China Segment

In response to this, since they won’t let me comment there. Thanks to Shanghaiist for spotting it.

I’m pretty sure the writer referred to is Howard French, who lives in Shanghai and writes for both the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times, two newspapers with more than slightly better reputations than the People’s Daily.

Most foreigners don’t really care or think about being called laowai since we’re called it so much. After hearing it a few thousand times we start ignoring it. But that’s for us that live here. Those traveling here for the Olympics will probably find it annoying.

In Canada, referring to ‘foreigners’ always has a negative connotation. But referring to ‘Chinese people’ may or may not, it depends on the speaker, their tone of voice and the context.

Being called a laowai in China is rather similar to being called a foreigner in the West. It is a vague and far too-general term to be polite in any way. Part of it’s the ‘wai’. Being called an ‘outsider’ or a ‘foreigner’ has really negative meanings in English and probably most other languages as well.

Not being ‘one of us’, but ‘one of them’, is an idea particularly relevant in China, a rather exclusive society. Foreigners can live here for 20 years, have kids with locals, speak perfect Mandarin and contribute to their communities, but are still considered ‘outsiders’ and can never obtain Chinese citizenship… how sad.

Plus, Canadians and Americans would never call someone a ‘foreigner’ to their face. Most educated Chinese wouldn’t do this either, but the average guy on the street calls us laowais to our faces, behind our backs (as if we can’t understand that word) and often with a manner that doesn’t exactly sound respectful.

It’d be nice if ‘laowais’ weren’t thought of by locals as a homogenous group of people that were just non-Chinese. Of course the word ‘laowai’ and ‘Westerner’ are most often used interchangeably here, meaning 1) non-Western non-Chinese don’t really matter, and 2) all Westerners are the same, surely making the French bristle and the Italians lament.

In most Western countries people are particularly careful about names these days because of the trend towards politically correct (PC) language. People who use PC terms want to substitute bad-sounding names for kinder ones in order not to hurt peoples’ feelings. Some names are created in bad taste, like ‘Eskimo’, while others attain negative meanings over time. I myself am not a fan of PC language, but it’s one reason why when foreigners come to China they’re fairly surprised at having the blind called ‘blind’, and not ‘visually impaired’, at least officially.

Frankly, I’d rather be referred to as a Canadian or by my name, rather than as ‘laowai’, ‘waiguoren’ (外国人) or ‘DVD/CD’ (by which most people on street corners call me). The more Chinese people travel abroad the more they will understand this.

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