From teaching English to working for “Chinese mafia”
During my undergraduate degree, I had the opportunity to spend a year in Guangzhou, China, through a scholarship. What started as a simple email proposal to spend a year in Asia learning Mandarin, ended up in me moving to Guangzhou, China, 6 months later.
Man, was I excited about it! I was ready for the full on adventure, I had never learnt a single word of Mandarin and had no idea that Guangzhou was even a city. About a month before departing I realised it was the third largest city in China! And that in the area they mostly speak Cantonese. So why were we even going there to learn Mandarin?? I’m still not sure why…
There were about 20 students from my university on the same scholarship. I flew in on my own since I was flying from Spain and they were all mostly flying in from England. We became like a family really early on. We almost even went to the toilette together. No one in Guangzhou spoke a word of English and that meant that the safest way to survive was by us sticking together.
First months were crazy, chaotic and lots of fun, at least for most of us… The disorder and mess in the streets. The heat, I’ll never forget the feeling of walking into a sauna when I walked out the airport the first time. The challenge of ordering food, some restaurants didn’t have pictures of the food so we had to randomly select and if we liked it, it was worth remembering. The difference in culture and social norms, people would stare you down in the metro and wouldn’t stop looking, for some locals it was the first time they had seen a “Waiguo” (that’s how they call foreigners). Some of us felt like superheroes or famous people, others in the group really didn’t like it, specially the girls, since guys sometimes gave creepy and daunting looks for up to 5 minutes!
As we started adapting we all started to spread our wings, so to speak. This was a truly great experience. It was the perfect way to get to know yourself better and to simply get out of your comfort zone. We all had about 5 hours of “mandatory” Mandarin and Cultural classes a day (they weren’t very strict about it). This gave most of us a great degree of freedom. Some would socialise, others would study hard, some of us played sports… Something that we all did definitely do, without a question, was teach english.
Very shortly after moving over to China we all started teaching english at public and private schools, particulars, bootcamps... The demand was HUGE. Bare in mind that most of us were in our early 20s (I was 20, 23 now) and had no clue on how to teach. Some of us didn’t even have English as a first language and yet we were teaching up to 20 hours a week.
I remember the first job I got was through an English woman who plugged many of us into small private schools. The procedure was something like:
Employer (private school boss): “Do you speak english?”
Me: “yes”
Employer: “Can I check your passport?” (She wanted to know if I was from the UK or the USA).
Me: “I don’t have it with me but I’m fluent in English and I’m 27 years old by the way” (harder to get the job if you are really young).
Employer: “Can you do a demo now?” (This was usually the case with many small private schools. The main reason was to get 30 minutes of free teaching from you, she didn’t really care about anything else).
Me: “Now??? I would like to prepare a little and know who I’m going to teach as well as the main subject you would like me to teach.”
Employer: “No problem, just do a simple lesson” (And then she just pushed me into a room with 5 little kids between the age of 5–9).
That was the official start to my new teaching job.
After the demo we just had to agree on the hours and pay. The pay was the good part! We were getting paid between 200–300 RMB an hour (roughly between 30–45 USD an hour). This amount of money in Guangzhou would get us really far, baring in mind that a bottle of coke would cost me 3.5 RMB, a meal between 20–30 RMB and a night out 300 RMB (table between 3 with bottle of vodka, drinks and fruits included!).
After that, getting jobs was easy-peasy; mom’s, teachers, private companies, schools would all contact us through WeChat (you can almost do anything nowadays through WeChat, almost even donate blood). I was working 15–20 hours a week and felt like the king of the castle. It’s true that it was tiring and hard work, but it was more than worth it! I could save up, go traveling, buy whatever I wanted and all while I was still studying!
A few more months went by… and one day, one of my friends with whom I had moved over from university offered me a job. This was quite usual, if we couldn’t take a job, we would share it and see if anyone else was interested.
At first I wasn’t too interested, I had even reduced my hours of teaching, it was really exhausting after a while (15h of teaching + 30h of learning mandarin + 10h of commuting) and I still wanted to enjoy my time traveling and experimenting Chinese culture. (Since then I have huge admiration for teachers, it’s not easy… especially with spoiled kids).
When he explained it in a little more detail, and there wasn’t a lot, I realised that this sounded like a slightly different opportunity. Apparently, some private company wanted a translator not a teacher. The job was in Shenzhen and they would pay for travel expenses and accommodation.
I thought about it, it was my chance to mix work with travel. I could go over and spend a couple of days in Shenzhen with the money I made from the job. I therefore told my friend to let them know that I was interested and that I wanted to know more and know what the pay was.
They replied to him saying that for 1 day of work (they didn’t specify hours) they would pay 2000 RMB (300 USD back then) a day. And that they wanted 2 people for 1 or 2 days, depending on how it went. They didn’t give a lot more details on the job itself. We thought it was a bit odd that they wanted translators like us (we could understand about 30% by then and could not really translate to an appropriate level, but if they didn’t say anything, why not? How bad could it be??).
When he told me, we were both like: “shit, it’s a good chance to make some money and enjoy the fact they’re paying for everything”. So we both convinced each other to go.
…
When the day came, we were excited. We got on the train from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and awaited for more details. Again, we didn’t really know a lot, it was just through my friends’ contact that they basically told us to get on the train and that someone would pick us up at the train station in Shenzhen.
After almost two hours, we got off and no one came… were we in the right city? We waited for about half an hour and nothing. We decided to text the only contact we had for the job and nothing was clear. After a while, a car picked us up and on our way we went. We had no clue where we were headed.
In the car, a 50 year old chubby Chinese man who could speak English welcomed us and said we were heading to a restaurant for dinner. Again, he didn’t say much more. When we got to the restaurant we were greeted by another two, rather young and skinny looking, Chinese men. Both looked like they were no older than 35 and didn’t seem to speak a lot of English. The restaurant was some sort of cheap looking Muslim restaurant in some quiet street in Shenzhen. We sat down and food just started coming. We got soups and loads of meat skewers, big meat skewers.
Things got a bit awkward, the 50 year old man started eating all the skewers and as time went by, it became clear that the two younger Chinese guys did in fact not speak English. From the situation, both my friend and I read that the older guy was the boss and the other two were his “helpers”. Not a lot was said, but things started to unfold. The older Chinese man started talking about the “job”: The day after we were going to go to Shangri-la hotel and give a short speech about Galmen International.
Give a speech???? What was Galmen International?? We didn’t say anything but we both (my friend and I) looked at each other and thought the same thing.
He told us to not worry, he would explain when we got to the hotel after eating. We left the restaurant and headed over by car to the hotel. I thought we were going to the Shangri-la hotel (one of the nicest hotels in Shenzhen), since the job was there the day after. We drove for about 10 minutes and got to a hotel that looked nothing like the striking Shangri-la. It was a small local Chinese hotel. We got off the car and the old man told us to go check-in and that they would meet us in the room.
What? What did he mean by meet us in the room?
He simply said that they would be there in the room.
That’s when my friend and I started to get worried… what was going on? We had to think fast. We decided to go and check-in but not give any personal details or sign any documents, we had to be cautious. Once we did the check-in, we headed to our room. We got there first. It was a small simple room with two double beds, nothing crazy. It was a place to sleep, nothing more. A few minutes later, the three men walked in. We sat down and the old man started explaining. This is where things got interesting…
He explained that tomorrow we were going to represent an Australian digital currency company, and we were going to say we flew in from Australia for this short business trip. All we had to do was each give a 10 minute chat in front of an audience. One of us was going to talk about the history of the company (Head of Marketing) and the other was going to talk about the investment opportunities (Head of Sales) in the company. He also gave us a website (which I believe is no longer available) from which he asked us to each prepare our corresponding presentations for the chat. At this point, the other two Chinese guys started to talk in Chinese with us, we understood some of it and the rest, the older Chinese guy would translate. They were both advising us on how to prepare and what to do. After a 20 minute chat, at around 21:00, they said goodbye and told us they would pick us up at around 9:00 the next morning.
Time to panic! What was going on??? We were basically going to pretend to be part of a company we weren’t even sure existed. We discussed… should we run? Should we do it? Could they find us if we ran away?
We decided to google it (we took our laptops which had a VPN since google isn’t allowed in China). We found out that it was common for foreign people to be asked to pretend and assume certain roles in China, in order to convince local investors. I remember reading cases where Chinese architects would pay foreign people to pretend to be architects and pretend the project was theirs. This would make the project “foreign” in order to increase the chances of being picked among other Chinese projects. I also remember reading that real estate agents in China would sometimes ask foreign people to move into new apartments for free. Then when Chinese clients went to look at the apartments, knowing that foreigners lived there increased the probability of them buying the apartments.
After a long discussion, we concluded. They know how we look and they can easily find us through WeChat. If we run away, maybe they would chase us down, thinking we were going to expose them. We therefore decided to go forward with it and to simply survive through it. This meant we had to prepare, do some research and prepare our presentations. At around 24:00 at night we went to bed with our stomachs in knots.
The next morning we woke up at around 7:00. All the sudden at around 7.15 one of the young Chinese guys knocks on the door and walks in (1.45 hours earlier than he said). He tells us in Chinese to get ready quickly because we have to leave and go to the other hotel. This increased the uncomfort in both my friend and I, but we went with it. About half an hour later we were parking outside Shangri-la. We walked in and again he asked us to go over to the check-in counter to get the room we were meant to stay in. This time we refused and said we didn’t want to do it. He had no choice and proceeded to do the check-in himself.
We went and sat down at the lobby while we were waiting. It was beautiful, there was live music with a pianist and a vocalist singing “Only hope” from Mandy Moore (from the movie “A walk to remember”). The situation felt unreal, we were dressed up in our suits, ready to go and pretend to be top managers of an Australian company. Keep in mind my friend was 22 and I was 20.
A while later the young Chinese guy who had checked-in came to pick us up and took us to the room. When we got to the room, a nice executive suite room on a fairly high floor, the other two Chinese guys were already there.
They took us to the bedroom and the old Chinese guy who could speak English was just smoking non-stop. One of the young Chinese guys started talking to us in Chinese and from the limited amount of Chinese we knew, we understood that we didn’t need the presentations we had prepared. He had prepared some for us. It felt weird, why did they make us prepare presentations we weren’t going to use? (Looking back, they simply didn’t want us to keep any of their ppts and pdfs, we could only use them when they were around).
After a while that morning, we realised that we had got it wrong. The old chubby Chinese guy who could speak English was not the boss. The two young Chinese guys were in charge of the operation. We figured the older man was just a translator, and he seemed nervous. He was just smoking and smoking. He managed to tell us a little of how it was going to work. Clients and possible investors were going to come in and sit in the living room area. They were going to play a video about the company and then the floor would be ours, our time to shine (or in other words, to trick people and scam them).
The moment had arrived… they locked us in the room and told us they would open the door when it was our turn to go and present. Our heart was running at 1000%, it felt like our veins were going to pop out wide open. We could hear people arriving, then we heard them play the intro video to “Galmen International”, sounded quite inspirational to be honest. Then they spoke in Chinese for about 5 minutes. Right after they opened the doors…
Everyone stood up and started applauding, they were ecstatic to see us! There were about 20 people in the room, we walked to the front of the small living room. My friend started talking about the history of Galmen International, he went over the presentation we were given. He sounded professional amongst all our nerves. The old Chinese man would translate everything to Chinese so the clients could understand. He finished, everyone applauded and it was now my turn. I had to do the sales pitch. I breathed in, and started going over my presentation. There were countless slides of charts with numbers I didn’t really understand, but did my best to go over them. I finished my presentation with an “opportunity” slide, which meant that they (the audience) could be part of the digital currency trend and start investing today! Clients could invest anything from 1000 to 10000 USD. The crazy thing was that they could only invest in cash!!!
Once we were done, the meeting concluded and the old Chinese guy took us back to the room. We figured that during this time, clients were making investments. We felt so weird…
After about 20 minutes, clients wanted to greet us, they wanted to know more about the people they had just invested in . Some of them even hugged us. We didn’t know how to feel. People left and only the 3 Chinese guys stayed with us. They told us we would do it one more time in the afternoon. Then they took us out for lunch somewhere nearby.
When we got back to the hotel after lunch, I remember we got in the elevator and the old Chinese guy turned to me and said: “look old”.
What could I do??? I was 20 and could barely grow a beard.
We had to do it one more time, this time we knew what was going on. My friend and I decided to try to do as poorly as possible so people wouldn’t invest but not too poorly so we would get in trouble. We didn’t really know where the balance was, but we had to try.
The same procedure took place again. This time we greeted people before the meeting. I remember a women introduced herself as an investor from Hong Kong and she had come accompanied by a friend from Pakistan. Then another woman approached us and introduced herself as a translator (English, Mandarin and Cantonese). This really worried us, she could understand English well! She would figure out we had no clue what we were talking about! We had no choice but to show confidence and give her a nice big smile, telling her we were very happy to meet her.
When the meeting started, again, they played the introductory video, very inspirational in fact. “Our company” was going to change the future of digital currencies and make the world a better place. The video finished, everyone clapped and the old Chinese man proceeded to introduce both my friend and I:
“Please welcome our business partners from Australia, they have traveled a long way to be here with you today and present to you what they have been working so hard towards” (He did it Mandarin).
Everyone got very excited, they were ready for our speeches. My friend thanked the Chinese man for the introduction and proceeded to present the history of Galmen International. At this point I observed that both Chinese men (the young men who were always with us) left the room. I figured out they did this just in case anyone spoke up and exposed the whole plot. If that happened, we were the only guilty ones. After all, the old Chinese man next to us was just a translator and we were the ones scamming people. This got me really angry and made me feel so helpless, we were the ones tricking people.
My friend finished and I was on next to give the sales pitch. I thought to myself: “I don’t want to scam anyone but I don’t want to expose ourselves and get in trouble. We could end up in jail or maybe even worse, kidnapped by some Chinese mafia! I had to think and react. Instead of giving the sales pitch I simply proceeded to tell a story:
“Galmen International was the result of a small group of people who had a big dream. Our company was like the hungry little girl who had no money. One day she was walking down the street and someone gave her a small dirty apple (metaphor = digital currency). Instead of eating it she decided to clean it as well as she could. The next day she went to the market and sold the one apple. With the money she made, she went back to the person who gave her the small dirty apple and bought two more apples. Again, she cleaned them both and went to the market to sell them. With that money she went and bought four apples. She continued this process until one day she opened her own fruit shop and became the most successful businesswoman in the market. This is how Galmen, from something very small, managed to create a profitable business.”
When I finished, I could barely breath. The whole time I was talking, the woman that had previously introduced herself as a translator, was staring straight into my eyes. She had a serious face and the moment I finished she put her hand up. “She was going to expose us!” I thought to myself. I was almost ready to tell my friend to start running out the hotel room, when all the sudden she shouts out: “I want to invest!”
At this point I felt relieved even though I didn’t manage to stop people from investing. Later I found out from the Chinese men that my second speech had been better, people were more convinced! That was my first lesson on sales pitching… not the way I would have wanted.
After the meeting, the woman from Hong Kong approached my friend and I, and asked us to have a private meeting with his colleague from Pakistan. She wanted to make sure we were a legit company. We didn’t know what to say… we called the two Chinese mafia guys and asked them what to do. They simply told us to meet in the bedroom and speak privately with him. My friend and I invited the Pakistani guy to go chat in the bedroom. We sat on the bed and he started asking us a few questions. We had no clue what to answer to half of his questions. I took the lead and tried to do our best (so we wouldn’t expose ourselves) but also not to well (so that we wouldn’t scam them too). I basically told him: “Look, we are a young company. I personally don’t suggest you to invest now. Wait for us to grow, develop and then decide whether we have proved ourselves worthy for you to invest.” We finished with a friendly chat about life in Hong Kong.
Again this had the opposite effect of what I intended. When everyone had left, the woman from Hong Kong decided to stay and take us out to celebrate. She had decided to invest!
We went out to eat and following the dinner, it was time to go celebrate. We headed to a club. We got to the club and got out the car. It was already about 22:00 and, boy, I had never felt so important. We headed towards the entry and walked past 3 race cars (I don’t remember the brands) next to which each had a model just greeting people walking into the club. We skipped the queue and headed straight for the door. We walked in and realised we were the only foreigners in the club. It was a rather big club, about 20 private tables, some space for about 200–300 people. I remember “See you again” by Wiz Khalifa was playing in the background. We felt so weird! We were celebrating with a person we had just scammed, and we couldn’t do anything about it.
Going out in China is a whole experience in itself. We ordered a table. Drinks, fruits, snacks and cigarettes started coming. The woman from Hong Kong thought we had just flew in from Australia (which is what we had told her at the meeting), so she started teaching us Mandarin and local drinking games. Of course my friend and I knew everything she was teaching us, we had spent over 6 months in China. It was bizarre, we had to pretend we didn’t know anything. We still laugh uncomfortably when thinking about that moment.
For about 3 hours, the three Chinese men, the woman from Hong Kong along with my friend and I, drank and cheered about 20 times to the sound of “ganbei” (it means cheers in Mandarin). Everyone was tipsy happy, even us two, regardless of the guilt we felt.
Everyone decided to leave and we said (my friend and I) we would stay, we might as well enjoy the night… after all we went through. Before leaving, one of the Chinese guys said: “We’re doing it one more time tomorrow”. Whaaaaat???!!! We were already quite tipsy and simply nodded, if they wanted us, they would probably find us at the hotel the next morning. In all honesty, my friend and I felt so relieved after they had all left. We managed to have a really good night. After all we were the only foreigners in the club and all the Chinese people partying wanted to drink and dance with us. We felt like real celebrities for one night.
The next morning we woke up at around 8:00, this time we stayed at Shangri-la. We checked our phone and nothing. We decided to go for breakfast, 10:00 hit and still nothing. They still hadn’t paid us or anything. Maybe they simply ran away with all the money they made. I hoped that was the case. At 11:00, one of the young Chinese guys came in and said we had to go to another hotel to do the “conference”.
What??? Another hotel? They figured it was too suspicious to keep sending people to the same room, so they wanted to keep it safe. We headed over to another hotel. We got to the new hotel. It was a lot more modest. They walked us in and took us straight to the room. When we got there, the room was already full. They were waiting for us. Again, everyone was ecstatic. The same meeting agenda took place and after the meeting, people asked to even take pictures with us. (I bet some have hanged them on the wall with a knife on our heads after realising they invested in a ghost company).
We really wanted to run away, how long did we have to keep doing this? Finally about an hour after the meeting, the old Chinese guy said he was ready to take us to the train station. We had finished our “job”. We got all our stuff and headed over. Once there he paid us and off we went.
My friend and I got on the train and did not say a word for the next couple of hours. The last 2 days had been the most bizarre and intense days in our lives. I swear, by the time I got on the train, I felt like I had grown 10 years in two days.
A couple months later, the old Chinese guy managed to somehow reach out via WeChat. He had an offer, he wanted us to go to Indonesia and pitch to clients there… We refused and deleted him. A few weeks later my friend found out “Galmen International” was using my family pictures to advertise their campaign on WeChat.
Did we do the right thing?
Could we have gone to the police?
How much did people invest?
Why did the clients trust cash investments?
Should we have sued the 3 Chinese guys?
Should we have ran away?
Should we have exposed ourselves to the clients?
… these are some of the questions I keep asking myself.
