Guizi

File:Boxerspamphlet.png

A pamphlet circulated c. Template:Trim during the Boxer Rebellion that refers to foreigners as guizi () or yang guizi ()

File:2012 Anti-Japan demonstrations7.jpg

New Party Anti-Japanese demonstrators in Taiwan hoist signs with "Guizi! Get out" () following an escalation in the Senkaku Islands dispute in 2012.

Guizi (Template:Lang-zh) is a pejorative Chinese slang term referring to foreigners, with a history of xenophobic connotations.

History

Starting with the arrival of European sailors in the sixteenth century, foreigners were often perceived in China as "uncivilized tribes given to mayhem and destruction". In the southern parts of China, the term gweilo () was used; this term remains popular today in the Cantonese-speaking regions of China. In northern parts, the term 'western devil' ( ) was used.

Use

The character gui () can have negative connotations itself without the zi () suffix. For example, when it was attached to the Westerners in the term yang guizi ( 'overseas devils') during the Boxer Rebellion, to the Japanese military in the term guizi bing ( 'devil soldiers') during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and to the Korean collaborators with the term er guizi ( 'second-rank devil'). It can also be used as an adjective to express hatred and deprecation. However, the same term can also be applied derogatorily to any foreign military which was an enemy to China. In Taiwan, anti-Japanese demonstrators from the New Party hoisted signs with "Guizi! Get out" () during the 2012 China anti-Japanese demonstrations. Local expressions towards the Japanese during their occupation of China during World War II also used gui. The term conveys a generalized negative feeling; it is somewhat archaic in contemporary use, and other comparatively negative terms have largely replaced it.

Related terms

• Riben guizi (Template:Zhi) or dongyang guizi (Template:Zhi) — used to refer to Japanese. In 2010 Japanese internet users on 2channel created the fictional moe character which refers to the ethnic term, with Hinomoto Oniko being the Japanese kun'yomi reading of the Chinese characters .
• Er guizi (Template:Zhi) — used to refer to ethnic Korean conscripts and parapoliceman who contributed to the Japanese occupation and war effort during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War. It was later extended to refer to all collaborators with the Japanese, including hanjians and Taiwanese conscripts. In modern times, however, the terms became synonymous with race traitor, referring to any Chinese nationals and overseas Chinese who act as appeasers or promoters of foreign interests at the expense of Chinese national interests.
• Yang guizi (Template:Zhi) or xiyang guizi (Template:Lang-zh) — used to refer to Westerners.
• Jia yang guizi (Template:Zhi) — used to refer to "sellout" Chinese who adopt Western values and are discriminatory to their own ethnic identity and cultural heritage. Initially used to describe compradors and foreign-educated scholars during the late 19th century, who often dressed and talked like Westerners, the term is now synonymous to race traitors. A similar word in English is "Uncle Chan", which is derived from Uncle Tom and used to describe a xenophilic Hongkonger—and by further extension any westernized Chinese, regardless of mainland or overseas origin—who are perceived as self-hating, supporting Hong Kong independence and pandering to sinophobia in order to gain favor from Westerners.

See also

• Ang mo
• Gaijin — Japanese word for foreigners
• Jap
• The Sword March, the National Revolutionary Army marching cadence which popularized its use against the Japanese
• Xiao Riben