Yo, Waiguoren!

My name is Emily and I am an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago studying Political Science and Environmental Studies. I also have a strong passion for China and everything Chinese.

I have studied Mandarin Chinese for two years, and last summer I lived in Beijing for two months while taking Chinese classes at Peking University. I am going to return to China this fall for a UChicago civilizations/language program, and I can’t wait!

I hope that this blog will be multi-functional – I want to write about my observations on American and Chinese culture, my opinions on world news, and life as a college student, but all with a personal touch. 

I decided to call this blog “yowaiguoren” for a few reasons. First of all, I am, without a doubt, a “waiguoren” when I go to China. (Translated loosely, waiguoren or 外国人 means “foreigner.”) As a tall blue-eyed blonde girl, Chinese people seem to be able to point out not just that I am a waiguoren, but also that I’m an American (except for one bottled water vendor who insisted that I must be Russian, because by his logic Americans have brown hair and Russians are blonde.) Regardless, waiguoren is a term I’ve wrestled with. Sometimes it’s endearing (“你是老外，对啊！你的头发很漂亮!” You’re a foreign friend, right! Your hair is really pretty!), sometimes it’s aggravating （“嘿！外国人!” Hey! It’s a foreigner! <person jabs all of his friends and points at me as I walk by>), but hey, it’s what I am, right? To me, the funniest thing about “waiguoren” is that Chinese people use it even when they’re the foreigners in a situation. For instance, in downtown Chicago, it wouldn’t be too strange to hear a group of Chinese tourists comment on how many waiguoren are walking around (referring to Americans.) This is because the term “waiguoren” can also just mean someone who is not ethnically Chinese. It’s like Chinese people carry their country around with them, and anyone who is not of China is foreign. This sort of makes sense because waiguoren broken down literally means “outside country person.” So if Chinese people are always one with the spirit of China and united by their common ethnicity, everyone outside the ethnicity is a waiguoren. Whew. Complicated. My reasoning for the waiguoren phenomenon might be completely off here, but it’s what I’ve noticed.