How does it feel when you hear someone else clearly articulate a feeling you’ve been unable to express? I mean, besides doing the Tom Cruise undy slide in your living room? And not the Oprah “I’m in Love with Katie” couch jump, either. I’m talking tears, baby! I know I’ve sang his praises a few times before on this blog, but Mr. French’s latest takes the moon cake.
I don’t know if it took him four years to figure it out (I doubt it because it took me only 4 weeks), but he puts the English language to use in explaining precisely what it is that they do, like it’s nobodies business (and better than I could have ever hoped to).
The title of the article is “As Olympic Games Approach, Chinese are urged to be civilized”. While you read it, remember his experience is from Shanghai, “China’s most cosmopolitan city”. Imagine what it is like elsewhere. Here’s an excerpt with my footnotes.
Living in Shanghai…for the last four years I have been continually struck by the vast gulf that seems to exist in people’s minds between Chinese and foreigners.
I first discovered this through my hobby, photography, which led me to wander through the city’s working class neighborhoods, where at every turn I hear cries of “lao wai.”
The words constitute a slightly uncouth* slang for foreigner. Literally, they mean “old outsider.”
Quite often, these murmurings are accompanied by a mocking, sing-song uttering of the English greeting “hello.” The tone is unmistakable, and it is
This is not to say that it is hostile, either, rather it is said in a way that suggests that foreigners are not merely an object of novelty here, which should certainly no longer be the case by now, but also of slight ridicule.
These are not churlish observations, and my feelings are certainly not hurt.
I feel genuine gratitude toward the many people who have let this stranger into their homes or not objected as I have photographed them close up.
Indeed, if the calls of “lao wai” had been limited to working class neighborhoods, I might have stifled this observation altogether**.
Unfortunately, it is not. In hotels and restaurants and on central city streets here and all over China I have heard Chinese of every station speaking loosely and loudly about old outsiders in their midst, and wondered how they would feel if everywhere they went overseas people pointed fingers and shouted “Chinese!”***
Come to think of it, I’ve never heard of eradicating “lao wai” talk as one of the behavioral campaign goals, and I think I know why. The Chinese state has long promoted us-versus-them**** ways of thinking to enhance cohesion and control. By now, these notions have taken such deep root they have become normative.
The Olympic Games, however, are above all a celebration of our common humanity, and China would do wonders for the impression it makes on visitors by easing the distinctions between us and them.
*Uncouth in our minds, but not in the minds of Chinese. Whenever I raise my objections to its use, my Chinese friends will tell me that the term, like Chinese, is friendly and welcoming.
**And I might add that the use is not limited to teenagers or old folks. Often times they come from children, even those who can’t construct complete sentences, but know well how to point, say “hello” and “lao wai”. And sometimes, from friends of friends after introductions where we have exchanged names. Indoctrination!!
***Even better, do what I have taken to and responding with “konichiwa”. Because, after all, don’t we all wish Chinese were actually Japanese?
****For as communal as communists are supposed to be, the one thing that surprised me most when meeting people here was how each one tried to convince me (or was it themselves?) of how different we are (I thought I was a comrade too?). From the first “hello”, driving a stake - cultural, historical, political, or economical - between us is the rule, not the exception. Usually, even during casual, fleeting encounters, I search for commonalities with my counterpart - ways to connect and share; but here I often feel I’m swimming up stream against a perpetual and seemingly endless cascade of prejudice and stereotypes. Being told what America and Americans are like by people who have never been to America and may have only met 1 or 2 of us doesn’t sit well with me.
Note: I read this article on Saturday afternoon and it didn’t strike me at all as coincidental that on Saturday night I had a confrontation with someone who called me a “lao wai”. One of those Tibetans…voodoo dudes. I told him he was a foreigner, too. No matter, I can’t object to or fight with every person that uses the phrase. Why? Because I wouldn’t make it to work everyday. It’s that common. Like “the” and “it” in the English language.
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