Must not Laugh at Chinese Accents
Posted on July 13, 2007
When I was a kid growing up in a small Australian country town, jokes that had fun with immigrant Chinese pronunciation and Chinese names were common. An example: “Have you heard of a new Chinese book called “Spot on the Wall” by Hoo Flung Dung?” But there was no racial conflict then or since between Chinese and other Australians. Through hard work, the Chinese just got quietly rich and nobody bothered about it.
And to this day the Vietnamese currency — the Dong — is the target of much hilarity. Whenever it falls in value, some financial journalist somewhere is sure to headline “Sag in the Dong” or the like.
And a leading Australian Leftist politician of the 60s is remembered to this day for his comment on Asian immigration: “Two Wongs don’t make a white”. The politician concerned, Arthur Calwell (whom I once had the pleasure of heckling), was actually a keen student of Chinese culture and spoke Mandarin so he was clearly less prejudiced against the Chinese than most people at the time. It was just a joke that he could not resist making in the course of a debate. It was certainly not “hate speech”.
A jocular NJ Republican politician, State Senator Sonny McCullough, recently made such a “Chinese” joke. He said: “Did you hear about the Chinese couple that had a black baby? They named him “Sum Ting Wong”".
That perhaps old-fashioned joke has landed him in much hot water. You can read about the uproar here. The Senator is now of course a “racist”.
(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)
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6 Responses to “Must not Laugh at Chinese Accents”
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This bill is being voted on in the senate TODAY!
Public Advocate demonstrates in Washington, DC, protesting the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Protection Act (H.R. 1592), which would grant special rights to homosexuals. This law would add sexual orientation to federal hate crimes statutes.
Watch Teletubby and Moses get arrested at the Capitol while angry bystanders demand the release of the purple teletubby, the “moral fiber of America.” See Public Advocate activists hit the streets with this street theater demonstrating against Ted Kennedy’s Thought Control Bill to give homosexuals special privileges: http://publicadvocateusa.org/
Of course you’d be completely clueless as to why such jokes are,
today, considered offensive. And yet, right-wingers are the first
to howl that redneck jokes are denigrating.
My wife is Chinese, (Legal Resident with Green Card), and I make jokes about how there was a sudden decrease in the cat and dog population shortly after she arrived here.
She thinks it’s hilarious. She does get even though. I found out by accident that my favorite dish, Shish Kabob, has a slightly different meaning in Mandarin Chinese.
To the native Mandarin speaker, Kabob sounds like Goh Baba. What is Goh Baba you ask? Well, goh is duck, and baba apparently is what the duck leaves behind an hour or so after a large meal.
SO now, whenever I want to make “American food”, she tells me to go have Goh Baba.
hmmmm. Well, that kills many of my jokes. hey, hear the one about the Conservative that finally figured out liberals? he died laughing before he could tell anybody!
And yet, right-wingers are the first
to howl that redneck jokes are denigrating.
Right. And Jeff Foxworthy is popular just because he’s from the South.
No, Foxworthy is popular (at least in some areas of the country)
for the same reason that many mediocre TV shows run for years, and
many talentless performers sell millions of albums. Popularity is
subjective, and rarely is it an indicator of quality or worth.