Oh, the side gigs we take…

Working in China, there are often many short term or one-off gigs that an English speaker can often pick up. Quite a few times, I’ve worked with Chinese companies to either teach their employees some very specific business English jargon relating to their field or educate them on American culture and how to connect with it from across the world.

One such gig was when I was hired to consult a wig company on American culture. Yes, a bald guy was being brought in to advise a wig company. They were a successful company in China but had only recently started expanding their sales to North America. Their sales and marketing staff spoke decent enough English but they really didn’t have a clue about how to connect with one specific subculture that had taken a liking to their wigs. Apparently, their wigs had become very popular in the crossdressing community, especially among drag queens.

So they hired me to educate them on crossdressing, drag queens, and the LGBTQ community. Yes, a cis white male mansplaining these cultures to a group of Chinese women and one gay Chinese man who were at times hilariously ignorant of terms or definitions. We watched and discussed clips of Rupaul’s Drag Race, as well as drag shows I was able to find online. I even played them the musical numbers from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

They had hired me to consult with them the week before Easter. While I was there, the manager of the company asked if I would mind checking out the English-language email that they were sending out to their retail partners in the US and Canada. I agreed and was extremely glad I did. Each email started with some version of, “Good day. I hope you are productively planning to celebrate your savior rising from the dead this weekend. Now please allow me to tell you about our upcoming promotions…” I convinced them to drop all the religious banter but finally relented on letting them wish their partners a Happy Easter.