Topic: news An Anxious Beijing to Departing Expats: “Please Stay, Guests from Far Away.”

It actually is a racial slur - In the context that it is used to discriminate against every race of person that is not belonging to the 中华民族 (any different ethnicity outside of the ones that are said to make up Chinese civilization). You may be accustomed to a racial slur being a very specific one, making the distinction to a specific race, with an emphasis on negativity. In this circumstance , "Laowai" is the same thing, but in the reverse sense. They don't look at what you are and ascribe feelings to you for it- they look at what you are NOT, and ascribe such feelings. The term "Lao Wai" is used to distinguish all people who are not a specific group of people, in this case "The Chinese people." It is because of what you are not, that you are deserving of this special term and the treatments and thoughts people have associated with it. The emphasis on ”Lao Wai“ as a racial term can be seen in the example of how foreigners having Chinese ancestry are treated. Since they are seen as being Chinese, or having Chinese characteristics, they deserve a name that is outside the range of "Lao Wai." For Chinese who are born in other countries, they are seldom referred to as a Lao Wai, and instead referred to as "overseas Chinese", "China bridges" "later-generation Chinese" or in the case of being American-Chinese, they'll call them Mei Ji Hua Ren (美籍华人)。 Obviously, having Chinese ancestry puts you in a lot better place terminologically speaking.