the black China hand

Anyone, that has spent any serious time living, working or studying in China understands just how endemic corruption is. In its many forms, corruption is (sadly) an integral part of life here. You see it everywhere: from the hawkers outside the bus and train stations yelling fapiao ((where you can pay 1 yuan to purchase a receipt for 20 yuan to bring back to your company for reimbursement giving you a profit of 19 yuan)) to the lavish meals you see in every restaurant where food is the currency that purchases a favor “yet to be determined”. If you stay long enough, these corruption sightings second nature. Like seeing tea in a hotel room. But today, I was shocked (even with all my cynicism about life in modern China) when a close friend (let’s call her Apple) told me that she took a test for her colleague. I was shocked because Apple is an educated women that you could say is not your average Chinese twenty-something. She speaks three languages; she has family abroad; she “rolls” (her words) with an eclectic group of local and international friends.¹ She has her own apartment and travels often. Lastly, she works for the manager of a hefty multi-national and makes a better than average salary. Without a doubt she has a very cosmopolitan view of life and work. In short, she is not the type of person I thought would do such a thing. Or that is what I thought. Well, here’s how it went down: her colleague, who works in that same multi-national is very wealthy but a bit lazy and dumb. Three times she tried to pass the language test that the company requires in order to get a promotion and three times she failed. Enter Apple. Her colleague convinced her to take the test (Apple took the test last year and passed with flying colors). No money was exchanged though, only the promise that if her colleague was successful (by way of Apple’s sleight of body), she would have cemented “guanxi” with a well-known family. For this Apple risked everything and took her colleague’s ID card and went to take the test. Luckily for Apple, no one was the wiser. She took the test without being “outed” and if I know Apple she probably did better on the test this time then when she took it for herself. When I inquired of Apple why she did this, her only answer was a shrug and a look that said, “who cares, I as long as I didn’t get caught.” As I said, this shouldn’t have shocked me but it did and I think that is for a couple of reasons: first, how many other non-qualified people are inhabiting positions in China because someone else took their test and second, why wasn’t there more of an emotional connect from Apple about cheating. I am sure she knows from her connects with non-Chinese cultures or at least the work culture that she is in now that what she did was bad and third, how does she deal with the fact that her colleague is an idiot and may (because of Apple’s efforts and her colleague’s wealth) one day end up being Apple’s superior)? Is it that the culture of corruption is such a part of Chinese life that it can’t be excised? If so that is something all people that live, work or study China need to keep in the back of their minds as well as in the front of all their interactions.

1. She can tell the vagaries of the TV show Lost better than most Americans [↩]