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H-ASIA April 25, 2007 On the usage "laowai"/and Cantonese "guailo" (response to Bartlett) ************************************************************************ From: Eugene Cooper <eugeneco@usc.edu> Dear all, Professor Bartlett is right to point out that the "Lo" in "guailo" is simply Cantonese for "male". A female foreigner is referred to as a "guaipo" (devil/ghost woman); "Lo" and "Po" being the terms for indicatting male and female in many contexts. Interestingly...on one occasion tromping around Hong Kong's New Territories, in negotiating for a boat ride with a young kid in his sampan, he referred to the foreigners in our party as "Ha-lo". Ha-lo being his rendering of the English "Hello". For him, a foreigner was a "Ha-lo" (someone who says "Hello"). The "lo" in the English "Hello" fitting neatly into his dialect rendering of "male" person with no derogatory implications. He wanted to charge the foreigners more money than the Chinese for the ride. Why? Because in his words, "Ha-lo hou yao chin". (Foreigners are rich!) Gene Cooper Anthro USC 2006-7 Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton ************************************************************************* 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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