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 […]

 
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., her Mandarin […]

 
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 […]

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 […]