"Laowai"

I hear laowai and waiguoren often, though normally from children. It saddens me. A child once called me a yangguizi or some such spelling which, I learned, meant foreign devil. I liked that. Foreign devil. Sounds awesome. Whenever someone shouts laowai, I simply shout zhongguo ren right back. They can call me the Leper King of the Faeces-Encrusted Plague Pits....as long as their schools keep putting money in my account. 

I hear laowai and waiguoren often, though normally from children. It saddens me. A child once called me a yangguizi or some such spelling which, I learned, meant foreign devil. I liked that. Foreign devil. Sounds awesome. Whenever someone shouts laowai, I simply shout zhongguo ren right back. They can call me the Leper King of the Faeces-Encrusted Plague Pits....as long as their schools keep putting money in my account. 

Yeah I quite like 'foreign devil' or 'ghost', makes me think of cool stuff. Laowai just makes me think of farmer idiot people

Has anyone tried "xiao zhong" as a reply? I used to do that back in the day. Students would laugh or be puzzled.

One time, in Ningbo, there was this wannabe migrant worker (not an actual migrant worker, just some peasant dude who hung around the food street near the school) and he wanted to point and say yang guizi. I used to point and say huang guizi. Made sense to me. He seemed not to hear it.

I hate the laowai thing. Usually I let it go with just a dirty look, but sometimes I'll say something. My husband will almost always say something because he gets offended on behalf of me and the kids. Last week we were at the park and walking around, and this girl, maybe 10 years old, shouts out "waiguoren!" We ignored it the first time, but then she shouted it again and I said "never seen one before?" and my husband said "didn't your parents raise you to have any manners?" He is absolutely done making excuses for his countrymen and women.

Like old said, we heard "laowai," or even "waiguoren," very infrequently in Beijing. In fact, in Beijing, when we heard it from kids, their parents would almost always correct them and say something like "don't be rude," even when they'd only said "waiguoren" and not "laowai." Beijingers are fairly invested in appearing modern and cosmopolitan and consider noticing foreigners at all to be uncouth peasant behavior.

That is definitely something I miss the hell out of about Beijing.

Am i the only one who replies "konichiwa" to the farmers' chorus of "hello!", and "ribenren" to "laowai"?

I use German or Korean. 

Speaking of "laowei" weirdness... I live by a military base, and as I was walking to school a jeep pulled up beside me with three men inside and started trying to sell me some shoes. Then they asked me for some cigarettes, so I gave them three and used that as my exit. This was all in full view of like 30 students and parents because school was just letting out. Full military jeep, green, massive.

What was that all about?

I do have a note about the whole "foreigner" thing. I once flew from Seoul to Atlanta. Upon landing a small Korean kid mentioned, "Wow, there are a lot of foreigners here." I told him in Korea, "Welcome to America." Hopefully now he thinks all foreigners can speak Korean. 

Whenever someone shouts laowai, I simply shout zhongguo ren right back.

On the rare occasion someone tosses that one at me here in Mandarin. I fire off a "Ni Hao Wai Di Ren" (Hello outsider/migrant type) right back at them.- except I say it in Cantonese.

(I don't know the proper spelling of "Lei hou, noi dei yan" in letters)

I usually point at them and scream "Laowai, Laowai, Laowai" in a high pitched annoying voice so that everyone around can hear. Funny how they cringe

Quite a good one I have for 'hello' to shut people up, I only do this if I'm drunk because I'm normally polite and English and just curse under my breath, you get a 'hello' and you answer back 'hello' in the global  mentally disabled voice, that stops them chuckling

Either I don't get out enough or I've stopped listening, but I don't hear it that much anymore. I saw this today:

Laowai: the old furriner

Lǎowài 老外 (lit., "old foreign") is a ubiquitous term for a certain type of person from abroad in China, and dictionaries almost invariably gloss it as "foreigner".  Yet the subtleties and nuances of the term seem almost endless, and they can sometimes lead to misunderstandings and hurt feelings.  To try to get a handle on this colloquial expression, I asked a number of laowai who have had long experience in China what they thought of this appellation that they had doubtless been called hundreds of times and some Chinese friends who most likely had had occasion to employ that designation themselves.

...


Interdasting.

"Lao" doesn't mean old in this case. For example, laoshi (teacher), laopo (wife). It's just an expression. There's no discrimination in it. Another example, sometimes you may hear "guilao" (鬼佬). Perhaps you think it's a discrimination. but I don't agree. For example, we call our kids "xiaogui" (小鬼). Again, it's just an expression.

I sometimes hear "waiguoren" in Taiwan, usually from staff at restaurants in the context of "hey, did you get that waiguoren's order?"

Back when I lived in Shenzhen, if a child said "waiguoren" or "laowai" I'd respond in Chinese "Where?" Sometimes I'd casually say, "I'm not a waiguoren, I'm a zhongguoren." One time a kid's grandmother overheard this, yelled at the kid, "Didn't you hear him, he's Chinese." She then turned to me and started laughing. But for the most part, when migrant workers or restaurant staff would say "laowai" it was meant to be condescending or derogatory.

I have to say I'm not at all fussed about getting called Laowai. I guess I just got used to it.

Here's my technique to stop a starer. I blow them a big kiss. They usually will run away in embarrassment

I'd like to try that, but don't think my wife would like it

I bet she would think it was funny if you did it to a man

maybe I will, just to get a reaction