I Was a White Guy for Rent in a Chinese Ghost City
CityLab:
On stage, David Borenstein assumed many identities. Hes been a celebrated clarinetist, a member of the famous American band The Travelers, and at one point, an Olympic athlete. His audiencelocal Chinese officials, investors, and potential homebuyerswatched in awe and cheered even though he, by his own admission, wasnt very good.
But skills never mattered.
What did matter was that Borenstein was, without a doubt, a foreigner. As a twentysomething Miami native living in Chongqing during Chinas housing boom in the early 2010s, he took on these white monkey gigs to pay for film classes. He performed with other foreigners at events organized by real estate companies to sell property in brand new, shiny citiesones that would quickly become ghost cities, sitting empty not even a decade later.
Though, perform is a bit of a stretch; in some cases, he was paid to show up in a suit and look ... well, white. Borenstein is what the Chinese call a laowai-for-rent, and at the time, he was a hot commodity.
Now a filmmaker in Copenhagen, Borenstein is gearing up for the U.S. premiere of his latest film Dream Empire at the Miami Film Festival next week. The film documents his experience in the industry, and that of Yana, a migrant worker who started a company renting out foreigners like him. Like the developers who made up her clientele, Yana banked her success on the house-building frenzy.