Kai fang

Damn us dirty foreigners, polluting the fragile little minds of innocent Chinese folks with our slutty foreign behaviour.

Part of my job here in the middle kingdom involves interviewing Chinese people to test their oral communication skills. This generally involves asking some fairly standard questions about their friends and family, their work, their hobbies. But throwing in some slightly more unusual questions (that is, questions that they don't already have a well-rehearsed response to) can be a good way to test their linguistic flexibility. One of the things I sometimes ask them about are the differences between Chinese and non-Chinese people, although I am beginning to tire of the responses I get. I say responses though I shouldn't really use the plural form, since there is only one stock response: A look of slight nervousness, then a giggle (usually just the females, but sometimes the guys too), then they'll look me right in the eye and tell that foreigners are so 'open'. What that means is that they've translated directly from the Chinese kai fang. And what that means is that foreigners are basically whores that will hump anything that moves. While this might be true of some folks, I think it is really sad that TV programmes and films are believed as sources of accurate information. American Pie? Yes, that is exactly what life is like. Sex and the City? Of course, life is like that for 100% of non-Chinese people around the world.

Sadly, it seems that many Chinese people share this opinion of foreigners, and especially the ones that come to live in China. While I'm sure that this guy hasn't helped our image much (search back through his archive if you want to find the juicy stuff), I do like to ask something of the people that use the term kai fang: Can a person be kai fang (=a slut) on their own? No? So who are all these kai fang foreigners sleeping with in China? Not innocent, chaste, Chinese girls... surely... How long until the myth becomes mist? (Much) more on stereotypes another time...