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H-ASIA April 23, 2007 On the usage "laowai"/and Cantonese "guailo" ************************************************************************ From: Eugene Cooper <eugeneco@usc.edu> Dear all, I have followed this discussion of the term "Laowai" with great interest. It now seems a consensus has arisen that the term is not derogatory. We have the testimony of many of our Chinese colleagues supporting that view. Well...I am someone who has lived and worked in Hong Kong for many years, and as I listen to my colleagues here on H-Asia go on about "Laowai" not being a pejorative, I hear in my mind the same justifications offered by my south Chinese friends about the term "GUAILO" (ghost person or devil person), admittedly somewhat more obviously denigrating than "Laowai". Why do south Chinese children cower behind their moms when they see a foreigner? Because their moms tell them, "if you are naughty, the"guailo" will come and get you". Indeed, during my years in HK I was on a one man campaign to get the Chinese to stop referring to us "foreigners" as Guailo, admittedly without much success. But the HK Chinese always insisted that there was nothing denigrating about the term Guailo. "A Guailo is just a Guailo". Well it seemed to me then, and seems to me now that this justification is no different than a southern "red neck" who will insist that there is nothing derogatory about the word "nigger". "A nigger is just a nigger". Thus, I am doubtful that we can rely on the protestations of our Chinese colleagues as evidence that "laowai" is not derogatory, despite the fact that it lacks the obviously derogatory term "gui" or "guai" (ghost/devil). It still lacks the humanizing term "ren" (person) contained in "waiguoren" (foreigner). I think the term "Laowai" occupies the same cognitive space in the minds of north Chinese that "Guailo" occupies in the minds of the south Chinese; that both terms are profoundly chauvinist at the least, if not racist at the root. It is only that the Chinese have not yet got to the point where "political correctness" requires that such terms not be used in public, for the variety of geographic and cultural reasons already pointed out in this thread. After all, why does "Laowai" only refer to "white folks"/western Europeans? Is it because the terms reserved for "dark skinned" people are that much more obviously racist? 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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