Is it necessarily a derogitory term or perhaps a method of identification?
Doesn’t bother me either way, if people use white/laowai/tall/gaijin/rancid-smelling guy as a form of identification to a third party who I am.
Taiwanese are not the most PC people to say the least
They meet a fat guy and think it’s ok to comment on how large you are.
They ask you how much you make after being introduced to you
They ask you when you lost your hair if you are bald
They are NOT PC
So being called weiguoren is pretty polite in their eyes
They used to head hunt and called you pointy nose
And yes you will always be pointed out
Instead of getting mad
Revel in your relative fame
2 Likes
My first experience being called any Chinese nominative was ‘da ge’ ( 大哥）
1 Like
PC = politically correct. From the way Taiwanese politicians speak I’d place waiguoren as pretty PC 
1 Like
My 6-year old son struck up a conversation in Mandarin with an older mother/A-ma at the park a few months back. He told her all about himself, how he was born in Taiwan and how his “媽媽是台灣人，我爸爸是外國人…"
I honestly don’t know what to think anymore. We live in Canada. orz
3 Likes
And the word is most often used to talk about white people. Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. are far less often referred to as 外國人。( I asked my Taiwanese husband about this and he confirmed…yeah, a lot of people solely use it to mean “white person”). Also, when we frist started dating, my husband did the whole calling Americans foreigners while IN America and I stopped that language right away haha.
3 Likes
They usually don’t to your face, but people are often referred to as “that white dude”, “that black dude”, “that Chinese dude” in third person.
I have that different accent and they will ohh your not from here 
and I will just reply them yeah i’m “ALIEN” 
Anyway no matter what that say - I don’t care.
1 Like
It’s not that hard to refer to someone as mister or misses. No need to bring up ethnicity at every chance. Like in the store they could simply say, this mister wants to buy a phone. Isn’t that simple to figure out?
1 Like
no the dictionary is not wrong. thats the formal meaning. the informal meaning yes is usually western looking foreigners.
2 Likes
“Foreigner” remains a clumsy and archaic translation.
Also unusable in acceptable international documentation, the proper nomenclature being “foreign national”.
As far as everyday use is concerned, as has been discussed here ad nauseum, 99% or more of the time, if a Taiwanese national uses the term 外國人, what they really mean is “white man”.
Like @tando says.
7 Likes
Yes, there is a big difference between using an identifier for someone to identify them she they aren’t there and when you use one right in front of them when there are far more appropriate options (like mister, customer, guest, etc).
Reminds me of when I went to Nicaragua and people called me chino. They just don’t know any better. And they stoped after I called them Mexicans. Because they’re all the same as they said.
3 Likes
I agree completely.
Judging by the conversation in this thread, it is very uncommon for Taiwanese to straight up call someone Waiguoren to their face.
First of all, it would sound super awkward in Mandarin, and if someone want to do something to that effect, they’d definitely opt to go with laowai, since linguistically it is more acceptable. Laowai basically is the equivalent of Gaijinsan in Japanese.
Then it’s obvious kids might do it, pointing at someone calling them Waiguoren, but it’s because they are kids and their parents are mortified when it happens.
The issue here, at least in the OP’s case, is the indiscretion of people referring to non-Asians as Waiguoren in third person. The locals should learn to use “that customer over there” or any neural and non-ethnic specific term when addressing any customers, since there’s really no real need to do so.
1 Like
I still don’t see how simply referring to a customer in the third person as “the white guy” is remotely offensive.
I mean, they are white guys, right???
1 Like
The problem is using the third person term in front of the person.
2 Likes
Calling a cat a cat, right? 
1 Like
Change the third person term and try it out in public and see how that goes for you.
It depends how it’s done, surely? If you hear one clerk tell another to help out “the white guy”, fine. But what OP is describing is the endless laughing and giggling that you sometimes see in shops. Maybe they’re shy and laughing at themselves, or maybe they’re mocking the foreigner (more often the former, but I’ve definitely dealt with the latter as well), but either way it looks ridiculously unprofessional and encourages me to walk out. Depending on my mood, maybe I’m walking out mildly amused at their utter incompetence at dealing with customers, or maybe I’m pissed off at what may not be racism but can certainly easily be seen that way - and how impolite they look should be obvious to them!
Anybody with a modicum of common sense, or life experience of more than five minutes in high school, should realize that obviously talking about someone who cannot hear you or take part in the conversation is not a good look. Yet it’s definitely something that happens a lot here.
5 Likes
at least if they say waiguoren, we all know who they are talking about, if they use Ta, it could be me, her or the kitchen sink.
1 Like