Foreigners posing as scientists, executives, chefs and international consultants have for years formed part of an informal economy in China known colloquially as “white monkey” work, a practice in which overseas nationals are hired to project foreign prestige or international credibility at business events, trade fairs and marketing campaigns.

The work, often loosely organised through recruiters on WeChat and personal networks, has historically appealed to foreign students, migrants and temporary residents seeking quick income with minimal responsibilities.

Interviews with people who participated in such assignments illustrate how the market evolved alongside China’s economic rise, shifting consumer perceptions and tightening immigration enforcement.Piers, a foreign marketing professional who worked in China during the 2000s and 2010s, said one of his early assignments involved pretending to be a laboratory scientist at a manufacturing exhibition in Shanghai.

He and several other foreigners were hired to stand behind a transparent partition dressed in white lab coats while demonstrating a pavement-coating chemical product.

“It wasn’t the whole day, and we just had to pour water back and forth between containers for a few hundred Chinese yuan,” he said. The foreign participants were intentionally separated from visitors and were not expected to answer technical questions. Piers said none of the participants expressed concerns about the deception at the time because the work was viewed as harmless and financially convenient.

In another instance, Piers said he accompanied a neighbour employed by a Chinese legal consultancy to a client meeting in Shanghai’s Pudong district, where he posed as a junior associate at an international law firm. His role involved sitting silently in meetings and appearing to take notes while his neighbour presented herself as part of a global legal operation.

“She just wanted to present herself as an international lawyer,” he said.Recruitment advertisements for such assignments continue to circulate widely on Chinese social media platforms, particularly WeChat groups catering to expatriates and foreign students.

Listings reviewed by participants advertised opportunities for “foreign models and actors” at exhibitions, product launches and commercial shoots across cities including Shenzhen and Fuzhou.One recruitment notice sought American-looking models aged between 35 and 45 for an advertising campaign in Fujian province, specifying candidates with what it described as an “affluent American aesthetic.”

The advertisement excluded applicants with “red hair, freckles, extremely pale skin, or a thin, sullen look,” reflecting how appearance standards are closely linked to commercial branding strategies.

Analysts and participants say demand for foreign faces accelerated during a period when Chinese consumers increasingly associated overseas brands with safety and reliability. That perception was reinforced by several high-profile domestic product scandals, including the 2008 contaminated milk crisis involving Sanlu Group and other dairy producers.

Chinese authorities later determined that melamine, an industrial chemical, had been added to infant formula to falsify protein readings, leading to illnesses among hundreds of thousands of infants and at least six deaths. 2008 Chinese milk scandal.

Piers, who now works between London and Shanghai in marketing, said foreign branding carried commercial value because many Chinese consumers viewed imported products as more trustworthy during that period.

“It was an opportune moment when branding something as foreign could meet an emotional and functional need for Chinese customers,” he said.

More recently, demographic shifts among expatriate communities have altered the market. Participants said the arrival of migrants from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus following regional conflicts increased competition for temporary foreign-facing work, particularly in southern Chinese manufacturing hubs.

Enzo, a Russian videographer based in Shenzhen, said language barriers initially prevented him from securing professional employment after arriving in China, leading him to accept short-term white monkey assignments. One job required him to pose as an Italian chef at a cookware exhibition in Guangzhou despite having no Italian background.

“The Chinese clients wanted to tell me about their holidays in Italy and what they thought of Italian culture,” he said. “I think they just wanted to talk to a foreigner and be listened to.”Enzo said he earned about 2,000 yuan for the assignment.

He later accepted recurring work portraying the chief executive of an automobile company at promotional events around China, where he travelled between cities, stayed in hotels and posed for photographs with visitors while avoiding detailed conversations.

Participants said nationality and appearance frequently influence compensation levels. Piers said western Europeans and North Americans generally command higher fees than eastern Europeans in China’s foreign-promotion industry.

“Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians are seen as groups of people that can be paid less money, equal to Chinese workers, while Germans are quite expensive and prestigious,” he said.

Foreign students have also become a significant labour source for the industry, despite legal risks surrounding unauthorised employment. Maria Kanaeva, a Russian student from Kamchatka who studied at Xi’an Jiaotong University, said she was invited through a student WeChat group in 2022 to participate in a manufacturing exhibition in Xi’an.

Organisers reportedly offered foreign students 100 yuan to pose as overseas buyers while speaking with Chinese exhibitors for about half an hour.The invitation instructed participants to present themselves as potential importers evaluating products from Chinese companies, according to Kanaeva.

Under China’s exit and entry administration law, foreigners are prohibited from working outside the authorised scope of their visas. Violations can result in fines ranging from 5,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan, detention and possible deportation. Kanaeva said concerns about immigration inspections discouraged her from accepting the assignment.

“The worst-case scenario would be that there are police on site and if you are caught with a student visa that doesn’t match the occasion it’s not worth the risk,” she said.

Kanaeva said she later learned of a Ugandan student allegedly detained after working illegally at a language training centre. According to her account, the student was fined before eventually being deported over visa irregularities.

She now works in Shanghai helping foreign students better understand legal pathways for internships and sponsored employment arrangements in China.

The market for foreign appearances has also shifted toward digital media and influencer culture. Paul Mike Ashton, an American content creator known on Chinese social media as BaoBaoXiong, recalled being asked during an internship in 2013 to sit inside a recording booth and pretend to host video productions while executives toured a media facility.

“At the time, my Chinese was not good enough to speak at length, but I realised early on how much of an impact a foreign face could have in Chinese workplaces,” Ashton said.

He believes the commercial novelty attached to foreigners has declined significantly in China’s largest cities as younger consumers become more globally connected through social media and domestic brands expand internationally.

“With so many internationally prominent and dominant Chinese brands now, it feels like the need for this has expired,” he said.