the foreigner

Something that makes all foreigners chuckle here, whether they’ve been here for a month or a decade, is the designation of foreigner and how freely it’s used. Tonight we went out for dinner and our receipt was labeled FOREIGNER (in Chinese) so that the server would know how to find us (even though we had a number at our table). My boss, even after something like seven years in the same apartment, still gets his cable bill address to FOREIGNER (again, in Chinese). Honestly, it’s an easy distinction here that most foreigners don’t mind – one aspect of living in a homogenous society. And, it almost goes without saying, something you would never, EVER see at home, both for practical and political reasons. Could you imagine writing on a receipt “BLACK GUY”?