Job Discussion Forums

[basbas]

if you got it, you got it, if you don't you don't, it's a lottery i guess...

i'm not tall
i'm not blond
and I don't have blue eyes...

i guess i should just be thankful i'm not fat...

oh I'm white, to be sure...If i committed a crime in any north american city the APB would sound something like this

'late 20s early 30s WHITE male seen smashing window at liquor store, subject seen fleeing the scene with several bottles of expensive whiskey...apprehend subject if identified'

but i guess i'm just not WHITE enough for the chinese, i just don't fit their mold of 'laowai'...chinese people think I look like I am from Xinjiang (uiger)...parents have said that at kids schools i have worked at...But I promise i'm from canada!!!!!! I swear, my mom's family has lived there for 12 generations.

but, to no avail, i just don't have the look...

makes me sad sometimes cause even though i think i am a good teacher, i'll never get those plum positions if some blond doofus is willing to work for just a little less, (chinese bosses : WHAT BLOND! I'M SOLD!!! BLUES EYES TOO! WE RE GONNA MAKE SO MUCH MONEY. MMMMM, MONEY"

anyway. what do you guys think? Do you have the 'look'? if not has it hindered you...

(lalala play that funky music white boy)

[GeminiTiger]

how can you be white and also look like your from xinjiang?

those guys don't look anything like white guys to me.

frankly they look like brown russians.

do you look like Boris?


signed, fat white guy with the look++

[basbas]

here, I don't know if i am allowed to do this but...
http://www.rave.ca/en/image/full/60688/

it's from a few years ago (when I was a filthy raver) but you get the idea, see I'm white, WHITE!!!!!!!

(hint i'm the guy on the far right)

white but, the chinese just don't think so...

ya...

[Denim-Maniac]

I have a look. Not normally associated with good things TBH.

Shaved head. Two gold teeth. A lot of designer street wear. Tattoo's (including the British Bulldog on the bicep). Goatee beard and/or stubble.

When Im in England I look like a football hooligan / drug dealer / player / man suffering from a mid-life crisis.

In China, people seem to love me.

One of the better examples of TIC (This Is China)

[Opiate]

[basbas]

[7969]

[xiguagua]

That's just the way it is. Back when I had a goatee people on the street often said "Xinjiangren!" rather than "Laowai!" Which seems a bit odd to me. Why make an exclamation upon seeing YOUR OWN COUNTRIES PEOPLE? Well, the Chinese aren't known for having common sense.

Yeah, blonde hair/blue eyes are more recognizable and will make you stand out more, but there are still plenty of jobs that will hire you based on skill rather than based on appearance. A lot of those jobs don't care if you're a terrible teacher or not. They just need some white person to draw in more students. So you're probably better off not working for one of those places.

[basbas]

[7969]

Yes ! I have no doubt that you'll be able to find work at any kebab stand in Xinjiang or any other part of China now

[Qaaolchoura]

basbas:
On looks alone your pre-Columbian anscestors could come from anywhere in a broad swath of land from Hokkaido to Lebanon to Algeria to Ireland. While blonde/red hair (and light-brown hair as I have, though it's not quite as distinctive), fair eyes, and red-melanin ("Irish" skin which doesn't ever tan but does turn red for good if burnt enough times) are rare outside of the natives of Northwestern Europe (except oddly, for blonde hair in indigenous Australians and Melanesians), but pale-skinned, round-eyed "white" people who look like you can be throughout a broad area of Afroeurasia (it's fascinating to read about pre-WWII racial classifications).

That said I don't think that the fair hair and eyes thing is really as big as you're making it out to be. You're either having a bad run of luck or doing something wrong on your interviews/teaching. Reminds me of a guy I know who thought women his age wouldn't date him on account of him being short, fat, and ugly, until he finally asked a girl and she said basically "I actually think you're cute," but you come on way too strong.

[Opiate]

[MisterButtkins]

Some of the Uighurs look white. There is a Xinjiang barbeque guy in my town with hair and beard the color of milk chocolate and green eyes. If you read about the mummies they found out in Xinjiang, some of them have red hair and white skin. There are actually white Mongolians as well.

[Miles Smiles]

Grow some hair (on your head) and lose the earring. Stay clean-shaven, though a trimmed moustache might help. Lose the sports garb and the hat.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]