Recently the Asiatimes published an article on a Korean journalist who wrote a rather unfriendly blog about the lack of public manners in China. The blog elicited a range of comments from other Koreans, many of whom felt that the blogger was being unduly racist towards his Chinese brethren.
This is a discussion that most of us involved in the China field have been having for years and that will continually resurface. It always seems to come down to this: "the Chinese have private hospitality and personal warmth but lack public consciousness, while Westerners and Japanese have public consciousness but lack private hospitality and personal warmth."
Read MoreFinal Remarks on the Usage and Abusage of "Laowai"
It appears that the H-ASIA thread on "laowai" may be finally drawing to a close (I may be speaking too soon--Ryan may still be holding a few posts in his mailbox). As one of the editors of this list, and also as the person who inadvertently started this conversation by using the term in an unrelated discussion, I thought it might be a good idea to summarize the gist of the conversation we've had. Basically, the discussion has revolved around the meaning and usage of the term "laowai" in China today.
Read MoreOn the True Meaning of Laowai
In my experience, the Mandarin word laowai, which literally means "old outsider," does not in fact mean foreigner in the strict sense. A much more accurate translation for this term would be "Caucasian." Japanese and Koreans are rarely if ever referred to in China as laowai, and neither are foreign-born Chinese. Nor are people of African descent.
Read MoreOn Chinglish
Recently a member of H-ASIA, an academic online forum for which I'm currently an editor, posted an inquiry asking for examples of Chinglish. This provoked a flurry of brief responses, some quoting horribly misspelled or otherwise ungrammatical English translations of Chinese signs, which in turn led a few members to write in stating that they found these postings offensive or unscholarly.
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