I just finished reading Hong Huang’s opinion piece in the China Daily entitled, “Dear laowai, don’t mess with our Chinese-ness” and I can’t figure it out.
What I’d like to think, based on Hong’s reputation, is that it is self-depreciating humour actually directed at Chinese about Chinese superiority and penchants for stereotypes. If this is the case, kudos for the attempt, but man does it miss the mark.
Did you ever have someone tell an absolutely terrible racist joke, but with a complete conviction and passion that you couldn’t comfortably relieve the awkwardness with a simple groan? That’s what it felt like reading this.
As a Chinese, I want to be honest with you. For the past 30 years, we have opened up to the West, and welcomed foreigners like yourselves to come here to do business, to make money, even gave you some easy credit to let you buy real estate, marry our women, whatever. But this does not make you Chinese. There are things we reserve for ourselves, and it really doesn’t matter how long you have been here, just don’t assume you can be one of us, and don’t touch the following three things:
CHICKEN FEET,
SEA CUCUMBERS
AND FIRECRACKERS!
She goes on to outline in brash and ignorant-sounding terms the importance and inclusiveness of each item.
Gems like the following leave me wondering if it’s all just foreigner-friend humour, poking fun at Chinese stereotypes:
You don’t understand why 1.4 billion people have to turn into pyromaniacs for one night. It’s totally beyond your comprehension. But we love it; we have been setting off these things since we were three and for 5,000 years.
I mean surely she doesn’t believe gunpowder has been around for 5,000 years. Surely not.
Can anyone tell me if I should just laugh awkwardly and return to ignoring China Daily, or if I should be telling her where to stick her fireworks?
More on Hong Huang:
- Danwei: Hung Huang, Chen Kaige and the Steamed Bun
- PBS: Extended Interview: Magazine Editor Hung Huang
- Huang Hong’s Personal Blog
Image from PCLady.com.cn, via Shanghaiist.
I think it would’ve been effective if she ended the rambling bit with a line from Homer Simpsons…”Now where was I? Oh yeah, and stay outta my booze!”
Let’s just say that if sea cucumbers and fireworks are to be untouchable aspects of Chinese culture, it would also appear that well-written satire is an aspect of the Western experience which eludes the grasp of this twit like a chicken foot slipping from a poorly “withheld” chopstick.
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If it’s a joke, poorly done. Or, should I say, “just because you speak English decently doesn’t make you one of us, either, and your ridiculously poor grasp of western style self-deprecating humor proves this.”
If it’s not a joke, WTF? What a pathetic argument. One, sea cucumbers are delicious. Two, fireworks are fun, we all agree on that. And if your people’s fascination with chicken feet leaves the edible portions of the chicken for us, then more power to you. Just because I speak your language doesn’t mean I want to be like you, though from my perspective in Shanghai, a giant testament to China’s willingness to destroy any shred of traditional culture in order to make room for another LV outlet, the reverse doesn’t seem to be the case.
I think you wouldn’t be able to get the suggestion of where to locate her firekrackers because you might not be Chinese enough to approach her. What a chicken foot thing to say of her! I cannot stand it when some Chinese just burst out on these topics like that. She sounds drunk to me. It’s just such an overwhelming amount of bs she’s spreading out and yes, I would consider keeping China Daily in the bathroom for any constipation case.
cheers!
Oh come on. She’s blowing off some steam – poking fun at things we do that annoy her, and sort of subtly aknowledging how fussy Chinese are about these things at the same time. I thought it was rather funny. But seriously, I have a dream that whites and blacks in the U.S.A. might get to the point where we can poke fun at each other IN EACH OTHER’S COMPANY, and not get offended – just mildly annoyed while we chuckle at the same time. That’s when the healing will really have happened.
Tell her that she can’t smell how full of **** she is because of her xiao bi zi. And have a good laugh.
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Are there no copy editors working at the China Daily? The overused exclamation marks, question marks, capitalized words, and cursing in this essay distracted me so much that I couldn’t comprehend what this chick was trying to say (the author is a chick, right?). It’s great to see that they’re giving journalism the old college try though.
Also, I thought the pejorative term “laowai” was now reserved for use only by us laowai. Has that rule been changed since the start of 2010?
honestly, I don’t care if it is a joke or not. I run into this every once in a while, and every time I have the same response. I walk away from that person, burn their contact information, and I move on.
At one point I was a little more light hearted and I would test the limits of reason by asking questions like “if my mom is Chinese/ dad is a laowai – and I am born/ raised in China… what does that make me.” … asked to hundreds of people, here is the answer.
If your father is Chinese. You are Chinese.
Being Chinese has NOTHING to do with where you are born, what language you speak, or if you can use chopsticks. It is BLOOD LINES.
Which only adds to the fun as I probably know the streets of Shanghai better than my inlaws (they are Shanghaiese), I have been to more provinces than most of my friends, and it was I who pointed out the fact to my local employees that the metro system is used by kuaidi drivers to save time/money.
Does it make me Chinese. Nope… but then again, her comments are not about being Chinese.
Her comments are about being ignorant.
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What about “Splendid Expo, Gracious Jing An?” Don’t the folks at China Daily coordinate with the Ministry of Propaganda? Is this how they plan to improve China’s image before May 2010? This seems like a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
The most disgusting bit is the end where he/she mocked the dubious CCTV fire and the dubious execution of a mentally ill person. If only he/she had managed a dig at the Japanese Imperialists, it could’ve been a trifecta of aggrieved, militant self-loathing.
Anyway, I’ve saved a copy of this. When this country goes completely off the rails (not this year, or maybe this decade, but it will) Huang’s screed will seem oddly prophetic. This kind of bigoted, racist attitude can only end in tears.
I think it was a massively failed attempt at satire/irony . The real sad part about it is that she mentioned she’d “kill” people if they did this or that…..
any journalist in the west would either lose their job, have criminal charges or both.
Execute one foreigner and all of a sudden , China’s got some balls now, expect more of the jingoistic pot banging! me thinks there must be something big in the works domestically – its not coincidental that foreigner bashing takes a big upswing when there is trouble at home to divert – hey and thats not a China invention – nations and government shave been doing that for …oh , say …..5,000 years.
I think it was a massively failed attempt at satire/irony . The real sad part about it is that she mentioned she’d “kill” people if they did this or that…..
any journalist in the west would either lose their job, have criminal charges or both.
Execute one foreigner and all of a sudden , China’s got some balls now, expect more of the jingoistic pot banging! me thinks there must be something big in the works domestically – its not coincidental that foreigner bashing takes a big upswing when there is trouble at home to divert – hey and thats not a China invention – nations and governments have been doing that for …oh , say …..5,000 years.
Please don’t get too wound up by this article. It’s clearly satire, and you have to admit, there have been worse drivel from China Daily. It’s not in good taste, that’s for sure. I’ll give you my share of chicken feet if you feel badly. My rule of thumb is that no one’s feet goes into my mouth, Chinese or not.
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No Chicken feet No Sea cucumbers and no fireworks?
ok. then No McDonalds. No Coffee and NO GOOGLE FOR YOU!!
I agree with your post. And I like the blog.
But … it’s hard, cos you call yourself Laowai, title the blog with it and use the word like it’s going out fashion. Now I know that you are concerned about/sensitive to racism in some way, I wonder if you’re just taking it back gangster style, or something?
That article, like you say, may be an attempt at satire or tongue in cheek humor but the truth of the matter is in plain sight. It’s the same with ironic uses of ‘laowai’ or claims that it’s somehow polite (evidence usually being that some clearly racist people told us they are not racist).
Think, a post complaining about ‘hating on laowai’ by someone who calls themself ‘laowai’.
Unless you’re doing the gangster thing, in which case … there you go.
@Andy: The elephant in your comment is the insinuation that “laowai” is the social labeling equivalent of “nigger”, which I don’t feel it is. I don’t believe it has the same power of degradation, nor do I believe it is intended to.
Granted, it is not lost on me that it is no term of endearment, but I’m rarely offended by the term itself — occasionally by the tone it is uttered — but this would be the same if the person was uttering “外国人” in the same fashion.
What you’re essentially saying is that in the statement “Hey niggers, you’ve got no right to be in white society,” the problem is with “niggers”, but it’s clearly not. Niggers is just the derogatory term used, the hateful and objectionable part is the division of society into unequal terms (and before I get hate mail, please understand I’m only using this as a pointed example).
The problem with Hong Huang’s article is much the same — it isn’t her calling foreigners “laowai”, it’s saying we have no right to be a part of Chinese culture.
For the record though, I’m not sensitive about racism at all. I agree with Wonders for Oyarsa above in that I dream of a world where we can shed the illusion of political correctness and just be. Celebrating our similarities and differences.
That said, I’m totally spending the day trying to come up with a laowai hand sign that doesn’t look like I’m sending mad props to “Loser”. Word.
Well, that’s the most Chinese thing of all, isn’t it? Trying to tell us arbitrarily what we can and can’t do, and then believing that we give a fuck?
Not gonna lie Ryan you’re kind of a douchebag.
I’m with you Ryan, how is Lao Wai a racist comment at all? I’m proud of my laowainess here!
The way I had it explained to me is that it comes from wai guo ren (other country person) and with the “lao” (old) being thrown on as a term of endearment. The way that old men may call their friend “Lao Wong” or “Lao Lee”. It’s not a formal thing to say (that’s wai guo ren) but it’s certainly not a racist thing to say. Sure it could be used in a derogatory way, but really, is there any word out there that can’t be?
The China Daily website is giving me a 504 (gateway timeout) message – something I said?
Err . . . . Glen, you do know that’s utter bullshit, don’t you? The ‘耒 in laowai is the same as that in ‘香港耒,’美国耒,’广东耒 and any other off-hand way of describing someone’s origins. It’s not very rude, but it isn’t polite, and is certainly not meant as a term of endearment.
China Daily website still not working – could the Iranian Cyber Army have struck again?
As a “laowai”, I want to be honest with you. For the past 30000 years, we have opened up to the East, and welcomed “chinese” like yourselves to come here to do business, to make money, to use our social system and passports, to learn how to behave like a civilized human being, to learn how to use a toilet and even gave you some easy credit to let you buy real estate and noodle restaurants, whatever. But this does not make you a “Westener”. There are things we reserve for ourselves, and it really doesn’t matter how long you have been here, and it really doesn`t matter how much cream you use to get a white skin, and how much you spend for beauty operations to make your eyes bigger, and it really doesn’t matter how many pizzas you eat and how much you copy from us. Just don’t assume you can be one of us, and don’t touch the following three things:
CULTURE,
CIVILIZATION
AND INNOVATION!
Because you don`t have any of it. Since “5000” years…
Hong Huang is a cheap sluuuuu________ttttttt. Hi, you are setting up this big mouth dime a night prosittuttu as a representative of Chinese mentaility. It is a cheap shot …
When you go to a pond in a public park, there is usually a lot of trash flowing around on the surface, HongHuang is such kind of trash. Please, hold your fire for something worthwhile…
noone wants to be chinese anyway
January 15, 2010
3:46 am
==================
: you are on the same level as Hong Huang… you and her belong to the same level of evolution…
Go back to your jungle where you and HH belong …
@trustme: I trust you. I am, kind of.
Maybe this is all symptomatic of what James Fallows refers to as China’s “Bush-Cheney” era?
“laowai” is racist. not nearly as offensive as the word ryan mentioned, but to deny that it is an impolite way to refer to white people is simply silly.
Was Hong Huang dumped by a white guy or what?
Okay, I’ll bite because we need to have one of these threads at least twice a year…
I don’t see Laowai as racist, but I do think people who use “laowai” belong in the same general category as those who would refer to a Chinese as an “Oriental,” because they are too stupid/lazy/asinine to know better.
That Vassar wit was obviously wasted on bunch of clueless laowais. Her self-mockery should have been evident from the choice of sacred cows and the 5000-year cliche. Just as clueless was CD for publishing it.
FYI, as for laowai ‘è€å¤–’, that’s quite different from the derogatory terms such as ‘香港è€â€™,’美国è€â€™,‘广东è€â€™ ‘鬼è€â€™; but more akin to the familiar ‘è€å¼ ’, ‘è€ç¾Žâ€™, ‘è€ä¸â€™, ‘è€å¤§â€™, ‘è€å…¬â€™, etc.
I don’t buy Laowai as endearing. I’m w/ FOARP on this one. If we’re needing to make the distinction between us and them, which HH appears to be needing, I personally prefer waiguoren.
And fireworks? Come on. That’s like saying we’re not allowed to have rice, as though that hadn’t been fully re-appropriated by every culture in the world. Otherwise she can keep her damn chicken feet.
Erm…can I just point out that it is possible for Chinese to take the piss a bit too, and even to use black humour and silliness. Give her a break.
Oh…for gods sakes…
Even if it is not a joke, if only this woman knew, how funny it sounds. If i were chinese, first thing i would do – i’d commit suicide.
The thing is, that all the chinese envy us. Their women are dreaming about having a ‘wai guo de’ husband; their men marry chinese ladies, but still every friday and saturday they come to clubs for ‘laowai’, because women ‘from abroad’ are hotter than their own wives. For chinese we are rich, beautiful and we own the entire world.
So…just pity them…let poor people talk.
I dont even know, who is this amazingly ugly chinese lady, but i wish her good luck with being chinese. I bet it really s*cks.=)
Chinese assume Americans haven’t had weird food before. Some of us have. I’ve had sea cucumber and it’s interesting and tasteless. Chinese believe it is a natural “Viagra”. I told my Chinese hosts, “I prefer Western science, I will take the Viagra.” My Chinese friend loves chicken feet for health reasons, laughably. She believes that the muscles or whatever that run around are “healthy” compared to “unhealthy lazy” breast meat. Sure. She also believes that the “brains” of lobsters are better than the tails. Yeah, sure. I love seeing Chinese customs and the place was fascinating, but I have zero interest in eating chicken feet or offal.
Given the things I have seen at the China Daily BBS (Uncle Laowai, Keeper of the Crab Shack) for the last three years – I would dare hazard a guess that her views are somewhat shared with the staff and management at the China Daily, and it’s sponsors. Looks like the Expo can’t come fast enough for some in Beijing…
Give the poor old woman a break. It’s fairly obvious to anyone who’s seen her on television that she’s not all that bright. As someone more famous than me once said…she’s more to be pitied that scorned.
@clambo: To be fair, I can’t imagine Chinese thought their food was weird to begin with… but yeah, there are a lot of white meat vs. dark meat battles for space in my freezer.
Why does she assume I want to be Chinese?
Damn, I thought you guys learned some Chinese.
FOARP, I don’t know if you actually took some Chinese classes. If you did, you should ask for your money back: The ‘è€â€™ in Lao Wai is the NOT the same ‘lao’ as in ‘香港佬’,’美国佬’. Notice the latter ‘佬’ has a å•äººæ—? That’s basically the Cantonese word for ‘person’. It’s true that ‘美国佬’ is a not-so-friendly word to mean “someone from the U.S.”, but ‘佬’itself does not have any racist or derogatory meaning. For example, ‘大佬’ just means older brother and ‘细佬’ just means younger brother.
Believe me, Lao Wai è€å¤– has no racist or derogatory meaning. And Glenn is right, more often than not, it has some endearment meaning in it.
And here is the proof for all you Lao Wai friends, we Chinese living in the U.S. often refer to ourselves as Lao Zhong ‘è€ä¸’, the “Old Chinese”.
And yeah, I agree that Hong Huang’s article is crap. She probably meant to be funny, but she was not.
Hey, don’t get offended by some stupid ass writer. We love you Lao Wais studying, working, or doing business in China. Diversity is good and cross cultural exchange is great. Just wish there’re more open-minded, adventurous people like you guys spreading love and peace around the world.
@Lao Zhong – Damn, I’d always transcribed that one mentally as ‘耒, but it seems you are quite right. And yes, I did take classes, and worked as a translator. On patents. I guess they should ask for their money back, eh?
Excellent thread Ryan.
for me è€å¤– is a term that either I ignore, get offended, or get amused by depending on the context. But first let’s get one thing straight.. è€å¤– is a term that means “white person”, and so in that sense it carries with it a racial overtone. Were I an African Americn, they could call me black, were I indian, they could call me indian. Were I a Chinese guy from London, they would say Chinese person.
.. but I am not. I am white, and therefore I am a è€å¤–
Where I get annoyed is when my friends, staff, or people I know (who know that I am American) continually call me a laowai. I am not. I am an American, and they know it.. so, I put them in line.
Where I ignore is when someone who doesn’t know me references me as a laowai, but I will quickly point out that I am in fact an American, not a laowai and they should refer to me as such.
Where I get amused is when friends and in-laws will call me a laowai in America…. cause in America, I ain’t the laowai no more. they are. And honestly, when you bust a bunch of Shanghaiese during lunch in Flushing on that one, the whole table pretty much gives it up for the laowai on that one.
r
香港è€â€™,’美国è€â€™,’广东è€â€™
—————–
I think you missunderstood them.
here they should be “香港佬，美国佬，广东佬”
but the term “laowai”=”è€å¤–”
“佬”&”耔 are two different words having different meanings.
@cisily @Lao Zhong: Thanks for the clarification!!! And here I was starting to think that my girlfriend lied to me about that. Which come to think of it would be pretty hilarious…
Having read the article, it seems to me that the author is making an attempt at satire, although it is a rather clumsy attempt. It’s not her fault; although her level of English is pretty impressive for a non-native speaker, satire is a subtle art best left to native speakers and those who can craft words to their exact intent. If it’s not satire, it’s just silly, but, I’m fairly sure that, satire or not, it is still laced with insults, intentional or not. I’m not going to go about arguing against the article; whether it’s satire or not, these are ridiculous points not worth getting mad about–别生气.
However, I do want to point out that I feel the term “laowai” is definitely a racist term, albeit passively so. The problem I have is not with the laoè€ part but with the wai外 part–outside/not china. It is a mistake I see Chinese folk making again and again–differentiating between Chinese folk and everybody else, between China and everywhere else. ä¸å¤–. Now, most folk aren’t saying it with venom in their throat, they’re just saying it because “ä¸å›½äººæ¥è¯´â€œ-Chinese people say. It’s not necessarily active racism, because they’re not saying–you’re a foreigner, I don’t like you, they’re just saying, I’m Chinese, you’re not, you’re an outsider. Now, that’s true, I wasn’t born or raised in China. I am not as familiar with traditional Chinese culture or language as a native Chinese person. But that’s not how the world works anymore. The world is an international community, we’re all together, especially now that everybody uses the internet–I mean, go into any tiny little village in China and there is an internet bar. Are people using this technology to learn more about their next door neighbor, or about what’s going on in the world? Forget about the fact that western popular culture has widely pervaded this nation. Many Chinese folk think that China can continue developing while maintaining a provincial attitude. In her article, Huang says “you foreigners” and “we Chinese”, because of course, ALL foreigners think the same. ALL Americans from coast to coast sit in our strip clubs, reading our bibles, eating McDonald’s, and counting our guns. ALL Chinese people love fireworks and sea cucumbers and chicken feet. Except, of course, they don’t. The west is generally dominated by individuality, although we usually demonstrate our individuality by wearing the same clothes, listening to the same music, etc etc. The east is generally dominated by collectivism, except when people actually try to be human and have emotions, which are wildly individual. I’m not going to try and argue against authoritarianism, when there’s a population of a billion and a half or so (probably more with all the uncounted and migrant workers and such). I’d just like to hear more folk referring to me not as è€å¤–or 外国人 just to point out I’m not from here, and rather as 美国人 or just using my damn name. My girlfriend, who is Chinese, says she doesn’t think of me as an American or even as a foreigner, but just as the person I am. I was just raised in America. I do the same, not thinking of her as just a Chinese person, but part of an international community. She was just raised here.
it’s not true that if you go to “any tiny village in CHina”, they have an internet caffe. I’ve been to villages where there is no access to the internet whatsoever, in Guangxi and Guizhou at least.
Two points:
1. Communication is a two-way street. It doesn’t matter what a term is “supposed” to mean. It doesn’t matter what the speaker meant it to mean, either. What matters is both what the speaker meant, and also what the listener hears. If I am in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and say “The Packers are going to lose this game”, it doesn’t matter if it’s the truth, or if I said it with malice. What matters is that it will offend my listeners, so therefore I was wrong in saying it. Intention is not the same as perception.
I have heard plenty of Chinese adults say the term as it is meant to be said, with respect and no racial feelings whatsoever. As it’s been said many times on various boards, what else should they call non-Chinese? On the other hand, I’ve heard children and younger people who don’t really know the background of the word say it with racial overtones and feelings, and from personal experience I can say that many harmless words can turn into slurs when added to emotion and body language. The meaning of the term “laowai” depends on the meaning conveyed by the speaker, and the meaning interpreted by the listener.
2. I made the point that a term is necessary to refer to non-Chinese, but that doesn’t mean that it needs to replace simple personal pronouns. I see no reason why Chinese people need to say something like “What is the foreigner doing?”, instead of “What is he doing?”. I think that the term is overused by those here who aren’t very used to mixed societies, so it’s forgivable in most situations. I just hope that it slowly goes away, instead of turning into an accepted pronoun.
The Hong Huang piece was obviously written drunk with alcohol or nationalism(don’t know which makes for worse writing…) but you’re the stupid one if you let yourself get worked up about it. You in particular out of the bloggers here seem overly sensitive about CCP blunders/chinese nationalism.
These things will pass, it’s an overreaction from an inferiority complex and the more you poke it the worse it gets. Besides not like you can change anything with your smug tisk tisking.
Justin–Please don’t try to make excuses for nationalism. Patriotism is wonderful, but nationalism can be quite dangerous. If China wants to continue developing and be part of the international community, a good deal of this nationalism needs to be left behind. It’s something that’s hurt many western countries in the past, but never to such a degree as it threatens China’s future now. Does China just want to close its borders to the rest of the world again? I for one hope not–China is an amazing country and has so much to share with the world.
Also, your view that we can’t change anything is really ridiculous. Apathy only contributes to entropy. Nearly all of the great changes in human history were made in huge leaps by people who believed exactly the opposite, that you can change peoples’ minds. If I didn’t believe otherwise, I would never have come to live here in China. Or do you suggest it’s better just to crawl back into a cave where it’s safe? So lackadaisical… so ineffective… so forgettable.
I think I misrepresented myself. I thought the piece was crap. Chicken feet? sea cucumber?… I am in total agreement with you, China HAS to be integrated into the international community if not for cultural sharing then definitely for ensuring a conflict free 21th century.
My point was China is an idiosyncratic system,the harder you push, the more immovable it is. The more that Ryan pumps out derivatized foxnews china cliches, the less likely he is to win anyone over to his POV. This is not talking about this piece in particular but his whining and whinging in general.
If this blog was setup for the purpose of him letting off steam, then I’ll let it go but it really seems like the other bloggers are helpful in bridging some cultural barriers.
Justin, surely you don’t think an off-handed question of a blog post equates to getting “worked up” about it. Nor can I see how you thought I was trying to change anything.
I think between your two comments you’ve written about as much on the topic as I have, and in stronger language as well.
“Derivatized foxnews china cliches”? Well I never. 😉
Lighten up man. This blog doesn’t owe anyone anything. It is what it is, and if it’s not what you want, then you’re welcome to go elsewhere, or better, produce your own content to allow assholes like myself to insult you on it.
Oh hell, I was just annoyed with the endless blog posts about not being able to get youtube or twitter or some such because of the old evil CCP(the world is better off with less youtube imo). Now that I actually read some of your blog posts, they are pretty even handed and I can’t even say that I disagree with you. I especially like the piece “Grow up China” once I actually read it.
“I keep hoping that something will happen on the international stage that offends China and the country will just brush it off with a, “Pshaw, don’t be an ignorant ass. We’re above all that…†But faithfully the country disappoints me and instead bursts out into a tantrum, exclaiming, “Bu.. bu.. but Tommy hit me first!”
This is I totally agree with and I believe that was my point more or less with the added suggestion that if you don’t make fun of the fat kid, he probably won’t cry.
I hear ya, and have noticed that I’ve become increasingly cynical about all angles of the China discussion. With so much mass in the medium now, it’s hard not to feel like its all been said and it all means nothing.
I think this is why rant-wise, it’s only once ever few months something irks me enough to bitch about it. Most posts lately tend to fall into the “hey, this is neat” category, more than furthering any sort of thought on the subject.
What I find most interesting about Hong Huang’s column is that it never really reveals its motive. There’s no little kicker and wink at the end, but then she’s no stranger to foreign ideas and doesn’t seem to be a closet fenqing… it just leaves me wondering if she clicked send before re-reading it, or if her editors had a field day with it.
Meh.
I thought laowai è€å¤– means foreigner, correct me if im wrong. I have never sensed a racial undertone when a chinese calls me that. On the other hand, è€å¤– sounds more friendly and respectful than 外国人 to me.
cheers
And by the way,
Chicken feet = looks inedible and smells terrible
Sea cucumber = sounds inedible
Firecrackers hurraaaaaay
I think HH’s conclusion here is an hyperbole / humour (poor). May be HH just want to says, no matter how long time Western and Chinese have keep in touch, there are allways some differences due to our habits. So is the fact. Many Laowais told our Chinese they will not want chicken feet or chicken necks. Chinese should not invite Laowais to try everything we love. And Laowais should not say we are uncivilized because we love sth they hate.
About “Laowai”, I think it’s best way to call an unfamiliar Foreigner(wai guo ren). I call my father as “Lao ba”, mother “Lao ma”, brother “Lao ge”.haha.
But “香港 耔 mentioned above should be “香港 佬”. See the differences? I think to call sb. “香港佬” is very unp0lite.
BTW,
I like chicken feet. There are many ways to cook.
I don’t want to set my eyes on SEA CUCUMBERS. Disgusty.
No matter how much joys in firecracker, I don’t like it, nor fireworks, because it’s to noisy to me. But I think powder is better used for firecrackers than for guns.
Any comment?
It’s humor.