Laowai isn't 'foreigner', it's 'Asian'.

[MPhillips]

Dear Kenny 同志～Call me anything--just don't call me late to lunch!

[MPhillips]

I'm surprised the above passage said red whiskers & green eyes as I've never seen anyone with bright green eyes--as opposed to all the actors & actresses with brilliant blue eyes. Bright red whiskers & bright blue eyes really might look a little demonic.

[carlo]

What do you folks like to be called? To be fair, 洋人 is merey neutral at best.

 

 

I personally don't think there's a a special list of acceptable words that you can swap with the "bad" ones. All human beings, more or less, like to have a say in how society typecasts and pigeonholes them. Even if you substitute all references to 鬼佬 with 外籍貴賓, the problem is how the concept is actually being used. For example, before visiting some places in China, it had never occurred to me that some people would find me ethnically indistinguishable from Russian sailors or Kyrgyzstan traders, and be genuinely astonished that I don't drink vodka for breakfast or live in a yurt. The assumed nationality or whatever becomes the all-defining factor that is supposed to explain all your actions -- this gets boring quickly.

 

So regardless of where I am, I like to refer to people as "that young man" or "this old lady", unless their being "Chinese" has anything to do with the subject under discussion. I like when Chinese do the same, and refer to me as that 帥哥, unless they are border police examining my passport.

[skylee]

I quite often use 西人.

[crazy-meiguoren]

I prefer to be called 朋友, but until proper introductions are made, if 老魏 or 外国人, or some other term is used respectfully while I'm in China, I'm okay with it. ;)  I do take an issue with being called a "foreigner" in my own country.  It carries connotations that I don't belong in my own homeland. China may be the middle kingdom, but outside its borders, one is in the 中 of somewhere else.

[studychinese]

I prefer 百鬼。

[Demonic_Duck]

I agree with Imron that “鬼佬” is intrinsically insulting (regardless of context), as is any other term with “鬼” in it. Equally though, I agree with carlo that no-one likes to be typecast, no matter what terminology is used.

 

With that said, as a simple descriptor, I think “外国人” or even “老外” is fine for “foreigner” (though for accuracy's sake should also include 外国的黑人、黄种人 etc.), and “白人” is fine for “white person”.

 

I think the main context in which people have a problem with “老外” is when it's used to get someone's attention. If someone shouted “hey, foreigner!” in England, it would be considered extremely rude and probably racist. That said, here it's simply an extension of its use as a descriptor, and being used to narrow down the choices of people to whom the speaker could be talking to. We simply don't do that in English in the same way - we wouldn't shout out “hey, old lady!” or “hey, little kid!” either, though in Chinese “嘿，大妈” or “嘿，小朋友” are both fine (unless 大妈 feels she should be 大姐 instead, in which case there'll be hell to pay). On the other hand, we do occasionally use descriptors when calling people in English - “you with the hat/glasses/blonde hair!” I guess the difference is that we a) take care to choose characteristics that couldn't be taken offense to, and b) don't nominalise them (“hey, you with the red hair!” is OK, but “hey, redhead!” isn't).

[rezaf]

Oh 鬼佬 and 洋鬼子 are such glamorous titles. I wish people would start calling me that but apparently people like me from the Middle East belong to the 阿三，阿叉 category.

[Kenny同志]

Thanks for your very interesting feedback, folks.

 

Next time I am gonna use 外國人, 白人, 黑人, 中東人, or 西人. 西人 is a title which is rarely used in spoken Chinese on the Mainland but as I am a person who takes a great interest in exploring the acceptability of some dead or rarely used words that I like, I would like to give it a try and see how people will react to it.

 

Dear Kenny 同志～Call me anything--just don't call me late to lunch!

 

I may use 那位白人女士/小姐 when talking about you. : )

 

Oh 鬼佬 and 洋鬼子 are such glamorous titles. I wish people would start calling me that but apparently people like me from the Middle East belong to the 阿三，阿叉 category.

 

Any Chinese with good 教養 will never use such insulting words on a respetable Indian or Iranian.

 

PS: Is "feedback“ used correctly here?

[abcdefg]

西人 is a title which is rarely used in spoken Chinese on the Mainland...

 

Wouldn't 西方人 be easier to understand?

[Kenny同志]

Yes, 西方人 is easier to understand. 西人 sounds a bit literary. 

[abcdefg]

Agree, I've never heard it used in actual speech.

[renzhe]

What do you folks like to be called? To be fair, 洋人 is merey neutral at best.

I like to be called by my name or, if someone doesn't know me, a neutral address like 先生 is fine.

If the "foreign" aspect needs to be stressed, then 外国人 is fine.

[icebear]

PS: Is "feedback“ used correctly here?

 

Yes

[skylee]

I suppose the use of 西人 varies in different regions. It is the same as 西方人 / 西洋人 / 洋人, but here I find 西人 easiest to use without any awkwardness.

PS - over here we don't speak in Putonghua. This may affect our choice of words.

[Kenny同志]

Thanks for your feedback, 仁者 and Skylee.

 

And thanks for your 指教, 冰熊.

[renzhe]

I had 忍者 in mind, but 仁者 is a very kind variation

[Kenny同志]

歪打歪著.

[Hofmann]

As I use it, 外國人 is fine for referring to the set of people foreign to the country. In my case, that would be the USA, unless I'm talking about some other country. 老外 is different because it lets you refer to a particular person. In such a case, I prefer to use their name or just 人. To the less multiculturally-aware Chinese, the problem with 老外 is not readily grasped. If I went to some other English-speaking country and the locals called me "foreigner" or "American," there's nothing inherently offensive or incorrect about it, but there is no point in calling out my foreignness when they could just say "person." Even more so if they know my name; in such a case I would take it as intentional out-crowding.

 

And so why are Chinese people so likely to do it? At least two factors contribute to it: (1) Chinese culture and (2) less developed awareness of human diversity in China. A Chinese person likely thinks of themselves as part of their country, family, company, ethnicity, etc. than as an individual. They are more likely to assign all Chinese to the in-crowd "us" and foreigners to the out-crowd "them", and believe that members of the in-crowd have much more in common than nationality. When they see an ethnic Chinese, they are more likely to assume that this person identifies China as their home, even if they aren't Chinese. When they see someone who is not ethnically Chinese, they are more likely to assume that this person does not consider China their home, even if they are Chinese citizens. The USA was like this not long ago.

[AlexBlackman]

I prefer 洋人, a neutral term is better than a xenophobic term, but also better than a overly positive term. I doubt many of you like to be called 外国朋友。

The Singaporean term 红毛 seems neutral, but it is otherising as 老外。 An immigrant from the UK lost her children in a river accident, devestated, she waited at the nearest bridge for decades, waiting for her lost children to return. The locals started calling the bridge 红毛 bridge. The most relavent fact to them in the story was that she was a Westerner.