How to filter Pandas dataframe using 'in' and 'not in' like in SQL

How can I achieve the equivalents of SQL's IN and NOT IN?

I have a list with the required values. Here's the scenario:
df = pd.DataFrame({'country': ['US', 'UK', 'Germany', 'China']})
countries_to_keep = ['UK', 'China']

# pseudo-code:
df[df['country'] not in countries_to_keep]


My current way of doing this is as follows:
df = pd.DataFrame({'country': ['US', 'UK', 'Germany', 'China']})
df2 = pd.DataFrame({'country': ['UK', 'China'], 'matched': True})

# IN
df.merge(df2, how='inner', on='country')

# NOT IN
not_in = df.merge(df2, how='left', on='country')
not_in = not_in[pd.isnull(not_in['matched'])]


But this seems like a horrible kludge. Can anyone improve on it?

You can use pd.Series.isin.

For "IN" use: something.isin(somewhere)

Or for "NOT IN": ~something.isin(somewhere)

As a worked example:

>>> df
    country
0        US
1        UK
2   Germany
3     China
>>> countries_to_keep
['UK', 'China']
>>> df.country.isin(countries_to_keep)
0    False
1     True
2    False
3     True
Name: country, dtype: bool
>>> df[df.country.isin(countries_to_keep)]
    country
1        UK
3     China
>>> df[~df.country.isin(countries_to_keep)]
    country
0        US
2   Germany

Stack Overflow Q#19960077, score: 1551