Today, in Beijing. Where "laowai" is HEARD few and far between.
Scene: After morning classes I went to a nearby Burger King for lunch which features outdoor seating. It's in a new mall, in an upscale area just north of the 4th Ring Road, not much foot traffic. I ordered my lunch and took it to an outside table. No one else was sitting outside. Eating my lunch, I was playing with my phone, but also watched a slow progression of mostly office ladies, retail workers (women), and a few stay-at-home-moms from the nearby villas wander into the Burger King for lunch. It again struck me that it's usually Chinese females who frequent the "western places" here. It also could have been the local demographic. But I was noticing it. And just at the moment while I was thinking about that...
Along come a pair of middle-aged Chinese men-45 or so. Both were wearing nice, but loud-coloured sport coats. No one was around, so I Could hear them talking and one said to the other, "We can eat here. They have "tao san" meals (meal packages). I immediately thought: "He's explaining the concept to his friend, never having eatern Burger King before."
They ducked inside. Less than a minute later, one of them emerged from the store alone and looked around the patio. He was the one the other guy had been explaining the concept to. It was obvious to me that they had gone inside and his friend said, "Go outside and get us a table." (Common in fast food restaurants here.)
Since I was the only one outside and there were 6 or 7 empty tables, this was a no-brainer. Here's what happened next, outside is only myself at my table, and this 45 year old lost soul (LS). No one else. I'm looking at my phone reading the news. Here's what I hear:
LS (speaking to himself): Wah! Laowai!
old (to himself): FFS, There are 7 other empty tables here. Get one!
LS: Wah! laowai chou yan (Wow, foreigners smoke cigarettes.) (I had finished my meal and lit up. Why I was sitting on the patio.)
(He is talking to himself, there's no one else present here. His friend is inside ordering their meals.)
old: (to himself) WTF, this is Beijng. Didn't I just write a post on Raoul's last night about the use of "laowai" and how rare it is to hear here! WTF. Dude is talking to himself. But he has a nice sports coat on, albeit peach-colored.
Then...
He walks directly over to my table, again talking to himself:
LS: Laowai chou shenme yan? (What cigarettes is the laowai smoking?)
And proceeds to pick up my pack of cigarettes to see the brand and mutters: "Ta chou shenme yan" (He smokes what? Again, too himself, using the 3P)
Like picking up a toy a dog is playing with to see what it is.
The conversation proceeds thusly:
old: You shi ma? (What do you want?)
LS: (a little shocked): Uhh? (Like "the dog can speak") Ni chou yan. (You smoke!)
old: Mei ni shi. (None of your business.)
LS: uhh! (He appears to be able to speak Chinese. Impossible.)
old: Guan ni pi shi. (Colloquial Chinese for "none of your fucking business"!)
LS: (This registers and anger flashes across his face.)
old: Zou kai (Go way). Guan Kai (Roll away like a barrel - a rude Chinese expression which means "Fuck Off"!)
My anger matches his, and he starts to back off.
LS: As he backs off, he pulls out his own pack of cigarettes and mumbles more to himself than to me:
"wo ye chou zhongguo yan" (I also smoke Chinese cigarettes!) and finds the farthest table from mine to sit down at.
A couple of minutes later, his friend emerges from inside with a tray full of food. Only then do I notice that although he seems well dressed in a sport coat, his feet are shod in sandals.
Upon reflection, I think what happened here were that a couple of workers from a nearby construction site decided to have lunch at the upscale mall, and they dug out their "sport coat" and wandered over. (Migrant workers often will have one sport coat just in case.)
In this case, the "laowai" didn't bother me as much, as I've become used to it, though not in Beijing. It was the further action of basically ignoring that the "laowai" was a person and you can just walk over and check out his belongings.
Offered for what it's worth in this thread as it just happened this afternoon. In Beijing.