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H-ASIA April 23, 2007 Outsiders (was On the usage "laowai") ************************************************************************ From: Paul H. Kratoska <kratoska@nus.edu.sg> In 1975 I began an extended stay in Barrio Cruz na Ligas, a settlement located at the edge of the Diliman Campus of the University of the Philippines. It is an old barrio and the family I stayed with had been there for generations. On my first day, they pointed out to me several houses that belonged to people who were not "legitimate" residents (their word, in English), which meant the occupants were relatively recent arrivals and therefore outsiders. I grew up in a small midwestern town in the United States and at first glance the place would have seemed fairly homogeneous to, say, a visiting Asian anthropologist. Everyone looked pretty much the same, sounded the same, ate the same food, shared much the same religious beliefs and interest in sports and attitudes toward culture. But if the visiting anthropologist knew the language well enough, was thoughtful enough, and dug deep enough, a different picture might have emerged - of Norwegian farmers who didn't trust banks run by non-Norwegians, of the railroad people who the farmers saw as outsiders, of Protestant families that did not want their children dating Catholics, and so on. The visiting Asian might have learned such things, but I grew up in the place and the knowledge came slowly and some of it long after I moved elsewhere. The Asian anthropologist would have been treated politely and almost certainly would not have faced racial slurs, but would nonetheless have remained forever an outsider. I have lived in Southeast Asia for 32 years, always as an outsider but surrounded by outsiders (most of them not Caucasian but outsiders nonetheless). I'm an "Ang Moh" (red hair - though my hair was never red and is mostly a distant memory), and an "orang puteh" (white person), and both expressions can be completely polite, neutral, or negative depending on the person saying it or the context. This thread has obviously struck a nerve, but nevertheless it seems just a bit odd that such a universal phenomenon is generating so much comment. Paul Kratoska (or Krįto¹ka, if the diacritics will go through the system = the Bohemian/Czech rendering of the name, which makes me an outsider just about everywhere, not least in the Czech Republic) National University of Singapore ************************************************************************* 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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