hey foreigner!

Via Sinosplice

Here's an article/discussion about the word lao wai centering on the famous and hated Lonely Planets entry.

For those of you who aren't in the know, Lonely Planets describes lao wai as not just a polite term, but the most polite term for foreigner. Owing to the fact that it contains lao, "old." lao is sometimes used as an honorific.

But of course anyone who has been in China for, like, a minute and wasn't all fucked up on crack would notice that lao wai is not usually used in a polite way. In fact, it is the chosen word of giggling children, obnoxious middle-aged men and jackasses.

Personally I think the good people at Lonely Planet's take the occasional hit off the old crack pipe before making their entries. Whoever does their Qingdao research certainly does.

Now that's not to say that I believe that the word lao wai is inherantly negative. It seems like a very informal word, to be sure. I would also say that, at least in Shandong, it's mostly used in negative situations or "holy shit, it's a foreigner" situations. I've never heard anyone call me wai guo ren (lao wai's slightly more formal cousin) as though it were my name.

The differences in the two words come out when I use it. If I need to find my friends in a restaurant and I ask, "na ge fang jian you hen duo de wai guo ren?" That's just me asking which room has all the foreigners. If I ask, "na ge fang jian you hen duo de lao wai?" That always gets a laugh.

A friend of mine once got a laugh by merely saying the words xiao huangdi (little emperor) in front of a Chinese audience. The reaction was "that's our word. How did you know it?" I think that there is a similar thing with lao wai. It's their little nickname for us, and they are a little taken aback when we know what it means.

I have never been referred to as lao wai by any Chinese person who knew I would understand it.