On 1/21/2012 4:07 AM, Tim Watts wrote:

Nobody minds if someone is called Big Dave, Little Pete etc.

Perhaps the mark of a mature society will be when you *can* call someone
"Black Dave" without everyone getting upset (assuming it is not in malice of
course).

There's an old chinese insult for whiteys - Bai Gui which literally means
"White Ghost".

I'd find it most amusing to be called that - not that anyone ever has...

OTOH, a passerby in Beijing referred to me as "American" and I was deeply
insulted...

When my American niece was living in Beijing, she was often mistaken for
British...