With all the incidences of poisonous milk, fake eggs, lead toys, cheap and fragile product from Asian countries, you might be tempted to pick the product made in good old US of A.
How about cars? Cars made in China? Chinese Car brands? Or German Car brands? Or American car brands.
Computers, flash-drives….think about all the thing you prefer non-asian origin……
Look at it from a international perspective, it’s the same thing, US businessman are consumers and the Asian market is walmart. They sell labor and buy contracts, and we pick them.
How about asians in asian region, surely they are more aware of the vast amount of fraud in business trade. So even asians might be tempted to pick companies that looks foreign.
So I don’t think Vnut has grasp the complete cause of this behavior…and I am a bit shocked it got 7 nerd-it for such incomplete and naive analysis.