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H-ASIA April 17, 2007 On the usage "laowai" (further comment) [Ed. note: Prof. Venkatesan provided Chinese characters for the terms below, but they will not go through the listserve, unfortunately. RD] ************************************************************************ From: Hari Venkatesan <hari.venkatesan@gmail.com> It is indeed true that the most commonly observed connotation of the term "laowai" is "foreigner", but it can also refer to someone outside a profession, as in the sentence: "ta zhen laowai", (approx. He knows nothing of the trade/profession). In this sense it is akin to "waihang." "Laowai" by itself has no derogatory sense, but depending on the context, tone and stress it could refer to an "outsider," "waiguo pengyou" (foreign friend) would most certainly be positive, while "waiguo ren" (foreign person) can be relatively neutral. Mandarin "yang guizi" (archaic), Cantonese "Kuei-Lou," Hokkienese-Singaporean "Ang Mo" (hong mao -- red hair) mostly refer to caucasian foreigners in a sense similar to "Barbarians" or "Orientals". Other appellations such as "wokou" (Japanese pirates) has been used for the Japanese and "asan" for Indians. Hari Venkatesan University of Macau ************************************************************************* To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: <H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu> For holidays or short absences send post to: <listserv@h-net.msu.edu> with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/
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