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曾听过一些中国朋友以委屈的口吻说：“很多在中国的外国人，不见得有特别的本事，却能轻而易举地获得收入不菲的好工作，这太不公平了吧。”
不仅是中国人有这种感叹，美国某著名报纸的记者也意识到，中国是个能让外国人名利兼收的好地方。你的筹码不需要你经过后天努力去争取，你的西方脸孔就是一种与生俱来的特殊优势。
正如本文所指出的那样，洋人之所以能走俏中国，原因就在于我们的社会需要一些肤色、文化背景不同的人存在。既然如此，我们就别再抱怨不公了，还是好好从他们身上汲取精华吧。
If you’ve got the looks, the talent, and the Mandarin, forget Hollywood—the Chinese entertainment industry wants you.
And even if you’re a foreigner in China who doesn’t have any of those things, don’t worry. You’ve got a 1)decent chance of getting on television, anyway.
In cities nationwide, recruiters are 2)prowling university campuses and 3)expatriate 4)hangouts in search of aspiring variety show performers, game show contestants, and film 5)extras.
6)Pretty much any kind of foreigner would do, with one exception: “They definitely prefer people that don’t look Asian,” says American expatriate Ben Ross.
Westerners are 7)cropping up on all kinds of television shows—8)literally 9)plucked from the street. Some foreign entertainers see their moment as an opportunity to help Chinese people better understand the West; but their Chinese audience is just as interested in how the outside world views the rapid economic advances of their homeland.
“We like watching these shows because they have fo-reigners speaking Chinese,” says Beijing retiree Wu Yu-qing. “They show us that the world is getting smaller.”
And China’s television and movie producers are eager to cater to this desire. “They want to know what foreigners think of China, and how they view our culture.” says Beijing casting agent Li Erwei.
Television producers would offer anywhere between 400 and 1,000 RMB per episode. But for some Western actors, money is not the only motivation. “A lot of these shows I would have done for free, just to have fun,” says Wily Boyle, a Canadian, who appeared in some shows.
For a select group of foreign professionals, however, Chinese television is serious business.
The pioneer in this field was Canadian Mark Rowswell—better known as Da Shan, or Big Mountain—whose 10)pitch-perfect Mandarin and comedic skill 11)catapulted him to national celebrity in the late 1980s.
Since then, several successors have emerged on the talk show 12)circuit. Frenchman Julien Gaudefroy, whose unaccented Chinese got him his first 13)gig in an instructional language video, now hosts several talk shows across China.
Mr. Gaudefroy’s programs, which include Fo-reigners’ Viewpoints and Foreigners Watching China, feature guests 14)opining on topics ranging from China’s one-child policy to the 15)relative merits of traditional Tang Dynasty clothing.
Richard Doran, a professional radio host in China and an occasional guest on Gaudefroy’s programs, remains skeptical that such shows are actually improving mutual understanding.
“They still ask if we know how to use chopsticks,” he says. “Can you imagine an European television station putting a Pakistani immigrant family on television and asking if they’d learned to use a knife and fork yet?”
Regardless of the content, a host’s foreignness can be enough of a draw in itself.
“Foreign hosts who speak Chinese have a special appeal for Chinese audiences,” says a director for the state-owned China Central Television. “When Chinese people see a foreigner who speaks good Chinese and has gotten to know Chinese culture well, we get a very warm feeling, seeing that someone respects China so much.”
The film world is somewhat less welcoming. Westerners interested primarily in acting work face all sorts of special challenges, 16)not least of which is the expectation of fluent Mandarin.
To make matters worse, Westerners in China simply don’t have that many parts available to them. And the roles they do get often reflect 17) hackneyed stereotypes.
“People, in general, have some strange ideas about America,” says Jonathan Kos-Read, one of the few full-time Western actors in China. “For instance, Americans don’t love their parents and 18)vice versa. Or, if you walk out of your front door [in the US], 9 times out of 10, you’ll see a huge gun battle. That kind of thing…”
Mr. Kos-Read, who trained at the 19)New York University Film School, often plays “a rich American businessman who comes to China and falls in love with a Chinese girl. She’s torn for 10 episodes or so, but in the end, she always makes the right choice and sticks with her Chinese boyfriend.”
American actress Kerry Berry Brogan, who had extensive acting experience before coming to China, sees it as her responsibility to give Chinese audiences a more balanced view of fo-reigners. “I’m trying to make the 20)depiction of foreigners more real, more dynamic, more 21)three-dimensional. ... If there’s something wrong, I let the director know,” she says. “I would say, 70 percent of the time they listen.”
Ms. Brogan, Kos-Read, and other Western actors in China often find themselves in the role of cultural ambassador, helping directors, 22)screenwriters, and audiences come to a fuller understanding of Westerners in general. Kos-Read says, their efforts are paying off. “It’s getting better fast. The scripts are improving.”
Unfortunately for Western newcomers, the acting 23)scene is becoming more competitive. The growing population of fo-reigners in China has professionalized the film industry, creating higher entry barriers for anyone without formal training.
And for those aspiring television celebrities and planning to sign up for Mandarin classes, you’d better hurry. Maybe in 50 years, there will be 100,000 foreigners speaking such excellent Chinese...they won’t be that interesting anymore.
如果你（指外国人）长相出色，有表演天赋，还会说汉语，那就忘了好莱坞吧，中国的娱乐业需要你。
如果你是在中国的外国人，哪怕并不具备以上任何一个条件，也不要紧。无论如何，你总能得到一个在电视上露面的好机会。
在中国各个城市，招募人员在大学校园和外国人聚集的地方巡游，寻找有兴趣参加综艺节目的表演者、游戏竞赛的参与者以及电影临时演员。
几乎可以这样说，只要你是外国人就可以了，只有一点例外：“他们绝对是想找长得不像亚洲人的外国人。”在华的美国人本·罗斯说道。
似乎就在霎那间，西方面孔涌现在中国的各种电视节目上——他们中的许多人完全是招募人员从大街上找来的。有些外国表演者把他们上电视看作是帮助中国民众更好地了解西方社会的好机会，但中国观众的兴趣恰恰在于了解外国人如何看待他们经济飞速发展的祖国。
“我们喜欢看这些节目，因为可以看到会说中文的外国人，”北京退休老人吴玉清（音译）说，“他们让我们看到，世界正变得越来越小。”
中国的影视制作人也热切地迎合观众的这种口味。“他们想知道外国人是怎样看待中国，怎样看待我们的文化的。”北京演员经纪人李二伟（音译）说。
电视制作人通常支付给外国演员每集400到1000元人民币不等的片酬。但对一些西方演员来说，金钱不是惟一的动力。“许多节目我都是无偿参加的，纯粹为了其中的乐趣。”曾在一些电视节目中露面的加拿大人威利·波义尔说。
然而，对一些被精心挑选出来的外国职业艺人来说，参与中国的电视演出是件重大的事情。
这一领域的先锋是加拿大人马克·罗
斯威尔，他在中国有一个更响亮的名字——大山。他那字正腔圆的普通话以及喜剧才华使他在20世纪80年代后期窜红全中国。
从那以后，访谈类节目里还出现过好几位外国人，法国人朱立安·关德弗洛就是其中的佼佼者。他流利的汉语最初使他得到了主持一档教育类语言节目的机会，现在他在中国多个地方主持谈话类节目。
朱立安主持的节目包括《外国人视点》和《老外看中国》，他会和嘉宾广泛地探讨有关中国的话题，从中国的独生子女政策到传统唐装的优缺点等。
理查德·多兰（中文名董漠涵）在中国是一名专业的电台主持人，他偶尔还会客串一下朱立安的节目。他对外国人参与中国的电视节目能否真正增进中国与外界的相互了解仍然持怀疑态度。
“中国节目主持人依然会问‘你们会用筷子吗’这类问题，”他说，“你能想象一个欧洲的电视台采访一个巴基斯坦移民家庭，然后问他们‘你们学会使用刀叉了吗’这类的问题吗？”
不管内容如何，一个外国人主持节目，这本身就足够吸引中国观众了。
“能说中文的外国人主持节目，对中国电视观众来说具有特别的吸引力，”中央电视台的一位导演说道，“当我们中国人看到外国人能讲流利的汉语，又熟悉中国文化时，就会有一种特别亲切的感觉，认为他们非常尊重中国。”
外国人在电影圈里就没那么吃香了。主要兴趣在于演戏的西方人遇到了各种各样的特殊障碍，尤其是中国人希望他们能讲流利的中文。
更糟糕的是，在中国的外国演员并没有许多角色可选择。他们所能得到的通常是一些平庸而模式化的角色。
“一般，中国人对美国有一些奇怪的想法，”乔纳森·科斯--里德说，他是少数几个在中国做全职演员的西方人之一。“例如，他们认为美国人都不爱父母，父母也不爱孩子。又或者是，在美国如果你走出家门，十有八九会碰上枪击案。诸如此类的事情……”
曾在美国纽约大学电影系接受过专业训练的科斯--里德先生在中国经常饰演这样的角色——“一个富有的美国商人来到中国，爱上了一位中国女孩。这个女孩犹豫了大概10集左右，最后她总会做出正确的选择，那就是留在了她的中国男友身边。”
美国女演员凯莉·芭里·布罗根在来中国之前就已经具有丰富的表演经验，她认为自己有责任让中国观众能更加中肯地看待外国人。“我努力让外国人的形象更真实，更鲜活，更立体……如果出现了误解或扭曲，我会告诉导演，”她说，“可以说，十有六七他们会采纳我的意见。”
布罗根女士、科斯--里德先生以及其他在中国的西方演员们经常发现他们担任着文化大使的角色——需要帮助导演、编剧以及观众更全面地了解西方人。科
斯--里德说，他们的努力正逐渐得到回报。“大家都进步很快，现在的剧本写得好多了。”
然而对那些初来乍到的西方人来说，演艺界的竞争已经越来越激烈了。越来越多的外国人涌到中国，使中国影视业对外国人的选角更加专业规范，因而给那些没有接受过正规训练的人设置了更高的门槛。
那些立志要成为电视名人并计划着要报名参加汉语培训班的人可要抓紧了。也许再过50年，能讲极好的中文的外国人会达到十万之多……到那时，他们就再也不会让人觉得多么稀奇有趣了。
不仅是中国人有这种感叹，美国某著名报纸的记者也意识到，中国是个能让外国人名利兼收的好地方。你的筹码不需要你经过后天努力去争取，你的西方脸孔就是一种与生俱来的特殊优势。
正如本文所指出的那样，洋人之所以能走俏中国，原因就在于我们的社会需要一些肤色、文化背景不同的人存在。既然如此，我们就别再抱怨不公了，还是好好从他们身上汲取精华吧。
If you’ve got the looks, the talent, and the Mandarin, forget Hollywood—the Chinese entertainment industry wants you.
And even if you’re a foreigner in China who doesn’t have any of those things, don’t worry. You’ve got a 1)decent chance of getting on television, anyway.
In cities nationwide, recruiters are 2)prowling university campuses and 3)expatriate 4)hangouts in search of aspiring variety show performers, game show contestants, and film 5)extras.
6)Pretty much any kind of foreigner would do, with one exception: “They definitely prefer people that don’t look Asian,” says American expatriate Ben Ross.
Westerners are 7)cropping up on all kinds of television shows—8)literally 9)plucked from the street. Some foreign entertainers see their moment as an opportunity to help Chinese people better understand the West; but their Chinese audience is just as interested in how the outside world views the rapid economic advances of their homeland.
“We like watching these shows because they have fo-reigners speaking Chinese,” says Beijing retiree Wu Yu-qing. “They show us that the world is getting smaller.”
And China’s television and movie producers are eager to cater to this desire. “They want to know what foreigners think of China, and how they view our culture.” says Beijing casting agent Li Erwei.
Television producers would offer anywhere between 400 and 1,000 RMB per episode. But for some Western actors, money is not the only motivation. “A lot of these shows I would have done for free, just to have fun,” says Wily Boyle, a Canadian, who appeared in some shows.
For a select group of foreign professionals, however, Chinese television is serious business.
The pioneer in this field was Canadian Mark Rowswell—better known as Da Shan, or Big Mountain—whose 10)pitch-perfect Mandarin and comedic skill 11)catapulted him to national celebrity in the late 1980s.
Since then, several successors have emerged on the talk show 12)circuit. Frenchman Julien Gaudefroy, whose unaccented Chinese got him his first 13)gig in an instructional language video, now hosts several talk shows across China.
Mr. Gaudefroy’s programs, which include Fo-reigners’ Viewpoints and Foreigners Watching China, feature guests 14)opining on topics ranging from China’s one-child policy to the 15)relative merits of traditional Tang Dynasty clothing.
Richard Doran, a professional radio host in China and an occasional guest on Gaudefroy’s programs, remains skeptical that such shows are actually improving mutual understanding.
“They still ask if we know how to use chopsticks,” he says. “Can you imagine an European television station putting a Pakistani immigrant family on television and asking if they’d learned to use a knife and fork yet?”
Regardless of the content, a host’s foreignness can be enough of a draw in itself.
“Foreign hosts who speak Chinese have a special appeal for Chinese audiences,” says a director for the state-owned China Central Television. “When Chinese people see a foreigner who speaks good Chinese and has gotten to know Chinese culture well, we get a very warm feeling, seeing that someone respects China so much.”
The film world is somewhat less welcoming. Westerners interested primarily in acting work face all sorts of special challenges, 16)not least of which is the expectation of fluent Mandarin.
To make matters worse, Westerners in China simply don’t have that many parts available to them. And the roles they do get often reflect 17) hackneyed stereotypes.
“People, in general, have some strange ideas about America,” says Jonathan Kos-Read, one of the few full-time Western actors in China. “For instance, Americans don’t love their parents and 18)vice versa. Or, if you walk out of your front door [in the US], 9 times out of 10, you’ll see a huge gun battle. That kind of thing…”
Mr. Kos-Read, who trained at the 19)New York University Film School, often plays “a rich American businessman who comes to China and falls in love with a Chinese girl. She’s torn for 10 episodes or so, but in the end, she always makes the right choice and sticks with her Chinese boyfriend.”
American actress Kerry Berry Brogan, who had extensive acting experience before coming to China, sees it as her responsibility to give Chinese audiences a more balanced view of fo-reigners. “I’m trying to make the 20)depiction of foreigners more real, more dynamic, more 21)three-dimensional. ... If there’s something wrong, I let the director know,” she says. “I would say, 70 percent of the time they listen.”
Ms. Brogan, Kos-Read, and other Western actors in China often find themselves in the role of cultural ambassador, helping directors, 22)screenwriters, and audiences come to a fuller understanding of Westerners in general. Kos-Read says, their efforts are paying off. “It’s getting better fast. The scripts are improving.”
Unfortunately for Western newcomers, the acting 23)scene is becoming more competitive. The growing population of fo-reigners in China has professionalized the film industry, creating higher entry barriers for anyone without formal training.
And for those aspiring television celebrities and planning to sign up for Mandarin classes, you’d better hurry. Maybe in 50 years, there will be 100,000 foreigners speaking such excellent Chinese...they won’t be that interesting anymore.
如果你（指外国人）长相出色，有表演天赋，还会说汉语，那就忘了好莱坞吧，中国的娱乐业需要你。
如果你是在中国的外国人，哪怕并不具备以上任何一个条件，也不要紧。无论如何，你总能得到一个在电视上露面的好机会。
在中国各个城市，招募人员在大学校园和外国人聚集的地方巡游，寻找有兴趣参加综艺节目的表演者、游戏竞赛的参与者以及电影临时演员。
几乎可以这样说，只要你是外国人就可以了，只有一点例外：“他们绝对是想找长得不像亚洲人的外国人。”在华的美国人本·罗斯说道。
似乎就在霎那间，西方面孔涌现在中国的各种电视节目上——他们中的许多人完全是招募人员从大街上找来的。有些外国表演者把他们上电视看作是帮助中国民众更好地了解西方社会的好机会，但中国观众的兴趣恰恰在于了解外国人如何看待他们经济飞速发展的祖国。
“我们喜欢看这些节目，因为可以看到会说中文的外国人，”北京退休老人吴玉清（音译）说，“他们让我们看到，世界正变得越来越小。”
中国的影视制作人也热切地迎合观众的这种口味。“他们想知道外国人是怎样看待中国，怎样看待我们的文化的。”北京演员经纪人李二伟（音译）说。
电视制作人通常支付给外国演员每集400到1000元人民币不等的片酬。但对一些西方演员来说，金钱不是惟一的动力。“许多节目我都是无偿参加的，纯粹为了其中的乐趣。”曾在一些电视节目中露面的加拿大人威利·波义尔说。
然而，对一些被精心挑选出来的外国职业艺人来说，参与中国的电视演出是件重大的事情。
这一领域的先锋是加拿大人马克·罗
斯威尔，他在中国有一个更响亮的名字——大山。他那字正腔圆的普通话以及喜剧才华使他在20世纪80年代后期窜红全中国。
从那以后，访谈类节目里还出现过好几位外国人，法国人朱立安·关德弗洛就是其中的佼佼者。他流利的汉语最初使他得到了主持一档教育类语言节目的机会，现在他在中国多个地方主持谈话类节目。
朱立安主持的节目包括《外国人视点》和《老外看中国》，他会和嘉宾广泛地探讨有关中国的话题，从中国的独生子女政策到传统唐装的优缺点等。
理查德·多兰（中文名董漠涵）在中国是一名专业的电台主持人，他偶尔还会客串一下朱立安的节目。他对外国人参与中国的电视节目能否真正增进中国与外界的相互了解仍然持怀疑态度。
“中国节目主持人依然会问‘你们会用筷子吗’这类问题，”他说，“你能想象一个欧洲的电视台采访一个巴基斯坦移民家庭，然后问他们‘你们学会使用刀叉了吗’这类的问题吗？”
不管内容如何，一个外国人主持节目，这本身就足够吸引中国观众了。
“能说中文的外国人主持节目，对中国电视观众来说具有特别的吸引力，”中央电视台的一位导演说道，“当我们中国人看到外国人能讲流利的汉语，又熟悉中国文化时，就会有一种特别亲切的感觉，认为他们非常尊重中国。”
外国人在电影圈里就没那么吃香了。主要兴趣在于演戏的西方人遇到了各种各样的特殊障碍，尤其是中国人希望他们能讲流利的中文。
更糟糕的是，在中国的外国演员并没有许多角色可选择。他们所能得到的通常是一些平庸而模式化的角色。
“一般，中国人对美国有一些奇怪的想法，”乔纳森·科斯--里德说，他是少数几个在中国做全职演员的西方人之一。“例如，他们认为美国人都不爱父母，父母也不爱孩子。又或者是，在美国如果你走出家门，十有八九会碰上枪击案。诸如此类的事情……”
曾在美国纽约大学电影系接受过专业训练的科斯--里德先生在中国经常饰演这样的角色——“一个富有的美国商人来到中国，爱上了一位中国女孩。这个女孩犹豫了大概10集左右，最后她总会做出正确的选择，那就是留在了她的中国男友身边。”
美国女演员凯莉·芭里·布罗根在来中国之前就已经具有丰富的表演经验，她认为自己有责任让中国观众能更加中肯地看待外国人。“我努力让外国人的形象更真实，更鲜活，更立体……如果出现了误解或扭曲，我会告诉导演，”她说，“可以说，十有六七他们会采纳我的意见。”
布罗根女士、科斯--里德先生以及其他在中国的西方演员们经常发现他们担任着文化大使的角色——需要帮助导演、编剧以及观众更全面地了解西方人。科
斯--里德说，他们的努力正逐渐得到回报。“大家都进步很快，现在的剧本写得好多了。”
然而对那些初来乍到的西方人来说，演艺界的竞争已经越来越激烈了。越来越多的外国人涌到中国，使中国影视业对外国人的选角更加专业规范，因而给那些没有接受过正规训练的人设置了更高的门槛。
那些立志要成为电视名人并计划着要报名参加汉语培训班的人可要抓紧了。也许再过50年，能讲极好的中文的外国人会达到十万之多……到那时，他们就再也不会让人觉得多么稀奇有趣了。