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H-ASIA April 19, 2007 On the usage "laowai"/"gaijin"/broadening beyond China ************************************************************************ From: David Rands <rands@usc.edu> Although I am not a Chinese speaker, I have found this thread quite interesting and think that it can go far beyond the Chinese community. As a resident of Japan for about a decade, I often heard the Japanese equivalent, gaijin, and even discussed it with Japanese friends many times. Many foreigners were really put off by being called a gaijin and there certainly is a push to remove the term in favor of the more correct gaikokujin. Personally, I don't have a problem with either one. In my view the Japanese are simply trying to vocalize a distinction that is pretty obvious. I am not Japanese. Is that such a bad thing to note? I never saw how that slighted me in any way and so can't understand why some take offense. In the US we use many more varieties with our vocalization with everything from alien, to foreigner, and green-card holder. Might this conversation be best served by looking at it in a broader context of what many groups call outsiders, rather than to make it appear unique to the Chinese by confining the discussion to "Iaowai"? Humbly yours, David Rands PhD Candidate Department of History University of Southern California [Ed. note: Thanks to Mr. Rands for relieving editorial worry that this thread may have been, well, alienating to the non-China specialists on the list. RD] ************************************************************************* 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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