Waiguoren Drink Free

For Halloween a few weeks ago, a bunch of us in our program dressed up and headed to a club that was right on the river that cuts through Shanghai.  It was supposedly inside a huge warehouse-type setting and there were going to be a few well know DJ’s there. This sounded cool, so despite the $15 entry fee, we thought we would check it out.

While we were waiting outside for the rest of our group, however, the hosts at the competing club next-door kept telling us that if we came inside—for free—they would give us unlimited free drinks. Why? Because we were foreigners (Chinese word: Wai-guo-ren). At first we laughed it off, but as we waited there longer we eventually decided it couldn’t hurt to check it out, so we headed in.

And sure enough the free drinks came—but not for everyone in our group. Whites, Blacks, Middle Easterners, Mexicans—everyone heralding from one of these races was taken care of by the house, but the bartender refused to give anything to the Chinese-Americans in our group. It was really one of the most blatant instances of racism I have ever seen. But this was the strange thing: every single person working in that club was Chinese; the hosts, the bartender, we even talked to the manger for a bit—they were all Chinese. But they would only give free alcohol to those of us who were visibly not from around here.

It seems the truth is that if you are an ethically Chinese person living in China, you may or may not have money; but if you are a wai-guo-ren, you almost definitely do. This means that some managers of the clubs, bars, restaurants, etc. will bend over backwards to attract foreigners to there establishments, as in their minds that will automatically add an air of sophistication to the environment. In Shanghai, we benefit from this from time to time, but in other cities in China the wai-guo-ren benefit is just ridiculous.

For example, we recently reunited with some of the Chengdu (huge city in Western China) study abroad students while touring Xi’an for a couple days. One girl in particular told me that over the course of their almost-two months in the city, she and a certain group have been going out and drinking liberally three or four times a week (they're animals!). In that time, she has spent about $30 on alcohol. When they enter clubs, bars, and karaoke bars, either the management or their fellow customers invariably cannot wait to shower them with drinks. (Also, in Chengdu, they generally behave the same way towards the Chinese-Americans in their group; they just have to open their mouths, making it instantly plain they are culturally American!)

I should also mention that while bar-managers may just be seeing walking dollar signs (or RMB signs) when they see a wai-guo-ren, most of the Chinese that I’ve met are also very friendly towards us foreigners but for a different reason. For the most part, they seem to be genuinely curious about the world and lifestyle outside the country they have never had the opportunity to leave; conversing with and getting to know these people has been an opportunity I feel considerably blessed to have.