{"id":488,"date":"2012-10-09T21:33:39","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T13:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=488"},"modified":"2012-10-09T21:33:39","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T13:33:39","slug":"about-kwai-lohs-ang-mohs-mat-sallehs-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=488","title":{"rendered":"About Kwai Loh’s, Ang Moh’s, Mat Salleh’s and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dutch friend asked me, why is your blog called “The life of a Kwai Loh”<\/span>?
\nSome of my Chinese Malaysian friends are a bit shocked, and ask me the same question.<\/p>\n

Shocked, because Kwai Loh<\/span> is a “bad” word\u00a0 :-). It is Cantonese for “Ghost Man” and used for Caucasian people, maybe because of their often “white” complexion. It is generally considered to be a slightly racist word, although not as bad as the N-word in the USA.<\/p>\n

But I liked the sound of it, and when I was looking for a suitable nickname for my Multiply website<\/a>, I thought, why not Kwai Loh? That’s how it started and when I was in Beijing a few years ago and found a shop where an old man made traditional chops, I ordered one with the two characters for Kwai Loh. He was surprised, but did it..:-) A chop, by the way, is Malaysian\/Singaporean English for a seal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

My “Kwai Loh” seal<\/p><\/div>\n

In Malaysia two more “slang” words are used to describe Western foreigners. One is also Chinese, Hokkien dialect: Ang Moh<\/span>, meaning Red Hair. Not really offensive, I would say.<\/p>\n

Then there is Mat Salleh<\/span>, which is Malay. Origin not clear, it might come from “Mad sailor”, referring to the wild colonial past of Penang ..:-) Quite common these days, not offensive.<\/p>\n

I hope you will agree that Kwai Loh fits me best. Especially because, being a secular humanist, I do not believe in the existence of ghosts\/spirits at all. Period. More about this topic in future posts..:-)<\/p>\n

Talking about offensive, what do you think about this? This monkey is endemic to Borneo and you can find it in Sarawak. Official name is Proboscis Monkey.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Proboscis Monkey<\/p><\/div>\n

Do you know how it is called in Malay language? Orang Belanda!\u00a0 The Dutch Man! That I call offensive.<\/p>\n

And what about this. In Asia it is quite common to have a bolster on your bed. Nice to cuddle when you sleep alone. This is our own bolster.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Our bolster<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, guess how this bolster is sometimes called in Malay and Indonesia language!<\/p>\n

A Dutch wife!<\/p>\n

I leave it to your imagination to give an explanation…:-)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Dutch friend asked me, why is your blog called “The life of a Kwai Loh”? Some of my Chinese Malaysian friends are a bit shocked, and ask me the same question. Shocked, because Kwai Loh is a “bad” word\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malaysia","category-social"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2LqIR-7S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}