Gweilo
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Gweilo or gwailou (Chinese:
Etymology and history[edit]
Gwái (
Moreover, a “ghost” usually being referred with “pale skin” and pupil that are not “black” in Chinese urban legends. Majority of Hong Kong local people are east Asian with “yellow” skin and “black” pupil, white people have “pale skin” and “blue” or “light coloured eyes”, which fits in the appearance of a “ghost”. Therefore, local people call white people as gwailo.
Usage[edit]
The term gwái (
Gwáilóu is often considered to be an acceptable generic racial term for Westerners.[7] Also, some members of the Hong Kong community with European ancestry (particularly those with limited or zero Cantonese fluency) are indifferent to the term, and those who believe that the best way to defang a word intended as a "slur" is to embrace it, and use gweilo to refer to non-Chinese in Hong Kong.[8] Gwailóu has, in some instances, been recognised as simply referring to white foreigners in South East Asia and now appears on Oxford Dictionaries defined as such,[9] although non-white foreigners are not gwáilóu. While gwáilóu is used by some Cantonese speakers in informal speech, the more polite alternative sāi yàhn (
CFMT-TV in Toronto, Canada had a cooking show named Gwai Lo Cooking (1999) hosted by a Cantonese-speaking European chef, who was also the show's producer and the person who named the show. According to CFMT-TV, "Gwei Lo" was used as "a self-deprecating term of endearment".[11] In response to some complaints, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that:
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".[12]
Related terms[edit]
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]
- gwaijai (
鬼 仔 ; Cantonese Yale: gwáijái; lit. 'ghost boy') for a white boy. - gwaimui (
鬼 妹 ; Cantonese Yale: gwáimūi; lit. 'ghost girl') for a white girl. - gwaipo (
鬼婆 ; Cantonese Yale: gwáipòh; lit. 'ghost woman') for white woman. - baakgwai (
白 鬼 ; Cantonese Yale: baahkgwái; lit. 'white ghost') for white people. - haakgwai (
黑 鬼 ; Cantonese Yale: hāakgwái; lit. 'black ghost') for Black people. - sai yan (
西人 ; Cantonese Yale: sāi yàhn; lit. 'western person') for Westerners. - yeung yan (
洋 人 ; Cantonese Yale: yèuhng yàhn; lit. 'overseas person') for Westerners. - ngoigwok yan (
外國 人 ; Cantonese Yale: ngoihgwok yàhn; lit. 'foreign country person') for foreign nationals. - acha (
阿 差 ; Cantonese Yale: achā; from "acchā" meaning "good" in Hindi) for South Asians. - molocha (
摩 囉差; Cantonese Yale: mōlōchā; lit. 'Mouro Indian') for South Asians.
Mandarin Chinese[edit]
Guizi (
- Riben guizi (
日本 鬼子 ; pinyin: rìběn guǐzi; lit. 'Japanese devil') or dongyang guizi (東洋 鬼子 ; pinyin: dōngyáng guǐzi; lit. 'east ocean devil') – used to refer to Japanese. - Er guizi (
二 鬼子 ; pinyin: èr guǐzi; lit. 'second devil') – used to refer to the Korean soldiers who were a part of the Japanese army during the Sino-Japanese War in World War II.[14] - Yang guizi (
洋 鬼子 ; pinyin: yáng guǐzi; lit. 'Western/overseas devil') or xiyang guizi (西洋 鬼子 ; pinyin: xiyáng guǐzi; lit. 'west ocean devil') – used to refer to Westerners.
However, xiaogui (
Laowai (
See also[edit]
- Bule
- Chinaman
- Devils on the Doorstep (Guizi lai le) by Jiang Wen
- Gweilo: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood
- Graphic pejoratives in written Chinese
- Farang
- Gaijin
- Gringo
- Guizi
- Gweilo Beer
- Haole
- Laowai
- List of ethnic slurs
- Mat Salleh
- Round Eyes in the Middle Kingdom (documentary)
References[edit]
- ^ Yu, Irene (7 November 2006). "MP shouldn't generalize". Richmond News. Archived from the original on 12 March 2007. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
- ^ Brown, Jules. Gardner, Dinah. Hong Kong and Macau, 2002. Rough Guides publishing. ISBN 978-1-85828-872-7. p 399
- ^ Patrick J. Cummings; Hans-Georg Wolf (2011). A Dictionary of Hong Kong English: Words from the Fragrant Harbor. Hong Kong University Press. p. 69. ISBN 9789888083305.
- ^ Lafayette De Mente, Boyé (2000). The Chinese Have a Word for It: The Complete Guide to Chinese Thought and Culture. McGraw-Hill. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-658-01078-1. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
- ^ Judith T. Zeitlin (2007). The Phantom Heroine: Ghosts and Gender in Seventheenth-century Chinese Literature. University of Hawaii Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0824830915. Archived from the original on 7 March 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ Zhidong Hao (2011). Macau History and Society. Hong Kong University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-9888028542.
- ^ David Leffman; Jules Brown (2009). The Rough Guide to Hong Kong & Macau (7th ed.). Rough Guides. p. 338. ISBN 978-1848361881.
- ^ D'Souza, Ajay. "SBS Radio – I'm on the radio again! » Cantonese.hk: The views and experiences of an Australian learning Cantonese". Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ "gweilo – definition of gweilo in English – Oxford Dictionaries". Archived from the original on 21 June 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ a b Yip, Virginia; Matthews, Stephen (2001). Intermediate Cantonese: A Grammar and Workbook. London: Routledge. pp. 168–70. ISBN 0-415-19387-7.
- ^ Appendix to 'CFMT-TV re Gwai Lo Cooking ' Archived 28 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, CBSC Decision 99/00-0220. Decided 6 July 2000
- ^ "CFMT-TV re Gwai Lo Cooking", Archived 7 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, CBSC Decision 99/00-0220. Decided 6 July 2000
- ^ Patrick J. Cummings; Hans-Georg Wolf (2011). A Dictionary of Hong Kong English: Words from the Fragrant Harbor. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 67–68. ISBN 9789888083305. Archived from the original on 7 March 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
- ^
第 一 滴 血 ──從 日方 史料 還 原 平 型 關 之 戰 日 軍 損失 (6) Archived 3 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine. People's Daily. December 16, 2011
External links[edit]
- "Is Using the Term "Gweilo" Discriminatory in the Hong Kong Workplace?". Mayer Brown. 17 February 2022.
- "Is 'gweilo' a racist word? Our editors discuss". South China Morning Post. 12 September 2018.
- Fafata, Brett (8 March 2018). "Are Cantonese terms like "gweilo" outdated and offensive in Asia's World City?". Young Post. - Opinion