| C: | 鬼佬 |
| P: | guǐlǎo |
| J: | gwai2 lou2 |
| Y: | gwáilóu |
Gweilo or (pronounced pronounced as /kʷɐ̌i lǒu/) is a common Cantonese slang term for Westerners. In the absence of modifiers, it refers to white people and has a history of racially deprecatory and pejorative use. Cantonese speakers frequently use to refer to Westerners in general use, in a non-derogatory context, although whether this type of usage is offensive (i.e., an ethnic slur) is disputed by both Cantonese and Westerners.[1] [2]
Gwái means "ghoul" or "devil", and lóu means "man" or "guy". The word 鬼 gwai conveys a meaning of malevolence and evil. The common mistranslation of 鬼 gwai as “ghost” is wrong. Unlike a “ghost”, a 鬼 gwai can never be good. But a ghost can be a good spirit, even divine, an expression of God as in the Holy Ghost. The literal translation of gwáilóu would thus be "ghoul man" or "devil man".[3] It is sometimes translated into English as "foreign devil".[4] In many Sinitic languages, "鬼" gwai and its local equivalents can be a derogatory term used as a curse or an insult.[5] The term 鬼 gwai has also been used to describe other ethnic groups, for example, a 17th-century writer from Canton,, wrote that Africans "look like ghouls", and gwáinòuh was once used to describe African slaves.[6]
The term gwái is an adjective that can be used to express hate and deprecation, an example being the locals' expression of their hatred towards the Japanese during their occupation of Hong Kong in World War II with the same gwái. It conveys a general bad and negative feeling but is a somewhat obsolete and archaic/old-fashioned term nowadays and other more modern terms have largely replaced gwái for similarly negative meanings. Cantonese people sometimes call each other sēui gwái, which means bad person, though more often than not it is applied affectionately, similar to "Hey, bitch!" in English when used affectionately. Nowadays, Cantonese speakers often refer to non-Chinese people by their ethnicity.
Gwáilóu is often considered to be an acceptable generic racial term for Westerners.[7] Also, some members of the Hong Kong community with European ancestry (particularly those with limited or zero Cantonese fluency) are indifferent to the term, and those who believe that the best way to defang a word intended as a "slur" is to embrace it, and use gweilo to refer to non-Chinese in Hong Kong.[8] Gwailóu has, in some instances, been recognised as simply referring to white foreigners in South East Asia and now appears on Oxford Dictionaries defined as such,[9] although non-white foreigners are not gwáilóu. While gwáilóu is used by some Cantonese speakers in informal speech, another alternative term the sound of which has several meanings sāi yàhn is now used as well, particularly if the conversation involves a non-Chinese person. Homonyms - ie words that sound the same or almost the same depending on the tone - to “sai yan” include references to female genitalia or boasting so “sai yan” is not necessarily a polite alternative to “gwai lou”. A neutral alternative would be ‘foreign person’, pronounced “oi gwok yan”.
CFMT-TV in Toronto, Canada had a cooking show named Gwai Lo Cooking (1999) hosted by a Cantonese-speaking European chef, who was also the show's producer and the person who named the show. According to CFMT-TV, "Gwei Lo" was used as "a self-deprecating term of endearment".[10] In response to some complaints, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that:
Gwai is one of a number of terms to referring to non-Chinese people that can be considered controversial and potentially offensive; a list of such terms is given below:[11] [12]
Guizi (;) is a Mandarin Chinese slang term for foreigners, and has a long history of being used as a racially deprecating insult.
However, xiaogui (;) is a common term in Mandarin Chinese for a child. Therefore, some argue that gui (Chinese: 鬼) in Mandarin is just a neutral word that describes something unexpected or hard to predict.
Laowai (Chinese: 老外;) is the word most commonly used for foreigners and is a less pejorative term than guizi. Although laowai literally means "old foreigner", depending on context, "old" can be both a term of endearment and one of criticism.