Gweilo meaning

Haden claimed that his employment was terminated gweilo meaning a result of his race, or that the termination was influenced by his race — as he was not Chinese. In particular, he alleged that this could be inferred from the following:.

Help support Wordnik and make this page ad-free by adopting the word gweilo. From the old film star, to the runaway girl, to the mature sex worker, to illegal immigrant, to a " gweilo " singing on the streets. I wish they all could be Shanghai girls » Japundit Blog Granted, we can see the gweilo fiddling with MTR Uncle's bag first, but nobody so far has been able to explain what happened prior to this heated argument. Hao Hao Report - Published news

Gweilo meaning

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. To summarize:. A person i. A comparison of the case of a person of a particular racial group with that of a person not of that group must be such that the relevant circumstances in the one case are the same, or not materially different, in the other section 8, RDO. Two-stage test. To establish a claim of direct discrimination, the court had to answer the following questions:.

Yes, but my point is people won't necessarily agree on where to put the spaces; I have gweilo meaning Mandarin-speaking friend who says his own instincts on where to place spaces when writing Pinyin vacillate. A word being used in a non-offensive way in a particular conversation does not make it not offensive, gweilo meaning. Hong Kong University Press.

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.

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.

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. People in Hong Kong with European ancestry, especially the younger generation, have come to embrace the term today with some products and establishments in Hong Kong adopting the term as trendy brand names. But while gweilo is now defined in the Oxford Dictionary as simply referring to foreigners, there is still some lingering debate whether the term is indeed derogatory or even racist.

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Gweilo Special. Propaganda, perhaps, but at least an attempt to reach some sort of reconciliation with the ghosts who invaded Jawoyn lands a century and a half ago. If the community do not feel that they are insulting with this term, perhaps they are not? In May , Mr. I find it hard to believe words can be universally, objectively offensive, any more than the nm wavelength universally, objectively red, or Hz universally, objectively A. I really don't know how to comprehend this phenomenon. 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. Haden did not give details of the manner which gave him that feeling. But if neither source nor target interpret it as offensive, then it can be neutralized. I have a great deal of affection for Cantonese, as readers of Language Log are well aware, but this kind of negative terminology for people from elsewhere still deeply puzzles and troubles me. And FOB is definitely a derogatory term. Contributors Catherine Leung.

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I'd think the line between 'phrase' and 'word' is a bit fuzzier in a language written without spaces. Something is amiss here. Retrieved 3 February Haden, it was due to the culture of the two different companies involved in the joint venture under which the team worked and his poor relationship with them, rather than his race. Many most? Translations differ depending on who you ask. See also Wiktionary , which has this interesting etymological note:. My best answer would be that a word's being 'derogatory' is like other aspects of its meaning: it can't be told is isolation for an unknown word, but it can be told from context and from how native speakers think of the word. As has already been pointed out above, the offensiveness of these terms can be debated endlessly. Support Help support Wordnik and make this page ad-free by adopting the word gweilo. While the court found that there were staff who did not turn up at meetings with Mr. 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.

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