Why oh why do you need to ‘Laowai’?

From a reader in Sichuan:

Just an aside (and yes, this will be a threadjack), I was wondering if anyone here could help me out with ‘the great laowai’ debate I am having here. I have been living in China for 2 years, I HATE to be called laowai (because of the informal connotation of lao3, because hey, if you don’t know me, you gotta keep some formality… for example, once I accidentally called my then future-father-in-law laoshu, and he got SUPER pissed, etc). One of my friends who has been here a hella long time agrees, another does not. Waiguoren is a ok. Hell, somebody could call me wairen. Am I being overly sensitive, or should I be resigned to my fate to be people’s dear foreigner here?

Also, where the hell did the term come from?

This is one of those topics that is perennial fodder for China bloggers. (See these posts in 2005, 2008, and 2010 as well as my own take on the subject back in 2006. )  Is Laowai a term of respect or of contempt?

I asked Yajun and this was her response:

After all this time, it’s become a label, a way to

July 31st, 2010

Image of the Week: Cuandixia Village

The village of Cuandixia, located about 60 miles from Beijing, is well-known for its accidental architectural preservation and dusty mountain scenery. It's becoming a little too touristy over the past few years, but is still a nice getaway from the city.

July 31st, 2010

Not exactly how you want your top diplomat to respond to a crisis

Apparently Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi didn’t take it too well when Secretary Hillary Clinton last week essentially called “bullshit” on some of China’s more creative and ambitious claims to the South China Sea.  According to US and Asian officials present at the meeting:

“Foreign Minister Yang reacted by leaving the meeting for an hour. When he returned, he gave a rambling 30-minute response in which he accused the United States of plotting against China on this issue, seemed to poke fun at Vietnam’s socialist credentials and apparently threatened Singapore”

Safe to say, it probably wasn’t Minister Yang’s best day on the job…

July 30th, 2010

The Ghost of Zheng He rises…again

Map of Zheng He's voyages

Perhaps no Chinese historical figure causes more eye-rolling among historians than the super-naval-bad-ass-7-foot-tall-could-have-discovered-America-but-didn’t-even-if-I’m-a-eunuch-Columbus-still-couldn’t-carry-my-jock admiral Zheng He.*  He’s someone that students often ask about, and I’ve written a few posts over the years on the different Zheng He controversies which bubble to the surface of the popular press from time to time.

Like a lot of other historical figures, Zheng He’s story and image are often appropriated as stand-ins for the controversy du jour, whether it’s China in Africa, or China’s rise as a regional naval power capable of projecting force into the waters of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean…coincidentally, Zheng He’s old sailing ground.  This past week, a team of Chinese archaeologists have been searching off the coast of Kenya for a shipwreck that some believe was a part of Zheng He’s Ming-era armada.

But what was Zheng He’s mission?

In China, Zheng He is usually depicted as an explorer and diplomat, as in this  People’s Daily editorial from 2005 marking the 600th anniversary of Zheng He’s departure:

Zheng He led the ancient world history and the friendly exchanges among different nations, setting a shining example of the history of the exchanges of

July 29th, 2010

Review: Jeffrey Wasserstrom, China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know

I know that when writing reviews it’s important to focus on the book and less so on the author.  I’m breaking this rule.  Jefferey Wasserstrom has to be on of the most tireless writers/scholars on China today.  Seriously, I have no idea when he sleeps.  He teaches history at UC Irvine, supervises a very dynamic group of graduate students, is the author of numerous articles, a blogger for Huffington Post, the driving force behind The China Beat, and in the last three years has published three books: the wry and observant China’s Brave New World – And Other Tales for Global Times (2007), the ambitious scholarly work Global Shanghai, 1850-2010 (2009),  and now a new book with a perhaps even more ambitious premise, China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (2010). Just this past week, he’s finished up a month long series of talks at M on the Bund in Shanghai.

The man is a force of nature.

Moreover, Professor Wasserstrom is a model for bridging the divide between good academic scholarship and the needs of a general readership, a divide that seems all the more wide when it comes to writing about China.  The term “public

July 28th, 2010
 
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