[idra]

> You will never see a restaurant in China that says "No ---- and dogs" except in early 20th century Shanghai

Very poorly chosen example, because "No Japanese and dogs" signs are incredibly common across China. [1][2][3]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Japanese_sentiment_in_Chi...

[2] http://beijingcream.com/2013/02/no-dogs-but-also-no-japanese...

[3] http://chinahopelive.net/2012/09/17/japanese-and-dog-no-near...

> They will carelessly call a foreigner "洋鬼子", but that's as bad as "Yankee" goes IMHO.

"洋鬼子" literally means "foreign devil". Are you serious?

[jimmywanger]

> "洋鬼子" literally means "foreign devil". Are you serious?

Way to not take connotations into account. If you take everything literally, you'll be offended everywhere.

I call some of my best friends "bastards". Am I implying that they're born out of wedlock?

[chj]

> Very poorly chosen example, because "No Japanese and dogs" signs are incredibly common across China

Funny you should mention that. The relation between two people is actually quite friendly except political occasions. Also the Japanese hate is due to the world war 2, not racial. In fact we are one race.

> "洋鬼子" literally means "foreign devil".

'devil' is a strong word. It's more like 'foreign strange men'.

[powerapple]

not really. Translation doesn't work that way. I think you can translate that into "foreign foxy man". Probably from the time westerns did business in China. I don't know for sure. But translation doesn't work that way. Sometimes you just cannot translate a word from one language to another. Especially names. It is a culture thing.