21st February 2010 (2)
REVOLTING NAMES USED BY THE CHINESE
I find it very offensive when people are nicknamed by the colour of their
skin. Even the people I know who are professionals have this habit as well.
Calling people names by their races is so widely used in the Chinese
community that most Chinese take it as a norm. The Chinese call
westerners "鬼老，meaning "foreign devil" and the Indians as "啊叉",
meaning "the fork". The nickname given to people of dark skin is "黑鬼〞
meaning "black devil". The Chinese even nickname their own countrymen
by regions.
Whenever I talk about a new friend I have just made, my other friends
always ask whether he or she is a "human" or a "devil". Human in this
context means Chinese and "devil" means non-Chinese. Calling people
names is bad enough, but calling people names by the colour of their skin
is revolting to me.
However, I am sure the Chinese and my friends do not actually intend to
discriminate people of other races. It is just that the way of describing
people of other races has become common usage amongst the Chinese
community. I hope this common usage of language will become extinct
one day.
Yuen-yee
REVOLTING NAMES USED BY THE CHINESE
I find it very offensive when people are nicknamed by the colour of their
skin. Even the people I know who are professionals have this habit as well.
Calling people names by their races is so widely used in the Chinese
community that most Chinese take it as a norm. The Chinese call
westerners "鬼老，meaning "foreign devil" and the Indians as "啊叉",
meaning "the fork". The nickname given to people of dark skin is "黑鬼〞
meaning "black devil". The Chinese even nickname their own countrymen
by regions.
Whenever I talk about a new friend I have just made, my other friends
always ask whether he or she is a "human" or a "devil". Human in this
context means Chinese and "devil" means non-Chinese. Calling people
names is bad enough, but calling people names by the colour of their skin
is revolting to me.
However, I am sure the Chinese and my friends do not actually intend to
discriminate people of other races. It is just that the way of describing
people of other races has become common usage amongst the Chinese
community. I hope this common usage of language will become extinct
one day.
Yuen-yee
