Chinese film

(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).

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“Do you want to take part in a TV show?” Cindy asks. “What? Like on a TV show?” I don’t think I understood correctly. “A film company in Xi’an is producing a TV show. They need a few Europeans as extras. Do you fancy it? All you have to do is sit around and drink coffee. Nothing else. They’ll pay you 300 yuan (€42.69) per person per day.” Tanja and I look at each other. “What do you mean?” I ask. “Wouldn’t that be interesting?” “Absolutely. I think it could be an exciting day,” I reply, to which we give Cindy the green light to take on the extra job.

We get up early the next morning and are picked up by a driver from the TV company. As we get into the van, we are greeted by two Pakistanis and an American, who are obviously also extras. Waqas and Kashif are studying aircraft engineering in Xi’an and Daniel is an English teacher at a school. “How did you get the extra job?” I ask the Pakistanis. “Oh, we’re friends of Tina, who works at the Youth Hostel like Cindy. She called us yesterday to see if we wanted to take part.” “And do you know what it’s about?” asks Tanja. “Don’t have a clue,” replies Daniel, who also got the job through Tina. “Well, I hope it’s a clean production,” Tanja throws into the room. “If not, we can always back out,” I say. “We should have asked yesterday what we were actually signing up for,” Tanja reflects. “What’s the big deal? If we’re sitting in a show and drinking coffee, it’s certainly nothing disreputable,” I think and notice how the Pakistanis’ faces freeze slightly during our conversation. With particulate matter levels of 300 micrograms per cubic meter, we speed through the hazy city. After 30 minutes, the van pulls into a parking lot on the outskirts of Xi’an. We are asked to get out. At around minus 2 degrees and a light wind, it is quite cold. “I’m looking forward to a good coffee, or even better, a milk tea,” says Kashif. “Oh, a real coffee is nothing to sneeze at,” Tanja agrees. People from the TV production company are also waiting around us. At least that’s what they look like. After 15 minutes we slowly start to freeze. No one has yet said where we should go or what the next step is. Then a young, well-dressed Chinese woman comes and stands in front of us, looking us up and down without saying a word. Then she goes to Waqas and opens his jacket to see what clothes he is wearing underneath. Having lived in Pakistan for a long time, I know that it is absolutely impossible to get into a Muslim’s pants on the street, whether asked or not. As soon as she has inspected Waqas, she does the same with his friend Kashif and the American. When she unzips my jacket and Tanja’s, I burst out laughing. The situation is simply too bizarre. “What does she want?” I ask Kashif, who speaks quite good Chinese. After a brief conversation, we learn that we should wear summer clothes. But since it’s winter and no one had informed us about it beforehand, we’re all not dressed appropriately. “Why should we wear summer clothes as show guests?” asks Tanja, but gets no answer. “Wait and see,” I say, still taking a rather joking view of the situation. We are then directed to a small lake near the parking lot and left standing in the cold. As I recently had a bad cold, my mood is starting to fluctuate slightly. Tripods are set up around us on which technicians attach large film cameras. Others scurry back and forth to wire up the cameras. Other helpers assemble a five-by-three-meter solar reflector. A group of young men are busy erecting a control tent in which mixing desks and other equipment are being installed.

By now we realize that this is definitely not a TV show, but an outdoor shoot for a film. So our coffee will come to nothing. After Waqas has asked several times, we learn that a feature film about a famous scientist is being made here and will be shown on the big screen in the fall. Postcards from Italy is the title, which is why the crew is trying to bring summer to the wintry outskirts of Xi’an. “That’s why they want us in short shirts,” concludes Kashif. “What do they pay you for the job?” a Chinese woman asks me abruptly in good English. “300 yuan,” I reply. “For the whole day?” “Yes.” “They should pay you 1,000 yuan (€142.34). That’s the normal price. I have a placement agency and I usually get the extras for the producers. Since I stuck to my price, they turned to your guesthouse to recruit you,” I hear in amazement. “A thousand yuan?” “Yes, that’s the normal price. You sold yourselves far too cheaply. You should definitely charge your dog. He must get at least as much as you.” “Hm, okay, I’ll ask Cindy later. She started it for us. But to be honest, we weren’t interested in money. We wanted to see how you Chinese make a movie,” I say. “I see. But you should still be paid fairly. They have an expensive production here and save on extras. It’s bad for my business. Are you staying in town any longer?” “I don’t think so. There are already far too many here.” “That’s a shame, I would have liked to find you some lucrative jobs.” “Thanks, that’s very nice, but we want to get to know the country and travel around,” I reply and am surprised how you can earn money as a European in China if you get in touch with the right people.

In the meantime, we’ve been standing around in the cold for two hours, still with no idea what we’re needed for. The first voices are raised to simply drive back to the Youth Hostel. When the producer learns of our displeasure, we are immediately allowed into a nearby public building to warm up a little. They treat us like goods and not like people,” Waqas and Kashif say angrily. “And what about our coffee?” Daniel wants to know. “Yes, what about the promised coffee or, even better, milk tea,” Kashif asks the man who brought us here in the van. After another hour, we are each brought a cup of cappuccino. Then we have the first performance. While a good-looking actor and his even better-looking colleague stroll along the sidewalk in summery clothes, obviously falling in love, Tanja is supposed to run through the scene as a jogger. My challenging task is to walk past the couple in love with Ajaci as a pedestrian at the same time. For this cut, we have to take off our down jackets and winter hats. As soon as my first assignment as an extra is behind me, I’m told: “Again!” “No problem,” Tanja and I reply. We take off our winter jackets again. Tanja gets the command to start running again, while the director signals me to start my walk with a light tap on my back. I’m in the middle of acting, watching the American Daniel march across the path in front of me, when the director’s call “Cut!” really startles me. “What now?” I ask. “Chongfu”, (repeat) says a man who immediately gives me his jacket to save me from freezing to death. “Okay, let’s do it again,” I say. This time the sun reflector rattles against a garbage can standing around in the park, another time the main actor has forgotten his lines, then the voice of a walkie talkie hammers in between. The next time, the leading lady has the wrong shoes on and the eighth time Ajaci loses the desire to keep running back and forth pointlessly, jumps up on me and starts squeaking terribly loudly. Not that I stepped on his tail, no, he always does that when he wants to be entertained more. I’ve stopped counting but I think the scene is in the can by the tenth time. “Well, if it takes them that long for each sequence, the movie will cost a fortune,” I say later in our small room, where the two Pakistanis have been waiting bored for an hour. Most of the time they huddle in their seats and sleep. Apparently a way for them to escape from this situation.

We’ve been waiting again for about three hours. It is 17:00. “When are they driving us back?” I ask the man who picked us up at the Youth Hostel eight hours ago. “Just one more spin. We just need to set up a new setup quickly,” he explains. “What, a new setup? That takes hours, doesn’t it?” I’m sure, because I know that it took the whole morning to set up the first one. “We’re not going anywhere!” Waqas and Kashif now mutiny. “Yes, exactly. You drive us back now,” demands Tanja, while Daniel remains impartial. “Okay, I’ll bring them back,” says the Chinese man, who is obviously the owner of the agency organizing the extras for this film. “He must have snatched the other 700 yuan,” speculates Kashif, who is now really angry. “You know, they should pay us by the hour and not give us an hourly wage for the whole day. They’re just ripping us off here.” “Maybe, Kashif, but we agreed to the salary from the start,” I reply. “Yes, but that was about drinking coffee and having a nice day, not about walking around in a short shirt for hours in sub-zero temperatures.” “That’s right. But what the heck. We will certainly never forget this day. And who knows, in twenty years you’ll be talking about how you worked with two Germans and an American for a day on a movie set in China…

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