the chinese nigger
Today’s an officially big day in this big official city. 3 new subway lines officially opened. #8, #10, and the airport train. There are also plenty of officials in my old neighborhood of WuDaoKou, patrolling for the foreigners. If you’re not officially-looking Chinese, you might be surrounded as I was and asked for your papers. Why not? After all, you are not officially-looking Chinese! The collective group you belong to: non-Chinese. Outsider. Old foreigner. Unknown. Trouble.
BTW: If you are foreign but are officially-looking Chinese, then no problem. No one will know the difference unless you open your mouth and speak that weird HuaQiao accent. So unofficial.
So foreigners, when you come to the big city to enjoy the games, make sure to listen for what is unofficially one of the most unpleasant words of the language: laowai. Lao rhymes with cow and wai rhymes with my. Unfortunately, Chinese of any age might address you in this way, or in third person. They will be standing right next to you or in front of you and speak to their officially-looking Chinese counterpart using this word. You are illiterate of course so you cannot understand them. You are not officially-looking Chinese, so you must be stupid as hell and completely unfamiliar with Mandarin.
LaoWai literally means old outside, but the educated officially-looking Chinese will tell you that it is that derogatory way to address foreigners. It’s the Chinese way of saying “nigger” but to some extent I don’t agree that it’s as negative. It reflects more of the lack of education of the speaker, and so to some of my highly educated friends it’s embarrassing. In the same way though, it perpetuates a kind of “us-them” thinking and devalues the person to sub-human status. I’m no longer a human being. I’m a laowai, a foreign thing, something that can’t speak or understand; an animal of some kind but not a person who feels and thinks.
That’s my objection to this word. It’s in the idea behind its use. Any true fan of this country–who wants to see it developing mutual success for all people of this world–will discourage this kind of dumb-dumb thinking anywhere. As I’ve said before, give power to ignorance and you have some very bad things happen in the world. Popularity of a bad idea can be a powerfully dangerous force.
I hear this word every day, but I’m not surprised about its popularity. The absolutely horrible and inhumane treatment of the officially-looking Chinese by the laowai in the 19th and early 20th centuries sparked China’s aggressive mid-20th century approach to “self-sufficiency” that spawned the thinking behind laowai. Considering the history, why shouldn’t the officially-looking Chinese loathe and deplore the laowai?! Instead, the officially-looking Chinese are welcoming the laowai. In the spirit of those expensive sports games, the officially-looking Chinese demand official harmony between the officially-looking Chinese and the laowai for 2 weeks. Officially!
So when on the new official subway lines, please carry your official papers, you unofficial-looking, illiterate, unfamiliar, trouble-making old outsider you. “Welcome to Beijing laowai!”