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Q: Have you ever been called a Laowai in your own country?
I was walking into the corner store today and overheard to 2 Chinese dudes talking while the girls were inside the store.
I mean really...how bad is it when you are referred to as a laowai in your own damn country....city?
I just about lost it...and ranted to the Chinese store owner (know him well).
Daily by the wife. You would think after all these years she would work out that this is not China
chinese logics
3 countries china, japan, foreign something
so there are only 3 people, japanese, chinese, foreigners
chinese immigrate to foreign country making them foreigners, BUT they think wait I am still chinese, you are not chinese nor japanese so you must be a foreigner!!1
x_X
being from vancouver like you ive heard it many times, i hate it too but if you think of the chinese language... what else can they say? They dont like to say canadian person, because they are proud of being canadian themselves. They dont seem to have a phrase like bai ren or white chick, and they sure arent gonna think of something clever or apropriate. That involves thinking. so what can they say?
dom87:
actually they can say you are american, canadian, german whatever
even waiguoren is better then laowai
mike695ca:
no you missed my point, the op is from vancouver i believe, so theres a very good chance the chinese people speaking chinese were in fact canadians. So if they are speaking chinese and consider themselves canadians then how would they differentiate them from us?
thedude:
There is always the chance they were just visiting relatives as so many mainlanders do here in Van...but more than likely they were at least permanent residents.
The translation of laowai as "foreigner" is incorrect. The correct translation is "not Chinese". At least, that was how it was posited to me by a Chinese girl in the US who referred to me as laowai (indirectly, to others). When I informed her that she was in fact the laowai, she was quick to correct my mistake! 
mike695ca:
shes full of shit. shes just talking smack because you called her on it. lao wai is a slang for wai guo ren. wai means outside. ie. foriegner or outsider. if shes not in china she is the lao wai not you
Robk:
She is wrong and just trying to cover up losing face.
lao = old / respectable / wise
wai = outside / outsider / external / foreign
It does not mean, not Chinese. Not Chinese is bu shi zhong guo ren lol
cooter:
While I certainly agree with the both of you, I feel the explanation given to me is how the vast majority of Chinese (at home and abroad) truly feel about the meaning and usage of the term laowai, however wrong they may be.....
mike695ca:
oh i see now cooter. I have come across this. Some people will argue to the death, that it just means not chinese, or that its even polite. And for them it may truely mean that. Too be fair even chinese cant agree on any phrase, different places mean different things, ask a hundred people what it means and you get 70 answers. I just dont like how there are a large group of chinese that will admit and feel that it is a little rude. So i dont doubt at all that the lady explaining it actually beleived what she was saying.
I NEVER CALL FOREIGNERS AS LAO WAI . KIDN OF UNFRIENDLY
royceH:
Good for you...but, indirectly...to your friends? Sometimes?
Of course you could be the odd one out!
sevenyan:
Nope. Cos all the foreigners I know so far are my students ,we friends . lucky me
It hasn't happened to me as far as I know. But it begs the question, doesn't it?
In Philippines it means: Saliva, spit. I was told hindi something laowai
I talk to more Chinese people at home now than before China, I tell them I have been to China and now they are laowai, they usually laugh.
I've heard Chinese in the US refer to Americans (well, specifically non-yellow people... couldn't tell what nationality, but to Chinese, nationality and ethnicity are twisted together... blut und boden and all that) as "Wai guo ren".
I started saying ni shi laowai 6 months ago in China in response to the usual laowai comments but here at home I was too stunned so I forgot to say it back at them.
In China the look on their faces when I say that is priceless.
Actually what they mean is you are foreigner to them and they are foreigner to you.It is just comparasion.
