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Choice for ERA. a Frequent Ally
of the Regulated
For Cubans, an Expulsion Long
Delayed
Finding His Voice on Race
After Downton; Affluent
Chinese Seek Butlers
For Early 'Jersey Boys' Investors,
Oh, What a Run
Women Who Voted for Donald
Trump, in Their Own Words
International
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"What they would like to say to their friends is, 'Look, I have a butler, an English-style
butler in my home,' to show how wealthy they are," said Neal Yeh, a Chinese-born
Briton living in Beijing, who for over a decade has helped train and find jobs for
butlers.
"The country now with the biggest trend in butlers is China," said Mr. Yeh, whose
English accent would be at home on "Downton Abbey," the television series about a
blue blood family in England, which was avidly watched in China. "I dare say I have
played a part in starting this trend."
Butler training schools and agencies have been doing business in China for more than
a decade, but the number of recruits has grown sharply in recent years, according to
those in the business. Most are Chinese and many are women. The International Butler
Academy China opened in 2014 here in Chengdu, a haze-covered city in southwest
China, and offers a six-week boot camp on dinner service, managing homes and other
minutiae of high living.
"The Chinese are vacationing more now
than ever in history, and so they're being
exposed to the West more and more," said
Christopher Noble, an American trainer at
the academy who previously ran bars in
Cleveland. "But Chinese people see that,
experience top-class personal service
abroad, and they want to experience it
here."
A boom in butler service might seem
incongruous as President Xi Jinping
A student uses a ruler to set the cutlery on the table
for a formal dinner. Gilles Sabrie for The New York
Times
International