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H-ASIA April 24, 2007 On the usage "laowai"/and Cantonese "guailo" ************************************************************************ From: Guo Wu <gwu@allegheny.edu> I guess further contextualization of these terms might be helpful. Laowai is not an equivalent of guailo. I would say that guailo is more derogatory or at least more xenophobic than Laowai. Though this needs more linguistic and anthropological research, I assume that historically guailo originated from the very unhappy experience of the Cantonese with the British back in the Opium War, thus it had a combined connotation of xenophobia, hatred and fear---that was why adults use it to scare kids. That was also the reason why after Shanghai was opened as a treaty port in 1842, many western merchants soon moved northward and found that people in the lower Yangtze region were more friendly than Cantonese. But I guess Laowai appeared only since the 1980s (those who have life experience in the 1960s and 1970s' China might tell us whether they heard Laowai back then), and it was associated with Beijing people's post-1979 interest in and curiosity to the outsiders. Yu Qiuyu's explanation is quite reasonable I think. To say Laowai is not derogatory is not just trying to be apologetic or protesting. There are certainly some words in Chinese that are worse than Laowai. Any terms to indicate foreign people that contain gui (devil) is pretty derogatory. In this sense, the equivalent of guailo might be yangguizi (foreign devil) and this word also appeared alongside China's late Qing/early republican history of being challenged and humiliated. In Lu Xun's True Story of Ah Q, there is a Chinese gentleman nicknamed "Jia yangguizi" [imitation foreign devil] and there is no way to hide the distain. And Jia yangguizi is still being used in today's colloquial Chinese to indicate people who talk and behave as if they are not Chinese. Similarly, riben guizi [Japanese devil] should be linked to the Sino-Japanese war and meiguo guizi [American devil] with the Korean War "resisting America; assisting North Korea" for the Chinese. In another situation, Chinese use of laohei[old black folks--Africans or African Americans] is not so derogatory, but when some Chinese people say heigui [Chinese equivalent for nigger], it is absolutely insulting and unacceptable. I agree with Gene Cooper that Laowai lacks a humanizing term but I more agree with Andrew Field that "the use of the term laowai will also fade over time as Chinese people are exposed more and more to Westerners." Guo WU Allegheny College ************************************************************************* 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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