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Q: is it fair that other asians are lumped in with westerners ? the term foreigner is over used.
and whenchinese think of foreigner they think of white people. so when an article comes out saying "foreigners" did this whn it was their own asian cousins , they seem to be sure not to post photos. they make sure not to mention where they were from.
i hope this makes sense.
Is Korea in the West? No it's not.
Is Uganda in the West? I don't think so
Is it fair to generalize and make foreigner equal to westerner? No it is not.
If you look at the "classic" definition of the west, Europe and Northern America, the countries there share a big part of their cultural background. A dude from Sweden and a dude from Italy are still miles apart culturally. A Canadian and a German probably also so. However, the foundation for all these societies remain the same and lots is shared.
For the most part I think westerner and foreigner just means "non-Chinese", I usually chose to hear it that way.
A Vietnamese person in China would not be a westerner, but would be a foreigner.
Traveler:
So you forgot about Australia being western? New Zealand is easily forgotten, but Australia?
Scandinavian:
I thought Australia was part of Asia, the reason some may confuse it as being western is that the good kiwi's lovingly refer to Australia as "The West Island"
My Chinese friends never call me westerner. Foreigner sometimes, but mostly they say, you Dutch. And if I am argue the Chinese culture. They call me 'Stupid Dutch".
I don't bother, yes I am not Chinese and I am very happy with that, rest I really don't care and why should I?
It is convenient for the CCP to lump everybody in one category, so they can blame all bad things on that one category. It would be too difficult trying to explain anything else to a mostly uneducated population.
Definition of FOREIGNER
1
: a person belonging to or owing allegiance to a foreign country
>2
chiefly dialect : one not native to a place or community :
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foreigner
So, not only is it fair it is accurate. Everyone is a foreigner when in any country they are not native to.
crimochina:
in real life, it is accurate to refer to someone according to where they are from. do you get it? if I am asked where i'm from, would i answer from a foreign country. do you? (let me assume not) so your own retarded logic is not even supported by you. if you did answer "a foreign country" then i could respect your post, since you said that would be an accurate answer.
Coc, but if you don't know where someone is from but you do know they aren't from the nation you are in it is perfectly OK to call them foreigner. Or do you expect people to list every possible nationality of a group of non-Chinese?
As an example I don't know where you are from so if we were to meet in the UK I can call you or refer to you as a foreigner. I deeply suspect you are from cloud-cuckoo land but I won't call you a cuckoo as I may be wrong (and insulting cuckoos to boot).
crimochina:
if the police arrest someone, are you saying the police would not know where they're from?
crimochina:
wait, i'm black and i speak english. you would assume i'm a foreigner? brits know american english when they hear it. americans know brit english when we hear it. and just because a "foreigner" is in your home country does not mean they are a foreigner. they could be living there, they may even have been born there. there are many 2nd generation people who do not speak the language of the country they were born in. but you are the right person to assume.
in china, there are many german decedents, russian decedents, many from the western region look indian or paki. so why assume? aren't you against prejudging? oh wait you are against generalized statements but you you love prejudging people who are not chinese? where is your logic?
Hugh.G.Rection:
I wouldn't assume anything but if I didn't know what country you were from but I knew it wasn't the UK perhaps from your accent, or perhaps from your dress, It would be perfectly OK to refer to you as a 'foreigner'.
As to you reference to the police talking about a group of people as 'foreigners' of course they would, do you expect them to say (and the press to report) today we arrested 5 Americans, 7 Canadians, 3 French, 7 Cambodians, 12 Nigerians, 8 New Zealanders, when it would be much easier to say that they arrested a group of foreigners.
Part one of your question, they started using the term 'foreigner' instead of 'foreign devil' after the opening up. It explains a lot.
Part two, according to the Chinese, a real foreigner has blond hair and blue eyes. Other people don't get asked to participate in TV shows, etc.
Foreigners in China are considered to be people who were not born in China with a Chinese bloodline. When Chinese think of foreigners, they don't automatically think of white people. It's Westerners (xifang ren) that they consider white. East and South East Asians are called by their countries name (hanguo ren, yuenan ren), and Black are just called Africans.
The translation of Chinese movies, tv shows or documentaries that are shown in the West is often altered to be adapted to the Western audience while neglecting the audience from ethnic minorities. Therefore, the term "waiguo ren" will be translated as "White people", for example in USA.
Of course, for some Chinese, it is quicker to know that some people are foreigners based on their physical appearance. For other foreigners, it's not until they talk to those foreigners and get to know them a little bit that they will put down their assumptions or even prejudice. That's how they get to discover that Black people aren't as bad and evil as they initially wrongly believed and that they are actually good hearted and smart people who can happen to be from USA or even Sweden and not always from Africa.
Same for foreigners with East or South East Asian ancestry. I look Chinese and am often considered as one by the locals until they hear me talk or notice that I behave differently. I only take advantage of how i look and who i am here. For example, since i look Chinese, i get to avoid the stares (i get panic attacks otherwise), i pay local prices, avoid the first batch of foreign passport chasers and don't get people everyday trying to ask to practice their English. And when they know i am a foreigner, I enter nightclubs for free, get free drinks in bars, get to choose the girls that i like, get paid foreign prices to tutor etc... So it's mostly benefits from both sides.
Everywhere you go in the world, you'll first see that people are more keen to go towards other people who look like them, because it feels more reassuring. Asians have their cousins, Whites have their unity and Blacks have their brothers. It's not until you neglect prejudice, stereotyping, generalisations, bitterness and condescendence that you will actually really understamd that we are only people.
Wait, according to the Chinese, we were all owned by Chinese sometime or another, so are we not all Chinese? It is almost as funny as the Mongolians that made a Neo Natzi Party
