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Q: ‘My Chinese wife’
Sometimes it hacks me off when people always refer to my wife as ‘My Chinese wife’ she is just my wife if I was married to a lady from Australia would they call her my Australian wife?
12 years 18 weeks ago in Relationships - China
I have been married and divorced twice, first to an American for 32 years, and second to a Chinese for 2-1/2 years.
The American was always referred to as "my wife", never "my American wife". Then came the Chinese, and she was always referred to as "my Chinese wife". It used to piss me off too, the qualifier is not needed at all.
But since I am not a salmon, and it did not last long either (she left as soon as she got the Green Card), I never made a big fuss over it. I am surprised it is more general than what I originally thought.
Wonder why some feel the need to intercalate the word "Chinese" between "my" and "wife" ?. Will it be the same if the word was "husband" instead of "wife" ?
Whenever I talk about my gf in China, whether with the locals in China or people back home (mostly Chinese I might add), they always ask me "Is she Chinese?"
Like WTF....who else would I be seeing in China??
MissA:
I (foreigner) came over to China with my (also foriegn) boyfriend. When we talk about each other, we're not referring to a Chinese. Surely that's not all that rare?
Its funny I dont get it when in Australia but she gets the reverse of it in China
sometimes I feel like the curiosity she found at the airport
but who gives a f&#@ what other people think
I met my ex in China, she was born and raised in Italy but her parents were Chinese. It really threw a gear in thought patterns when I'd show her around the States.
Funny, in the US, my wife was never referred to as "my Chinese wife". Though, here, I am constantly referred to as the "foreigner husband and his mixed children". It is so common that I never even bothered to question or think negative of it.
Most of my students know I'm married, but they never ask "is she Chinese?" But, because I like to travel, and they always want to see some photos, when they see a picutre of us together, the first thing that comes out of their mouths is "She's Chineeeeeeeeeese!" as if this never occured to them!
And yeah, I'm always refered to as her "Meiguode laogong." As if I need some qualification or classification.
