RENT-A-FOREIGNER IN CHINA

RENT-A-FOREIGNER – A FILM BY DAVID BORENSTEIN

In China, it’s hard to find a city that has not built ambitious new districts on its rural periphery. But overbuilding has led to ghost towns: towering rows of luxury apartments sit completely empty, especially in smaller cities in China’s hinterlands.

This Op-Doc profiles one interesting solution: the rent-a-foreigner industry. In provincial West China, specialty firms collect groups of foreigners whom they rent out to attend events. Clients can select from a menu of skin colors and nationalities. The most frequent customers are real estate companies, who believe that filling their remote buildings with foreign faces, even for a day, suggests that the area is “international” – a buzzword in provincial areas that often translates to “buy.”

Musicians and models – often amateurs billed as “famous” – are the most popular personas, but Westerners also pose as businessmen, athletes, diplomats and simply as city residents. The Op-Doc is adapted from the feature documentary Chinese Dreamland on the same topic.

Watch a clip on YouTube. Cinematography by Lars Skree. See more documentary work and awards.