Soon afterwards, more letters appeared from westerners saying that they don't mind the word gweilo at all, and use it themselves.

As someone pointed out, gweilo should really be translated as 'ghost man'. It dates from the days when most Chinese worked outdoors, were tanned and saw westerners as very pale.

But although it originally referred to appearance, it does have a deeper meaning.

Anyone using the word is stressing the differences between cultural or ethnic groups. They might be doing so in a positive way, but after thinking about it, I can see why some westerners do find it offensive.

Why do we divide everyone into categories rather than simply seeing each other as people?

Many people in Hong Kong see this as normal, and the attitude probably has deep roots. Maybe the Chinese, in particular, see a gap between themselves and others.

An ethnic Chinese can be accepted as an American or an Australian, but could a white westerner ever be accepted as a Chinese? This isn't something that will change overnight.

Still, we can make a start. Next week, the Race Discrimination Bill goes before the Legislative Council. Critics say the bill allows too many exemptions. Even if that is true, if you support the objectives of such laws, you have to admit that it's a big improvement on the status quo, which offers nothing.

Under the bill, it will be illegal for employers to hire, promote, pay or train people differently on the grounds of race. And it will largely be against the law for landlords, hotels and other service providers to discriminate.

Will it make a real difference, in practice? It is hard to tell how much discrimination we really have, especially in our workplaces.

However, experience with previous anti-discrimination laws tells us that this bill will have an impact. It will only take a few high-profile cases for the community to see that certain types of behaviour are not acceptable.

According to another letter in these pages recently, an employee of a big Central shopping mall barred someone from using the toilets on the grounds of their nationality.

If the race discrimination law had been in effect, the victim could have gone to the Equal Opportunities Commission, which could have taken legal action against the shopping mall. The case would probably have been on TV, especially if the victim was awarded damages, and the shopping mall would have suffered bad publicity.

If we have a few cases like that in future, people will soon get the message that practices they once tolerated are wrong - and they may ask themselves why they are wrong.

Hopefully, the law will help change people's attitudes, even if it isn't used very often.

The big question among many Hong Kong people is this: will the law apply to the use of racist slang? It all depends on context. Some of the phrases people use to refer to Japanese and Indians, for example, are extremely nasty.

Under the new law, people using such language to bully someone or stir up racial hatred would be committing an offence.

In comparison, gweilo is a relatively neutral term, and okay between friends. But, as a public figure, I should avoid using it.

To anyone who took offence, I offer my apologies.

Bernard Chan is an executive councillor and a legislator representing the insurance functional constituency