Gweilo in Hong Kong

Do you know that westerners are usually being called “gweilo”(鬼佬) by Cantonese speaking people? Where does the name come from?

The nickname got popular during Sino-British Opium War era. Because of the, um, “not-so-happy” confrontation between the Chinese and British, Cantonese speaking population came up with this name to insult the westerners. The name is made up of “gwei” (鬼) and “lo” (佬), where “gwei” means “ghost” or “demon”, and “lo” is a Cantonese slang referring to “man”.

Chinese always use “ghost” to derogate the “foreign outsiders”, probably because the westerners are pale when compared to Asians (which makes them looks like dead bodies), or because their physical appearances are so alien to the Chinese that they look “otherworldly”, hence the name gweilo (ghost people).

That’s a really insulting name…in the past.

The derogating connotation simply faded away soon as Hongkongers started to understand more about the westerners, especially when people realised that the foreigners’ culture and behavior is not “ghostly” at all.

Nowadays, the name has more or less become a neutral, or even friendly nickname to refer to foreigners (ok, I admit that it’s still somewhat rude to call others “ghost”). What’s interesting is that even some foreigners happily call themselves gweilo as well. You can see that on newspapers, internet, books and even theatrical performances.

Of course there are still foreigners who find the name offensive, and they have all the reasons in the world to, but at least they are nice enough to not set up some “Anti-Insulting Westerners  Alliance” and go on demonstration…As a Hongkonger, I am really thankful of that.

In my opinion, insult comes hand in hand with intention. It is the intention that defines offensiveness, not words. When the intention is no more, what used to be an insult is nothing more than just words. Then what exactly is being insulted?

You think this sounds cheesy and hypocritical?

I deem that as an intention to state opinions, not an intention to offense.

So I don’t find that insulting.

What about you? Is that “supposed” to be an insult?