{"id":24434,"date":"2026-01-15T11:02:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T11:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24434"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:19:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:19:02","slug":"outside-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24434","title":{"rendered":"Outside Aliens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a non-Chinese person in China, a word you&#8217;ll hear quite a bit is <strong>\u5916\u56fd\u4eba<\/strong> (w\u00e0i\u200bgu\u00f3\u200br\u00e9n), which means foreigner, foreign national or alien. Some people like pointing out any foreigners they see, and they might say or shout <strong>\u5916\u56fd\u4eba<\/strong> at them, assuming they won&#8217;t understand.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/omniglot\/55037464863\" title=\"Me in front of the Old City Wall in Zhaoqing \/ \u6211\u5728\u8087\u5e86\u53e4\u57ce\u5899\u524d\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55037464863_7fbee8b8f8_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Me in front of the Old City Wall in Zhaoqing \/ \u6211\u5728\u8087\u5e86\u53e4\u57ce\u5899\u524d\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<em>Me in front of the Old City Wall in Zhaoqing \/ \u6211\u5728\u8087\u5e86\u53e4\u57ce\u5899\u524d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u5916\u56fd\u4eba<\/strong> [\u5916\u570b\u4eba] (w\u00e0i\u200bgu\u00f3\u200br\u00e9n) could be translated literally as &#8220;outside country person&#8221; or &#8220;foreign nation person&#8221;. A slang version is <strong>\u6b6a\u679c\u4ec1<\/strong> (w\u0101i\u200bgu\u01d2\u200br\u00e9n) which literally means something like &#8220;slanted fruit benevolence&#8221; or &#8220;askew results humaneness&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdbg.net\/chinese\/dictionary?page=worddict&#038;email=&#038;wdrst=0&#038;wdqb=%E5%A4%96%E5%9B%BD%E4%BA%BA\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>When Chinese people look at me and say <strong>\u5916\u56fd\u4eba<\/strong>, I might reply by saying I&#8217;m not a <strong>\u5916\u56fd\u4eba<\/strong> but rather a <strong>\u5916\u661f\u4eba<\/strong> (w\u00e0i\u200bx\u012bng\u200br\u00e9n), which means space alien or extraterrestrial. This often gets a smile or laugh. Or I might point that to me they are the <strong>\u5916\u56fd\u4eba<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<p>When I worked in Taiwan, I was officially an <strong>alien<\/strong> as I had an Alien Registration Card, which I found quite amusing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u5916\u56fd\u4eba<\/strong> is a formal and polite to refer to a non-Chinese national, and seems to be used particularly to refer to people who don&#8217;t look Chinese or Asian. Other ways to do so include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u8001\u5916<\/strong> (l\u01ceow\u00e0i \/ lou5 ngoi6) &#8211; &#8220;old foreign&#8221; &#8211; this is an informal, slang term for foreigners, particularly foreigners of non-East Asian ethnicities, and is used throughout China in Mandarin and Cantonese. It is seen as offensive or rude by some [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Laowai\">source<\/a>]. It can also mean a layman or amateur, and in Cantonese it can refer to a father-in-law, specifically a wife&#8217;s father [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E8%80%81%E5%A4%96\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u9b3c\u4f6c<\/strong> (gwai2 lou2) &#8211; &#8220;ghost man&#8221;, &#8220;devil person&#8221; &#8211; used in Cantonese and Eastern Min to refer to a foreigner, particularly a white Westerner. It is considered derogatory [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E9%AC%BC%E4%BD%AC#Chinese\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u6d0b\u4eba<\/strong> (y\u00e1ngr\u00e9n) &#8211; &#8220;ocean \/ foreign person&#8221; &#8211; refers to a foreigner, especially a westerner or Caucasian. Used in some varieties of Mandarin, Gan, Hakka, Jin, Wu and Xiang [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E6%B4%8B%E4%BA%BA#Chinese\">source<\/a>]<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u5916\u5bbe<\/strong> [\u5916\u8cd3] (w\u00e0ib\u012bn) &#8211; &#8220;foreign guest&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E5%A4%96%E8%B3%93\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u56fd\u9645\u53cb\u4eba<\/strong> [\u570b\u969b\u53cb\u4eba] (gu\u00f3j\u00ec y\u01d2ur\u00e9n) &#8211; &#8220;international friend&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u5916\u56fd\u670b\u53cb<\/strong> [\u5916\u570b\u670b\u53cb] (w\u00e0igu\u00f3 p\u00e9ng\u200byou) &#8211; &#8220;foreign friend&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In China, people who were not born in the area they live are known as <strong>\u5916\u5730\u4eba<\/strong> (w\u00e0i\u200bd\u00ec\u200br\u00e9n &#8211; stranger, outsider, non-local, out-of-towner) by local people. I met quite a few such people in Zhaoqing [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E5%A4%96%E5%9C%B0%E4%BA%BA\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>In the few days I&#8217;ve been in Hong Kong, I&#8217;ve seen more <strong>\u5916\u570b\u4eba<\/strong> than I did in 6 weeks in Zhaoqing. There, it&#8217;s rare to spot a <strong>\u5916\u56fd\u4eba<\/strong> in the wild. Here, they&#8217;re more common. Today, for example, I heard <strong>\u5916\u570b\u4eba<\/strong> speaking English, French, German, Dutch, Russian and other languages I didn&#8217;t recognise. There were quite a few at Victoria Peak, which I visited today.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/omniglot\/55041420132\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" title=\"Victoria Peak \/ \u592a\u5e73\u5c71\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55041420132_bfc3c9385d_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Victoria Peak \/ \u592a\u5e73\u5c71\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<em>A view from Victoria Peak (\u592a\u5e73\u5c71), Hong Kong<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In Japanese, <strong>\u5916\u56fd\u4eba<\/strong> (gaikokujin) is used to refer to a foreigner, an alien, a foreign national or a person who is not Japanese [<a href=\"https:\/\/jisho.org\/search\/%E5%A4%96%E5%9B%BD%E4%BA%BA\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>The informal version, <strong>\u5916\u4eba<\/strong> (gaijin), is used specifically for foreigners of European ancestry, and used to mean any outsider, or an estranged or unfamiliar person. After Japan opened up to the outside world in the 1850s, <strong>\u5916\u4eba<\/strong> started to be used to refer to foreigners, especially foreigners in Japan. It is considered negative and pejorative by some these days [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E5%A4%96%E4%BA%BA#Japanese\">source<\/a>]. It can also refer to ethnically Japanese people who have grown up outside Japan and are not Japanese citizens [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gaijin\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ling-app.com\/offer-yearly-subscription\/?affiliateId=omniglot\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_ling-app.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"79\" alt=\"Language skills in just 10 minutes a day with Ling\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a non-Chinese person in China, a word you&#8217;ll hear quite a bit is \u5916\u56fd\u4eba (w\u00e0i\u200bgu\u00f3\u200br\u00e9n), which means foreigner, foreign national or alien. Some people like pointing out any foreigners they see, and they might say or shout \u5916\u56fd\u4eba at them, assuming they won&#8217;t understand. Me in front of the Old City Wall in Zhaoqing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270,95,104,129,10,78],"tags":[553,416,551,554,555,546,138,281,550,163],"class_list":["post-24434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cantonese-","category-chinese","category-english","category-japanese","category-language","category-words-and-phrases","tag-alien","tag-chinese","tag-foreigner","tag-gaijin","tag-gwailo","tag-japanese","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-outsider","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24434"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24446,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24434\/revisions\/24446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}