Hey everyone now you may remember that a while back we introduced to you the word 老外 Lǎo Wài Foreigner, which is the standard way Mandarin speakers refer to a foreigner in China and Taiwan. But what about people who speak other dialects? How can we tell when they are talking about us?
Bill: If you are a westerner and you are in Hong Kong you will get called a 鬼佬 Gwái Lóu. This is Cantonese. Gwai means ghost, and this is the name Cantonese people have called westerners for a long time. I mean when Cantonese people first saw Westerners can you imagine how scary that must have been? Seeing someone with a different color hair and eyes! Like seeing a ghost, very frightening for them! So scary! So they called them guilou.
Ben: So if you are in Hong Kong and you hear Gwai Lou, you know they are talking about you...
[Scene, Ben walks into a waiting room and there are two Canto people talking and they say guilou, Ben then points at them to let them know he understands]
Ben: Then if you are in Southern Taiwan, or anywhere with Taiwanese speaking people you might get called....
Taiwanese person: 啊兜仔 A dou a, which is Taiwanese and means an eagle like nose. It is what Taiwanese people have come to call Westerners since their noses are more pronounced than Asian peoples' noses.
Ben: If this happens, you know what to do!
Ben: Now let's go back to Mandarin, there are more names for non Caucasians, if you look like this [show a black guy, maybe marcus] you might get called a laowai, but you may also get called
[black guy walks down the street and two Chinese people see him and say "hei ren"]
Yep 黑人 Hēi rén means black person, and in many places in China, they don't see a black guy very often. So you might hear them announce your arrival, if you hear hei ren, you can just smile and say...
In addition to Hei Ren, they may say 老黑 Lǎo Hēi, kind of like Lao wai but hei instead of wai.
And don't worry, they are not being racist, Chinese people are just very blunt when it comes to things like this. They will often comment very openly on people's appearance, like the tone of your skin or even say things like"you're very pale," "you're a bit fat," how much is your annual salary?" and think nothing of it. So just take it as a sign of affection.
For black people, they even named a tooth paste after you guys. 黑人牙膏 Hēi rén yá gāo Black Man Toothpaste. Originally this toothpaste also had the English name, Darkie. But, when US toothpaste company Colgate bought the company in 1985 they realised that the name may be offensive outside the Chinese speaking world, so they changed the English name from Darkie to Darlie. And they made the guy on the tube look less black and more racially ambiguous. But, the name in Chinese is still Hei Ren. Curiously another brand has now popped up in Taiwan called "Whitemen," I'm offended, deeply offended.
OK back to name calling, so what if you look like this [Indian guy]
Well Indians often get called....
[Chinese guy points at the Indian guy and says "a san"]
阿三 Ā sān Indian
Now "a" is just a phonetic sound "a", and san means three. There are many different theories as to why the Chinese call Indians a san. Some say the reference to three is because India split into three countries, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. But I feel the most likely explaination is that the whole name a san is a phonetic translation of the name of the region of India known as Assam. It is where some of the finest Indian tea comes from. [Ben holding a tea cup]
So there are some other names that you might get called in China. Gwai lou, a dou a, hei ren, Lao Hei and a san.
Thanks for watching guys, and don't forget to share your stories of being a foreigner in China in the comments section below.
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