January 4, 2008
This laowai's gone to heaven
By Derek Sandhaus
Good news for all you laowai's out there, Shanghai is heaven!!! At least it is according to the online edition of the People's Daily, which featured a fluff hard-hitting piece on how Shanghai has become the refuge of the foreigners, ballooning from 4,000 to 60,000 in the 2000s. The argument goes something like this: more expats = Shanghai is clearly heaven. The reasons cited include: job opportunities, high-wages/low costs, and easy entry/exit requirements (huh?).
Reasons ignored include: Line 1 during rush hour, that person coughing on the back of my head on the bus, and being frowned and hissed at by old women.
Which brings us to Exhibit B, also from Xinhua's golden child (People's Daily English Edition) an opinion piece entitled "Is 'laowai' (老外) a negative term?" To summarize, the author was shocked to learn that foreigners don't like being called 'laowai' (venerable outsiders), which he believes is not negative in connotation. The article then goes on to explain why Chinese used to dislike foreigners, but love them now, which is why they call them laowai instead of 'yanggui' (洋鬼, or "foreign devils"). The author concludes by suggesting that Chinese should pay attention to these 'trivial' matters (foreigner's feelings) and perhaps use the warmer and fuzzier 'laowai pengyou' (老外朋友, or "foreign friend") instead.
We think that this author really missed the boat on this one. To paraphrase George Carlin, there's nothing wrong with the word 'laowai,' its the racist asshole using it that's the problem. Yes, 'lao' is a term used out of respect in China, but you don't feel respected when a group of people are using it while pointing at you and laughing as if you had a third eyeball. It's like that condescending boss you had when you were 17, you didn't feel like a leader of men when he said 'go clean the toilets chief.'
It just isn't about the words, people feel like 'laowai' is negative because they receive negative treatment. The double-standard that exists between Chinese and everyone else is the country's worst kept secret. Foreigners get insulted (to their faces) regularly by people who think that they don't understand Chinese. Adding 'friend' to the end doesn't seem to soften the blow either. 'Cracker' isn't really that much worse than 'cracker friend.' Until it's just 'friend,' how are foreigners supposed to feel welcome?
This isn't to say that we don't like it here, we'd have left long ago if we didn't. We just always thought heaven was supposed to be more inviting. Maybe we'll just need to go to hell for that (rumor has it that they have central heating).
Photo by staffh
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The Shanghaiist writer (no name, pity) above is right that it is all about WHO is doing the talking and HOW the term is used. I would venture to say that the "laowai" that wrote this shanghaiist piece is likely pretty sensitive to the term as well as the usage.
Welcome to the real world my (likely) pigment-impaired friend. Discriminatory attitudes are everywhere, US, Canada, Europe, Australia...Its not limited to China though it may be here that many non-chinese feel it for the first time. Been faced with it everywhere I've been and its just a fact of life. If China is the first place you've dealt with racism of this sort, then you are lucky.
That said, I do wish that China was LESS homogeneous so that the people here could be exposed more to people of various pigmentations to actually break down the stereotype barriers once and for all.
At least the issues are being addressed. Its a start.
(Addendum) Sorry Derek, finally looked up and saw your name as the author up top rather than the bottom as "posted by: Shanghaiist".
I guess the ideal solution would be to (gasp) not say anything at all. There's really no need to point out the obvious.
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.
Hey guys, and thanks for posting my photo on the site. This is the fourth time one of my photos get published here I believe.
Although, with risk of being a nitpick, the link to the photo (at the end of the post) is pointing to some other website. Perhaps it is because Flickr is banned in China?
Cheers.
staff
That's right staffh. All pictures are uploaded onto our own server.
Thank you for sharing your pictures with Shanghaiist! Keep them coming!
I think you're all dancing around a rather obvious fire that burns brightly here in China. Its a xenophobic, ethnocentric one that hasn't changed much in the "5,000 years of history" now lauded on shiny new packs of Chunghwa cigarettes. This type of thinking - we're cultured, refined, Chinese and therefore better - and the lack of any sort of cultural relativism (unless it comes to fried chicken, pasta, and HBO sitcoms) will continue to allow the Chinese to blindly hate Japan, laugh at your big nose and hairy legs, and tell you, simply "you cannot understand Chinese people."
Of course you can't; you're a laowai.
Silly laowai.
Gee, 'blindly hate Japan...' now why would they ever hate Japan? Whenever I see this one I know that a bunch of bullshit will follow. they don't like the Kuomintang much either my friend, and for much the same reasons. China 'hasn't changed much in the "5,000 years of history" but they should forgive the Japanese for events that are still remembered by living people because that was so long ago. No double standard there. Last I looked racism and xenophobia is a worldwide malady. Me thinks the 'silly laowai' in this equation has six legs, a top hat and sings in a lilting falsetto.
"China 'hasn't changed much in the "5,000 years of history" but they should forgive the Japanese for events that are still remembered by living people because that was so long ago. No double standard there."
Mr Izmore, I don't really understand your logic here. There are no standards but one, my friend, and that was - uh - like - the point. Sure, the Chinese have a reason for disliking someone for historical reasons, but when that hatred is blind to the point that it seems almost biological (particularly in young people that actually don't actually remember a goddamn thing), some introspection is probably necessary. Anyways, to paraphrase the great Billy Joel, I didn't mean to start THAT fire.
Lemme rephrase this. A certain cultural trait, that has been cultivated over 5,000 Years of Glorious History, has allowed a race to view outsiders with great suspicion and good measure of disdain. That's all. Sorry to ruffle your nonsensical feathers.
Pray tell what 'race' spawned you Mr. Cricket? The race that doesn't 'view outsiders with great suspicion and good measure of disdain?' Which race is that? Which of the five, or is seven these days, races do you identify yourself with?
OMG, i barf when someone Chinese uses the "China has 5,000 years of history" line, implying a bit of cultural superiority by means of seniority.
From my experience, that line is usually mentioned when a chinese person either 1) can't defend their actions/arguments after being shown a logical P.O.V., 2) this person is just too stuck on chinese cultural/traditional norms and values and is braindead improving their situation even though their lifestyles have already adopted a lot of Western practices, or 3) short-sighted and waiting on someone else to change before they do (as an excuse to keep doing something wrong in the first place).
A fail to recall an experience where "5000 years of history" did not end in frustration on my part.
In the end, I counter this argument by coming up my own; "If it took 5000 years for China to get to where it is now, how long did it take the West?"
Uh... I don't believe 'someone Chinese' ever used the phrase '5000 years of history' in this discussion, Mr J. Cricket did...
Izmore, what IZ your point? That I am claiming to be without bias? I would never make such a ridiculous claim. I am, and was, simply discussing a culture that, in my personal opinion, is reasonably xenophobic, and doesn't have much respect for outsiders, short of a name that they employ to describe all of them at once, which seems quite telling to me.
Does that make sense my angry little friend?
My points. First of all hating the Japanese is perfectly reasonable for a country that was savaged by that culture's ritual brutality for many long years. Members of my family hate the Japanese because of what happened to them or their fathers and grandfathers in prisons during WWII. It also seems to me that jumping from 'laowai' to 'xenophobic' is a bit of a leap. Plain enough for you little man? I also don't understand why you think I'm angry with you. I feel like my arguments have been quietly reasonable. On the other hand, you sir, seem to be angry at an entire nation, or race if you'd prefer....
I'm glad someone posted this issue in one of the 'ex-pat' type blogs or mags.
Yes, racism exists in every country and that doesn't make any difference to the plain fact that 'laowai' one of the racist slang terms in one of the countries.
When I hear people back in the UK frequently using the word 'foreigners' itself in conversation I assume they're at least a little xenophobic.
If you are walking around the street and see someone who's not of your own ethnic type then you shouldn't be thinking anything out of the ordinary at all.
If you want to refer to a stranger you can say "see that guy over there" or whatever ..and if you want to talk to a stranger you can start with "excuse me" and then maybe - shock - ask their name.
I accept use of 'laowai' as much as I'd accept the 'N word' in an given country. IE not at all.
As for the Japan thing - people 'hating all Japanese' because of the war is understandable, but not reasonable or rational. I'm from the UK and I don't hate Germans. It doesn't make any sense. Germans born after the fact have nothing to do with it.
A person would consider it reasonable, however, if they linked social behavior and political behavior with a concept of genetic race. IE, racism.
There's only one race - the human race.
Peace.
Heaven isn't that inviting, that's why it has a gate.
What do you mean by "easy entry/exit"? Is that why I've had over 30 Laowai boyfriends in 2 years? Someone please tell me!
If you are offended by laowei you clearly don't understand Manadarin. As the terms laozhong, laomei etc. are used quite frequently and have no negative connotations.
It's not the actual term, it's the tone that always (ALWAYS) accompanies laowai. Heck, even rural Zhejiang ren understand the difference (I was out biking with some Caucasian friends when they got ahead of me in rural ZHejiang once - and I asked some people at a store if they had seen the laowai go by. . . and they corrected me "waiguo pengyou"
So if they know, then everyone else knows.
Mata_hari,
"As for the Japan thing - people 'hating all Japanese' because of the war is understandable, but not reasonable or rational. I'm from the UK and I don't hate Germans. It doesn't make any sense. Germans born after the fact have nothing to do with it."
Ask a Jew or a Gypsy about the Germans and they might feel differently. China was occupied by the Japanese who murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people, women, children, old people, by gun and sword. Germany bombed the UK but never invaded it. I think there is a big qualitative difference. Ignoring the responsibilities of the guilty in our history absolves them of the repercussions of their wrongdoings and is not a solution. The evil that is done lives on and so does the responsibility to repair it.
I'm from the USA and I believe that even though I wasn't around way back then I owe the murdered Native Americans for the wealth of my country. How that manifests economically and culturally is debatable, the fact that I have a share in the responsibility for my forefathers actions is not.
As for your statement about race I agree wholeheartedly and that was the point I was making about J. Cricket's post. The concept of 'race' was invented to justify the European slave trade with the Americas.
I was very active in the Civil Rights movement in the 60s and to equate 'laowai' with 'nigger' is beyond simplistic, it is insulting to the people who died in that fight for justice. I think the fact that you can write one out while you have to use the current socially accepted code for the other shows that subconsciously you are aware of the deep difference.
I hope you understand that my strong opinions are my own and I respect your right to express yours. The world is filled with many problems and dialogue and mutual understanding is the only way to solve them.
China has also introduced a brand new air-to-air
missile that should be operational by 2010. The PL-10
heat seeking missile looks and acts almost identical
to the European ASRAAM air-to-air missile. This deadly
new weapon will equip the Chinese air force and enable
them to dogfight at close quarters with other
aircraft.
One has to wonder how the European militaries are
taking the sudden appearance of a missile virtually
identical to theirs in the Chinese inventory.
Finally, the former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag was
commissioned into the Chinese Navy as Shilang, hull
No. 83. The name was selected because Shilang was the
last Chinese Navy admiral to invade Taiwan.
China has also introduced a brand new air-to-air
missile that should be operational by 2010. The PL-10
heat seeking missile looks and acts almost identical
to the European ASRAAM air-to-air missile. This deadly
new weapon will equip the Chinese air force and enable
them to dogfight at close quarters with other
aircraft.
One has to wonder how the European militaries are
taking the sudden appearance of a missile virtually
identical to theirs in the Chinese inventory.
Finally, the former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag was
commissioned into the Chinese Navy as Shilang, hull
No. 83. The name was selected because Shilang was the
last Chinese Navy admiral to invade Taiwan.
very funny mesoholy your easy entry/exit joke!
I don't think this is going to change. Say everyone started calling you a waiguoren instead, and then acted, unsurprisingly, like you were somehow different. You would also be offended by that. Totally independent of the term, you just want everyone to love you for who you are or treat you fairly, just like one of the putong de zhongguo ren. Good luck with that.
Obviously, some laowais relish being treated differently or else they wouldn't live in China at all, where, in many senses, you have carte blanche to do whatever the hell you want just because you ARE different.
Remember when it used to be acceptable to call people retarded or disabled, but now those terms are un-PC, so now we should say differently-abled or some other nonsense thing.
Suggested course of action = zipping it.
When people call you "lao wai", just answer with "shen me ri ben?"
^ uh that only indicates you don't know mandarin enough nan-yangrouch, as it makes no sense at all...
@yu444:
I never claimed fluency and mandarin is not my first language, but I can't be called out for being wrong about China in general or specifically the expat community.
Amazing... you claim to speak for all expats?
From what I've seen of the idiotic drivel you flood this site with you are as fluent in Mandarin as you are knowledgeable about China.
Bad bad nanheyangrouchuan!