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Apr 15

minipost-Letter: How should foreigners feel about being called “鬼子,” “鬼佬,” “老外,” etc.?

Written by: Joel | Filed under:-mini-posts, culture, language, q&a | Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
235 Comments » newest

I’m on an extended visit back to my hometown, Vancouver, a Canadian city full of Chinese. Chinese is the second-most commonly used language after English. My wife and I were running around a Chinese mall for fun to practice Mandarin and buy some Chinese DVDs when we overheard Chinese people talking about us in Mandarin saying, “Those foreigners are speaking Chinese!” I thought it was funny that even in Canada, Chinese people would call white people “foreigner” (in this case: “外国人”).
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Apr 14

minipost-Letter: Understanding popular Chinese notions about “racism” (help me out here!)

Written by: Joel | Filed under:-mini-posts, Analysis, q&a | Tags:, , , , , , , ,
144 Comments » newest

I have a growing suspicion that the way many Chinese people understand the word “racism” (or “racist”) is quite different from the way I use it. This causes communication problems because I use the term “racism” like most North Americans do, but my Chinese acquaintances react in ways that don’t seem to make sense. Obviously there’s a disconnect. I want to know why my Chinese friends and acquaintances react the way they do to the term “racism”. How are they understanding this word?
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