高鼻人

[Peng]

When I was a kid, grew up in 苏州. My grandparents taught me the term for Western foreigners (happened to tour Suzhou parks), "高鼻人" due to their big noses. I didn't use it much. Right now, I use typical terms like 外国人 and etc.

I read 时代漫画 (Time Comic), some kind of old Shanghai comic magazine. I came upon this cartoon (1934):

高鼻人：不要客气！不要客气！

I wonder, does the term still exist today? I searched it in google and baidu, nothing come up. I guess, it's outdated or something... Also, is it considered as derogatory?

[skylee]

What's in the comics is 高鼻子, not 高鼻人.

高鼻深目 is an old expression to describe foreigners or people who look foreign. Personally I don't think the description is derogatory. But I have not heard the term "高鼻人" before.

[Peng]

Ah, I guess I always thought it was 高鼻人, but it's actually 高鼻子. Thanks for pointing out. Haha...

[rezaf]

in one of the books we study an american uses 高鼻子 to define 老外。

[hunxueer]

i've heard people here say “大鼻子” or “高鼻子". i have no idea if it's meant in a derogatory sense. but i could imagine if it's not now that it could surely become that way, sort of like "slanty eye" or "nappy head" are offensive terms that describe--however inaccurate--physical traits of certain groups.

[Han-tiger]

My parents used to use “大鼻子”, when came to refer to westerners, especially Soviet Union people.

[Lu]

Term does still exist, but I would not stand for being called gaobizi. In Taiwanese it's adogah, 'pointy nose', and I detest that too. Skylee, I suppose it's not intentionally derogatory, but how would you feel if you were somewhere in Europe and someone called you a slanty-eye? People are more than their noses (or eyes, or hair), I think it's extremely impolite to call them such words.

[skylee]

Skylee, I suppose it's not intentionally derogatory, but how would you feel if you were somewhere in Europe and someone called you a slanty-eye? People are more than their noses (or eyes, or hair), I think it's extremely impolite to call them such words.

I said, "高鼻深目 is an old expression to describe foreigners or people who look foreign. Personally I don't think the description is derogatory." I was not talking about the term "高鼻子 ".

And we don't need to agree on everything.

[yonglin]

I came upon this cartoon (1934)

What does the "(1934)" stand for? Surely, this picture is not since the year 1934?

[Peng]

It's from 时代漫画 第11期 1934年11月20日出版. 时代漫画 books can be found at here...

[yonglin]

It's from 时代漫画 第11期 1934年11月20日出版. 时代漫画 books can be found at here...

It must be modified from the original version, though. It's quite difficult to imagine they'd use simplified characters 15 years before 1949... the picture itself could be from that time though... what do I know?

[imron]

It's quite difficult to imagine they'd use simplified characters 15 years before 1949.

Why is that? The movement to simplify characters started long before the communists came to power, and many of the simplified forms had already existed in handwriting for hundreds of years. From wikipedia:

Although most of the simplified Chinese characters in use today are the result of the works moderated by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1950s and 60s, character simplification predates the PRC's formation in 1949. Cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed (they date back to as early as the Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BC), though early attempts at simplification actually resulted in more characters being added to the lexicon).

One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lu Feikui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China. Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and therefore proposed that a reform be initiated. It was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the “writing of ox-demons and snake-gods” niúguǐ shéshén de wénzì (牛鬼蛇神的文字). Lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, “If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die.” (漢字不滅，中國必亡。) Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the economic problems in China during that time[1].

In the 1930s and 1940s, discussions on character simplification took place within the Kuomintang government, and a large number of Chinese intellectuals and writers have long maintained that character simplification would help boost literacy in China. In many world languages, literacy has been promoted as a justification for spelling reforms.

[gougou]

Split the discussion on hatred towards Japan(ese) to News and Current Events, as it is a rather sensitive issue (it even touched on Tibet, for good measure).

[shibole]

My wife was telling me about 高鼻子 one day when we were talking about how some chinese food delivery driver she used to know used to bitch about, using racist terms, the people who didn't give him any tip. I don't think he used 高鼻子 because it wasn't really considered that insulting or anything. Terms like 白鬼子 and 黑鬼子 came up, along with 老-something (maybe 鬼佬) which I can't remember. I don't know if those fist two are in common usage or if he just sort of make them up based on other insulting terms ending in 鬼子 like "日本鬼子".