ma-foo

Updated: June 10, 2025

In Shanghae or Hong Kong, say to your Chinese ma-foo, who claims to speak English, "Bring me a glass of water," and he will not understand you. Repeat your order in those words, and he stands dumb and uncomprehending, as though you had spoken the dialect of the moon.

Thomas Wallace Knox - Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar: Life