The Protestor & The Inspector
This little 2-figure set is based on actual photo taken some time in the late 1960s and shows a small confrontation between a petite Hong Kong woman and a taller European Police Inspector.
In order not to inflame the situation the ‘Gweilo*’ Inspector listens calmly to the lady’s complaint making no comment.
*’Gweilo’ is a common Cantonese slang term for a Westerner. It means ‘white devil or ghost’. Once a perjorative term and a mild form of insult it has, for many years, been ‘adopted’ by most long-term Western residents of the city living and working in Hong Kong as a friendly term to describe themselves!
Generally speaking it is no longer seen as any kind of an insult or derogatory term.