Words in Chinese used to describe Western people:鬼佬 ghost chap
白鬼 white ghost
洋鬼子 foreign ghost or devil
老外 old outsider
It seems Caucasians have garnered quite a few terms of 'endearment' over the years. Some of them well deserved considering the occupation of China.
But now, in Taiwan, we may be deserving of the titles for an entirely different reason: services and treatment.
People who will bend over backwards to please a foreigner might not lift a finger to help their fellow Taiwanese compatriots. There are numerous examples of this:
CASE 1: The Tax Office
Taiwanese have to fill out and calculate their tax forms by themselves. Foreigners, on the other hand, are assigned an official who will fill out the forms for them. Since I am a foreigner I qualify for this service but if my wife, a Taiwanese, were to go to file our taxes she would not.
CASE 2: Online Phone Service
Try calling one of the government phone cues. If a Taiwanese calls they usually get short, abrupt and sometimes annoyed officials on the line. A foreigner, struggling with a little Chinese gets the red carpet treatment with officials bending over backwards to accomodate.
CASE 3: The Police and the Law
I am going through a police check for drunk driving while going home on the scooter. I don't have my license or my scooter registration with me. The police officer just waves me through, presumably because he's embarrassed that he can't communicate in English. Not even a slap on the wrist. This is not to mention the time I protested a driving fine that was overdue and had thus tripled. I decided to protest this as unfair. At the transport department they told me to write on the back of the fine, in English, why I couldn't pay my fine on time. Bingo! My fine was back down to it's original paltry amount.
CASE 4: Taichung Nightclub
I remember going to a nightclub with my wife and finding out that foreigners get in free while locals had to pay. My wife was furious and incredulous. Presumably this was a way for the club to get more foreigners to come in which they assumed would attract more local clientele due to the novelty of foreigners in many people's eyes. "No Chinese or dogs allowed" in for free indeed.
(No Chinese Or Dogs Allowed)
I'm sure there are many other cases so you can see my point (please feel free to send in a few more).
There is a kind of 崇洋 or 'foreign fetish' going on here. That is, Western foreigners (and many foreign products and ideas) are perhaps a little exotic or are considered in higher regard by Taiwanese in general. This treatment is a little ridiculous and over the top though. Taiwanese treating their own as lower than foreigners? C'mon!
This, by the way, is the root of the God-complex that a lot of foreign devils get when they live in Taiwan. The "I am special" or "I'm a super star" feeling. The 崇洋 mindset and these experiences unintentionally fuel it!
As a foreigner I can say that I am appreciative that Taiwanese take the time with me, bend the rules for me and sometimes make me feel special (sure, like a VIP). I don't think I'd like to be treated in the disdainful and annoyed with way that lots of service people treat locals.
However, my point is this. The way foreigners are treated, with respect and admiration, proves that these service people are capable of a higher level of service. So why not give that level of help, respect and admiration to all people, foreigner or local? I rest my case.
6 comments:
Hear! hear!
Perhaps when the locals are used to seeing foriegners, all the treatments will diminish. Like in Hong Kong now. But this will take a long time.
Given Taiwan's worsening global political situation, I think they need all the pro-Taiwan foreigners they can get.
I can't report that this has diminished in HK, although I dunno how it was pre 1997. I often enough get the VIP treatment here.
I also doubt the average person will consider Taiwans politcial situation, when communicating with a foreigner.
Since the same thing is going on in two distinct Chinese communities, it seems more likely that there is another particular phenomenon going on. Can't simply be colonial past or international isolation.
The preferential treatment is exclusively extended to Western looking Western foreigners in Hong Kong. I often heard very opposite experiences from people who happen to be of other foreign descent (if only be outer appearence) or come from Mainland China.
in other news, the titanic sinks
On average, 10,000 Taiwanese become naturalized citizens in the US every year. Up until last year, 11 Americans had become naturalized Taiwanese. One of the reasons for this is that Taiwan is not nearly as accommodating as you make it out to be.
You should look at how ethnocentric (a view of the world where a culture puts its own group at the center, with all others scaled and related to that group) Taiwanese can be when you bring up such terms as 老外. I think it explains why Taiwanese people have a hard time referring to us by our nationalities (American, Canadian, German, Swiss, etc.) and why they find it easy to lump us all together as 老外 or 外國人.
That is just the other side of the coin. Same in HK. Discrimination is rampant, it just happens to be positive most of the time towards "yang guizi". Among HKers the term gwailo 鬼佬 is totally normal when talking about foreigners, though. Which shows me there is at least a total lack of sensitivity towards discrimination issues. Well, you have to live with that one way or another. Being a foreigner in other places is likely to be much more difficult.
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