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Changing China

Giant on the move

January 21st, 2008

Being a foreigner, the ticket to privilege?

Posted by: Lucy Hornby
Tags: Countdown to Beijing

Man looks at a brochure as he waits in line to purchase tickets for Olympic Games in BeijingI am a privileged person, the proud holder of lots of Beijing Olympics tickets.

I did this entirely legally. I want lots of guests to crash at my apartment in August, and see this huge moment for China. So when the first round of the ticket lottery opened, I filled out the online forms, met all the deadlines, and picked the maximum number of tickets — mostly for semi-final events where I thought I would have a better shot.

The tickets aren’t just for guests of course. I myself can’t wait to sit in the stands for at least one competition, and soak up the excitement. But I didn’t even bother to apply for the Opening Ceremony — I knew I had no chance, and anyway, applicants were limited to one ticket only. Who wants to be all alone in a crowd?

I got about three-fifths of the events I wanted, or 17 tickets for six events. That puts me among only 5 percent of Olympics tickets applicants, according to a membership survey by the American Chamber of Commerce.

Most Chinese I’ve told say the decks were stacked in my favour. “Of course you got tickets, you’re a foreigner” was the first reaction from my colleagues, taxi drivers, and anyone else I told.

An informal survey revealed many of them had given up halfway through the lottery process, which I also thought was a little daunting. Or they only applied for the opening and closing ceremonies. Or only popular weekend events. But still. Their reaction also shows how much Chinese citizens assume that the system will never work in their favour.

“What’s the use? We Chinese have no human rights. It’s the little things like this that really show that common people have no rights at all,” said Mr. Zhang, a Buddhist taxi driver who misses the days of Chairman Mao, when I asked whether he had tried the online lottery system.    

I know where they are coming from. When I first got to China, in 1995, foreigners enjoyed a clearly separate and privileged position. One of the “privileges” was to pay double for airplane tickets, so I always took the train.

Migrant workers queue for train tickets

In train stations, my privilege really worked for me. People might wait in line for days, only to find that their window had no more tickets, but foreigners could always cut to the front of the line. Across the board, the pattern held — foreigners usually paid more, but in the end we got a crack at the scarcest goods.

Fast forward 13 years, and most of the privileges of being foreign, versus being Chinese, have morphed into being wealthy versus not. It’s pretty easy to get train tickets nowadays, if you book through an agency for a small fee, but the migrant workers still wait for days in line at the station.

As for the Olympics, people with Internet access, Visa credit cards or Bank of China accounts could buy tickets, as long as they had the patience to figure out the lottery system. The rest of the laobaixing or “old hundred surnames” — the common folk — get to watch it on TV.

Lucy Hornby reports for Reuters in Beijing.  

Picture of  man waiting in line to purchase tickets for Olympics in the ill-fated second round of sales (photo by David Gray). Migrant workers queue for train tickets in Shenzhen in 2004 (photo by a Reuters photographer). 

11 comments so far

Lucy,

Very interesting post, and something that I know every \”foreigner\” has experienced one way or another.

Today I was chatting with a friend and we were discussing the interesting situations we had found ourselves in… my counterpart mentioned he met the first foreigner to eat at the Suzhou KFC… and I knew of someone traveling through a second tier city and ended up cutting the ribbon at a Wal Mart opening… I myself have been put on stage in front of 500 people during a semi-press conference within 5 minutes of landing in Chengdu..

Yet, at other times, it is not so fun and it is painfully obvious that your only desired trait is skin color. Experience, education, passion are all set aside because someone needs the token foreigner in a room.

R
http://www.allroadsleadtochina.com

- Posted by All Roads

It’s good to know you’re so eager to give away some of your tickets to visitors.

One question: even when foreigners had to pay more for everything, weren’t there more than a few advantages? Even back then?

- Posted by Josh

[...] Being a foreigner, the ticket to privilege? Lucy Hornby writes an insightful piece at Reuters about the privileges foreigners have in China, and at what cost. With 6 years in China, I can safely say that there are times I take a bit of privilege from it, and I fully recognize that there is power in being a “foreigner”, but it is important to remember that being a “foreigner” does have baggage too. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Weekly Roundup: JVs in China, SZ Labor is Standing Up, Iphone on Hold, and White Mans Burden”, url: “http://www.allroadsleadtochina.com/inde x.php/2008/01/21/weekly-roundup-jvs-in-c hina-sz-labor-is-standing-up-iphone-on-h old-and-white-mans-burden/” }); Stumble it! [...]

- Posted by Weekly Roundup: JVs in China, SZ Labor is Standing Up, Iphone on Hold, and White Mans Burden | All Roads Lead To China

I think Lucy’s point was contrary to what AllRoads suggests. Lucy is suggesting a change from the privileges that foreigners enjoyed in 1990s. Now its the rich (does not matter foreigner or local) who get the privileges.

- Posted by Anirban

So, where/how can someone who wasn’t savvy enough to get in on the lottery score tix now?

- Posted by Itinerant Wu

Decomacracy is alive an well,but not in China it would appear.

- Posted by Cy Nical

China: It’s A Foreigners’ Thing.

A few years ago, I went to Goroka, Papua New Guinea, to recover two Kamov Helicopters on behalf of a client/friend from Sakhalin Island, Russia (man, I loved writing that sentence!). I flew from Seattle to Honolulu, from Honolulu to Sydney, Australia, …

- Posted by China Law Blog

[...] interesting story at Reuters. Related Posts: China’s Anti-Monopoly LawChinese Consumers Prefer Chinese [...]

- Posted by Foreigner’s Privilege In China » The Dragon Wisdom

Jack

Do you really believe what you write?

- Posted by Jack

china

Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts?..

- Posted by china

education in china

That sounds not bad, but I still can’t get how everything will work

- Posted by education in china

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