It’s strange to hear this from an Aussie

A couple of weeks ago, these two Aussie blokes dropped by the gym I’m working at. As we were chatting about our Chinese herbal consultation service, one of these blokes asked me whether the practitioner is a Kwai Lo. It took me a while to register what he meant. You see, Kwai Lo ( ) translated as ‘White Devil’, is a ‘derogatory term used by Chinese to address Caucasians‘. I’m not saying the Chinese had the sole rights to use this word. However, it is certainly weird to hear this from a white Australian. On reflection, I thought he could be trying to bond with the Asian – me – he was speaking to at that moment, just as how we international students adapting to the Aussie way of greeting – ‘how are you?’, ‘no worries’ etc. In any case, my answer to him was, yes, our practitioner is a local, white Aussie. Our Aussie bloke’s response was he will only be interested in the service if it’s a Chinese practitioner, not a Kwai Lo. I suppose to a large extent, it is difficult not to judge a book by its cover. However, whilst I may indeed be of Chinese descent, I’m certainly not qualified to practice Chinese medicine. Likewise, I don’t really think it’s quite fair to assume that a Chinese practitioner will necessary know more than his white Australian counterparts. And I wonder how far people still carry this essentialist assumption that a person from the country of origin of a certain practice or culture will certainly know better.