laowai lookaway [lou-wahy · look · uh-wey] -noun 1. the phenomenon by which two Caucasian foreigners living in Shanghai go to extreme lengths to avoid eye contact while passing one another on the street : Yesterday, when I passed a pretty white girl on the street I wanted to stop her and say hello. [...]

  A.B.C. [ey-bee-see] -acronym: American-born Chinese -noun 1. a person of Chinese descent born in the United States, a variation of Chinese-American: He may look like he was born in Shanghai, but he’s an A.B.C. 2. a derogatory term used to describe someone who is ethnically Chinese but culturally American: She is such an A.B.C., [...]

  ass pocket [as pok-it] -noun 1. an isolated region on a Shanghai street characterized by a pungent odor of shit-smelling foulness or actual human excrement: once we make it through the ass pocket, I’ll continue my story 2. a location in Shanghai characterized by constant shit whiffs: I can’t eat at that noodle shop, [...]

The Laowai Lexicon is a brand new Flumesday feature that explores the world of language from the perspective of a foreigner in China. Every so often I will introduce and define a word or phrase essential to the China expat experience. These could be Chinese words that have slipped into the English lexicon or English [...]