Gweilo meaning

Haden claimed that his employment was terminated as a result of his race, gweilo meaning, or that the termination was influenced by his race gweilo meaning as he was not Chinese. In particular, he alleged that this could be inferred from the following:. To provide some context, the term is widely used in Hong Kong and from a community survey conducted by an English newspaper, gweilo meaning, there appears to be no clear consensus in the community both expatriates and locals included as to whether the word is racially pejorative.

I will come right out and say it: "gweilo" is overtly, inherently, intentionally racist. It stigmatizes an entire race as inferior beings. If a Chinese person says that it is a neutral or positive appellation for a Caucasian, they are either being disingenuous or evidently do not know the meanings of the constituent morphemes see below. CantoDict gives the following usages:. See also Wiktionary , which has this interesting etymological note:. For a Wikipedia article on "gweilo" or "gwailo", see here , in Mandarin , in Cantonese. For the Wiktionary article on "gweilo", see here :.

Gweilo meaning

The entry from Wiktionary :. Alternative forms. Some expatriates in Hong Kong now use gweilo to jokingly refer to themselves. On various types of "foreign devils", see this comment and the following posts:. February 13, pm. No, the word itself is not racist any more than, say, "negro" but it can of course be used with racist intent. I am happy to refer to myself as a gweilo when in China, but if I were in Hong Kong and a local were to refer to me as such while at the same time indicating through non-verbal means that his opinion of me was considerably less than flattering, then I might well take offence. Having lived in Hong Kong, and having been called a gweilo while I was there, I confess I found it amusing rather than racist. Chinese colleagues seemed surprised that I wasn't offended by being called a gweilo. But you can — or should — only take offence if someone is using a racist epithet to punch down. Anybody calling me a gweilo was generally punching up rather than punching down. It was all in romanization, of course. Even though some of us could read and write Mandarin, I can't recall that our teacher ever once put a character on the board nor did he provide any materials with characters. Incidentally, he was one of the most experienced and highly respected teachers of Cantonese in Hong Kong.

In gweilo meaning, evidence showed that Mr. Even though some of us could read and write Mandarin, I can't recall that our teacher ever once put a character on the board nor did he provide any materials with characters.

In late February , the Employer terminated Mr. Haden claimed that his employment was terminated as a result of his race, or that the termination was influenced by his race — as he was not Chinese. From a community survey conducted by an English newspaper, there appears to be no clear consensus in the community both expatriates and locals included as to whether the word is racially pejorative. In May , Mr. Key legal principles.

In the absence of modifiers, it refers to white people and has a history of racially deprecatory and pejorative use. Cantonese speakers frequently use gwailou to refer to Westerners in general use, in a non-derogatory context, although whether this type of usage is offensive i. Nowadays, Cantonese speakers often refer to non-Chinese people by their ethnicity. While historically, "gwai lo" may have been used by Chinese people as a derogatory remark concerning foreigners, particularly European Westerners, the persons consulted by the Council indicate that it has since lost much of its derogatory overtone. The Council finds that the expression has also lost most of its religious meaning, so that "foreign devil" no longer carries the theological significance it once did. Based on its research, the Council understands that the expression has gone from being considered offensive to, at worst, merely "impolite". Gwai is one of a number of terms to referring to non-Chinese people that can be considered controversial and potentially offensive; a list of such terms is given below: [10] [13]. Although laowai literally means "old foreigner", depending on context, "old" can be both a term of endearment and one of criticism. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk.

Gweilo meaning

Open menu. By Ryan General. But the generally-accepted, friendly-sounding title is unlike others used by neighboring countries when referring to visiting White folks as pointed out by SCMP. For instance, in the Philippines, Caucasians regardless of nationality are generally referred to as Kano , which is simply a shortened form of Americano. In Thailand, they are the Farang White race ; Indonesia, orang bule Albino person , while in Singapore and Malaysia, the term is angmoh red hair. In Mandarin, the term laowai , or foreigner, is most commonly used to refer to Caucasians. Locals in other Asian countries merely use direct translations of their physical characteristics, while gweilo is a bit more complicated. Over time, many have come to consider it to be an acceptable generic term for Caucasians and are now often used in non-derogatory context.

Nightingale pronounce

Until then I'm sure I'd both used and been called both. Perhaps a more interesting question is 'why'. A person i. Victor Mair: Isn't it generally always up to the target to decided whether something is offensive? Of course, she didn't, even though she was learning how to read and write Mandarin. Haden and was himself also an expatriate, stated that in his many years of living in Hong Kong, he was not aware of any expatriate himself included who had any issue with people using this term and pointed out that this term was not just used by locals but also by expatriates too. Many most? Everything depends on context — there are IMHO relatively few indisputably offensive terms as such, and rather many terms that can be interpreted as being intended as offensive in a certain context. They are going through this kind of discrimination. Chinese colleagues seemed surprised that I wasn't offended by being called a gweilo. For example, in the northern Australian Aboriginal language of Jawoyn, the word for a European person, is Mam, which translates as "ghost". There are exceptions, of course. Pakeha and palagi are routinely used by the people they apply to but have had derogatory etymologies proposed, although all the sources I looked at ultimately stop at "unknown".

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Today i took over Italy and Uruguay. University of Hawaii Press. Haden only overheard other people use the term — they were not talking to him. I think that about a third of the people in the class were so upset by his handling of the situation that they dropped it after that lesson. In America, one reason the n-word is so taboo is that it evokes this very gnarly apparatus of exclusion and violence that is in no way abstract or theoretical. September 14, pm. Kevin Yeung: You miss the point. F's reply refutes that. Detailed analysis Turning to each of Mr. Rafida Shi'ites Raghead Wog. Haden called out that there was racism on the Project. As a speaker with a nonrhotic accent I find it weird that n—a would be considered "attenuated" compared with the "unattenuated" n-word. We would be pleased to assist you in reviewing your employee handbook and policies on anti-discrimination and harassment.