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Q: How do you feel about the word "Laowai"?
Just curios about this xpat community as in Taiwan nobody ever uses the word 老外, they all say 外國人. That is a totally non-offensive word (and a natural one if you don't know where someone is from).
A few other differences between Taiwanese Chinese and Chinese Chinese. In Taiwan they never, ever say 漢語 to mean Chinese. The reason, not every Chinese person is 漢, so it's got racist undertones. They use 國語 as in "the national language", or 中文. These are inclusive words, i.e. everyone who is of our nationality uses this language. They also never say 漢字, but 文字.
People might say "well what about English", that's totally different. Being English, is not a race, it is also a nationality. So the phrase English means "Language from the nation of England", it does not have racist undertones. The Han are an ethnic group, so there is a slight difference there.
That being said, Taiwan like everywhere does have it's own problems with racial prejudice. However, they are much more welcoming of foreigners than China. In Taiwan foreigners are not always consider outsiders. E.g. if I got Taiwanese nationality I would be consider Taiwanese, and have an equal voice with people born in Taiwan (the right to vote for example).
In China, you are always 老外, and you are always an "outsider" even if you lived here for 20 years. They never consider anyone foreign as "one of us".
Believe it or not, I never consider my western husband as a foreigner,but a Chinese lol as well as my parents.He is a member of our big Chinese family.
Lao wai is not an offensive word,it makes you guys feel close to us by calling "Laowai" in a casual way,like we call someone,if his or her family name is Wang,We call him or her Lao wang.it's the same.
stan118:
im from london and people dont go around calling others foreigner, infact nobody uses that word, if said with the right tone it would sound like you are not welcome
AdamE:
I know Chinese people don't mean for it to be offensive. But it can certainly feel offesenive and degrading....especially when people know you very well and know you by your name.
For example, when I'm hanging out with my girlfriends family and I keep hearing "laowei laowei laowei laowei laowei" I find it a bit insulting because every single one of them know me by my name and we all know eachother very well......it makes me feel lesser of a person or like an outsider when they know me very well but call me foreigner instead of calling me by my name. When they are talking about Chinese people they call them by their name, they don't say "that person from beijing" or "that Chinese guy".....so it is a double standard and it's one many foreigners find annoying.
Of course I know people usually aren't trying to be rude or offensive so there's no point in letting it bother me. In some cases though I've told friends to stop calling me laowei and call me by my name when you're talking about me.
maggiegirly:
AdamE, I understand what you mean and I totally agree with you.
If I was you,I will just tell my them,can you stop calling me laowai,I'd be more happy to hear if you guys call my name instead.I am sure they will do it.I don't like to call foreigners as Laowai either,but Wai guo ren if they are strangers or I don't know them well. but If they are my friends,I will just call their names.more comfortable with that. I am glad all of my family and my friends call my husband's name,plus he has a nice and simple Chinese name.easy for people to remember.
Maybe you can try to get a Chinese name?
I don't look for acceptance from anyone, although I have to say, I find it very welcoming how quick people are to call me uncle, or how quick they are to call my son brother, and i'm also not offended by the word 'laowai', I think it's descriptive but not in a negative way. 'Lao' means 'old' and 'wai' could be termed as meaning 'outside', which is just how I see it in meaning: old outsiders, as in people from the outside world of old times. Afterall, we haven't been a feature here on the whole for a very very long time.
Different culture some times is ............,heh?!
Any way, it's so funny!!!
It's annoying when people know you by your first name and they know you very well and they still refer to you as laowei.
It's just a cultural difference, Chinese people don't seem to realize or know that it can be considered offensive in other parts of the world to constantly refer to someone as "foreigner" especially when you know them very well.
It's annoying at times, but you just gotta let it go and realize most people aren't trying to be rude or insulting to you...just a cultural difference.
well. last time i have heard someone referring to me as a laowai, i have start to call that guy Zhongguo Zhina.
We had a talk with him preaching that laowai isn't a bad term just because most of chinese people dont think that is a bad term, and me telling him that most japanese have the same feeling about zhongguo Zhina, and again most chinese doesn't like it to be called like that. In the end i guess he got it...
lao shi, lao ban, lao wai, lao ma, lao ba, lao zi - seems fine to me.
As long as what I'm called doesn't end in UNT I usually don't care.
Now that I'm back in Canada, when I see someone who isn't white I scream "FOREIGNER" at the top of my lungs and point in their face and laugh. Then sometimes I scream swearwords because obviously they don't understand English, which is pretty funny.
It is extremely culturally acceptable and in particular Chinese immigrants -who are not overly-sensitive at all - appreciate it greatly.
cooter:
Wish there were more Chinese immigrants where I live in the US. Mostly Laotians 
To be honest - personally - I don't have much of a problem with the term specifically, more just the attitudes behind it. To be honest, I occasionally refer to myself or other foreigners as laowai amongst most of my Chinese friends (thought pretty much only in Chinese) just because it's thrown around pretty casually. In a mixed group (foreigners and Chinese) I avoid usage but I don't think much of it.
I once knew 2 Northern Irish guys.. Fine people by themselves. Put them together and the crazy, paranoid side would come out. "Mate.. mate.. Chinese fucken people calling me laowai. I'm tired of it mate, I'm ready to smash his face in."
What does rustle my jimmies though is the feeling that you can get so close to some Chinese people, until you feel, -and are treated - like you're part of the family until something comes up and - BOOM! - out comes the same outsider talk. "Oh, it's just that we know some foreigners think x and y, do such-and-such. But don't worry, we know you're not one of those guys." Please.. Just don't bother bringing it up next time.
Simon above, particularly the last paragraph, that is so, so, so on the mark. I have been here a goodly amount of time and am fairly infused into the culture. Yet, at work, when something goes wrong, the boss starts with the entire anti-foreigner diatribe. It is just so disgusting, really it is.
kchur:
Why not use that "add comment" option? Do they only pay you your five jiao based on postcount?
981977405:
Kchur, we recently received a notice from the Admin concerning the use of profanity on this site, meaning that it is "verboten". Yes I notice in some of your recent posts and comments that you continue to use profanity in liberal doses. Why?
