Chinaman (/ˈtʃaɪnə.mən/) is an offensive[1] term referring to aChinese man or person, or widely aperson native to geographical East Asia or of perceived East Asian ethnicity. The term is noted as havingpejorative overtones by modern dictionaries.[a] Its derogatory connotations evolved from its use in pejorative contexts regarding Chinese people and other East Asians,[3] as well as its grammatical incorrectness which resembles stereotypical characterizations of Chinese accents in English-speaking associated with discrimination.[4][5][6] The usage of the termChinaman is strongly discouraged byAsian American organizations.[7][8][9][10]
Historically, words such asChinaman,chink andyellow have been used inAustralia to refer toChinese Australians during theAustralian gold rushes and when theWhite Australia policy was in force.
The termChinaman has been historically used in a variety of ways, including legal documents, literary works, geographic names, and in speech. Census records in 19th-century North America recordedChinese men by names such as "John Chinaman", "Jake Chinaman" or simply as "Chinaman".[11]Chinese American historian Emma Woo Louie commented that such names in census schedules were used when census takers could not obtain any information and that they "should not be considered to be racist in intent". One census taker inEl Dorado County wrote, "I found about 80 Chinese men in Spanish Canion who refused to give me their names or other information." Louie equated "John Chinaman" to "John Doe" in its usage to refer to a person whose name is not known, and added that other ethnic groups were also identified by generic terms as well, such asSpaniard andKanaka, which refers to aHawaiian.[12]
In a notable 1853 letter toGovernor of CaliforniaJohn Bigler which challenges his proposed immigration policy toward the Chinese, restaurant owner Norman Asing, at the time a leader inSan Francisco's Chinese community, refers to himself as a "Chinaman". Addressing the governor, he writes, "Sir: I am a Chinaman, a republican, and a lover of free institutions."[13]Chinaman was also often used in complimentary contexts, such as "after a very famous Chinaman in oldCassiarRush days, (who was) known & loved by whites and natives".[14]
As the Chinese in the American West began to encounter discrimination and hostile criticism of their culture and mannerisms, the term would begin to take on negative connotations. The slogan of theWorkingman's Party was "The Chinese Must Go!", coined in the 1870s beforeChinaman acquired a derogatory association. The termChinaman's chance evolved as the Chinese began to take on dangerous jobs building the railroads or ventured to exploit mine claims abandoned by others, and later found themselves victims of injustice as accused murderers (of Chinese) would be acquitted if the only testimony against them was from other Chinese. Legal documents such as theGeary Act of 1892, which barred the entry of Chinese people to theUnited States, referred to Chinese people both as "Chinese persons" or "Chinamen".[15]
The term has also been used to refer toJapanese men, despite the fact that they are not Chinese. TheJapanese admiralTōgō Heihachirō, during his training inEngland in the 1870s, was called "Johnny Chinaman" by his British comrades.[16] Civil rights pioneerTakuji Yamashita took a case to theUnited States Supreme Court in 1922 on the issue of the possibility of allowingJapanese immigrants to own land in the state ofWashington. Washington's attorney general, in his argument, stated that Japanese people could not fit into American society because assimilation was not possible for "theNegro, theIndian and the Chinaman".[17]
Mary Paik Lee, aKorean immigrant who arrived with her family in San Francisco in 1906, writes in her 1990 autobiographyQuiet Odyssey that on her first day of school, girls circled and hit her, chanting:
Ching Chong, Chinaman,
Sitting on a wall.
Along came a white man,
And chopped histail off.[18]
A variation of this rhyme is repeated by a young boy in John Steinbeck's 1945 novelCannery Row in mockery of a Chinese man. In this version, "wall" is replaced with "rail", and the phrase "chopped his tail off" is changed to "chopped off his tail":
Ching Chong, Chinaman,
Sitting on a rail.
Along came a white man,
And chopped off his tail.
Literary and musical works have used the term as well. In "Disgraceful Persecution of a Boy", an 1870 essay written byMark Twain, a sympathetic and often flattering account about the circumstances of Chinese people in 19th-century United States society, the term is used throughout the body of the essay to refer to Chinese people.[19] Over a hundred years later, the term would again be used during the Civil Rights era in the context of racial injustice in literary works. The term was used in the title of Chinese American writerFrank Chin's first play,The Chickencoop Chinaman, written in 1972,[20] and also in the translated English title ofBo Yang's work of political and cultural criticismThe Ugly Chinaman and the Crisis of Chinese Culture.[21]
During the 1890sdetective fiction often portrayed Chinese characters asstereotypically conniving, tending to use the term "Chinaman" to refer to them.[22] This occurred to such a great extent that it prompted writers of the 1920s and 1930s (during Britain'sGolden Age of Detective Fiction) to eschew stereotypical characterizations, either by removing them from their stories entirely (as suggested byRonald Knox in his "Ten Commandments" of Detective Fiction) or by recasting them in non-stereotypical roles. This "Rule of Rule Subversion"[22] became an important part of Golden Age detective fiction, challenging readers to think more critically about characters using only information given in the story.
In musical works, the term appears inMort Shuman's 1967 translation of theJacques Brel song "Jacky": "Locked up inside my opium den / Surrounded by some Chinamen."[23][24] (The phrase used in Brel's original French lyric wasvieux Chinois, meaning "old Chinese".)[25] The term was also used in the hit 1974 songKung Fu Fighting, byCarl Douglas; the song's first verse begins "They were funky Chinamen from funkyChinatown."[26]
The termChinaman is described as being offensive in most modern dictionaries and studies of usage.[27]The New Fowler's Modern English Usage considersChinaman to have a "derogatory edge",[28]The Cambridge Guide to English Usage describes it as having "derogatory overtones",[29] and Philip Herbst's reference workThe Color of Words notes that it may be "taken as patronizing".[30] This distinguishes it from similar ethnic names such asEnglishman andIrishman, which are not used pejoratively. This also differs in vernacular as terms such asEnglandman,Irelandman, andChineseman (compounded) are not commonly used.[30]
In its original sense,Chinaman is now almost entirely absent from British English, with the word shifting from its former descriptive use to a more derogatory usage some time before 1965.[31] However,chinaman (not capitalized) remained in use in an alternative sense to describe aleft-arm unorthodox spinbowler incricket, although the use of the term is declining due to the racial overtones associated with it.[28][32][33] Most British dictionaries see the termChinaman as old-fashioned, and this view is backed up by data from theBritish National Corpus.[29] According toMerriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, in American EnglishChinaman is most often used in a "knowing" way, either satirically or to evoke the word's historical connotations. It acknowledges, however, that there is still some usage that is completely innocent.[27] In addition, Herbst notes inThe Color of Words that despiteChinaman's negative connotations, its use is not usually intended as malicious.[30]
On April 9, 1998, televisionsitcom showSeinfeld aired anepisode in which a character referred toopium as "the Chinaman's nightcap". The episode prompted many Asian American viewers, including authorMaxine Hong Kingston, to send letters of protest. In her letter, Kingston wrote that the term is "equivalent toniggers forblacks andkikes forJews". Media watchdog Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) called onNBC, broadcasting network for the show, to issue a public apology. NBC did not issue an apology, but it removed the offending term from the episode in the episode's rerun in May 1998. NBC's executive vice president for broadcast standards and content policy sent MANAA a letter stating that the network never intended to offend. MANAA was pleased with the studio's response despite the lack of an apology, and Kingston, while disappointed there was no apology, was pleased that the term was removed from the episode.[7]
In 2001, theChicago Sun-Times was chastised by William Yashino, Midwest director of theJapanese American Citizens League, for using the termChinaman in two of its columns. Yashino wrote, in a letter to the editor on May 16, 2001, that the term is derogatory and demeaning to Chinese Americans and Asian Americans, and that it marginalizes these communities and inflames public sentiment.[9]
In March 2007, media mogulTed Turner used the term in a public speech before theBay Area Council ofSan Francisco, California. Community leaders and officials objected to his use of the term, and immediately called for an apology. In a statement released by his spokesman on March 13, 2007, Turner apologized for having used the term, stating that he was unaware that the term was derogatory. Vincent Pan, director of the organizationChinese for Affirmative Action, said it was "a bit suspect" for someone involved in domestic and world politics like Turner to be unaware that the term is derogatory. Yvonne Lee, a former commissioner of theU.S. Civil Rights Commission, said the apology was the first step, but wanted Turner to agree to further "dialogue between different communities".[10]
On April 11, 2008, golf announcerBobby Clampett apologized for referring to golferLiang Wen-Chong as "the Chinaman" during theMasters golf tournament atAugusta National Golf Club. Clampett, working the Internet broadcast ofAmen Corner, made the comment after Liang missed the cut. According to theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch, Clampett was taken off the broadcast after the comment.[34]
In 2010, thePan Asian Repertory Theatre released a statement explaining their decision to produce a play by Lauren Yee titledChing Chong Chinaman, a term which has at times been used in doggerel verse with racist overtones.[35] Artistic Producing Director Tisa Chang explained that "Ching Chong Chinaman takes its controversial title from the late 19th century pejorative jingle and uses irony and satire to reverse prejudicial attitudes towards Asians and other outsiders."[36]
In 2014,New York Mets pitching coachDan Warthen referred toDaisuke Matsuzaka's Japanese American interpreter as a "Chinaman". He issued an apology alongside the Mets organization.[37][38]
Children's book author and illustratorDr. Seuss used the word "Chinaman" along with a racial caricature of a bright-yellow man with aqueue andchopsticks in his 1937 bookAnd to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. It was initially changed to "Chinese man" and his queue and bright skin color was removed, but the controversy ensued.[39] In March 2021, Dr. Seuss's estate announced thatMulberry Street was one of six Dr. Seuss books that would no longer be published due toinsensitive portrayals.[40] Multiple examples of other cartoons widely considered to containanti-Asian racism by Dr. Seuss can be found in his banned books and political cartoons.[41]
There are many places inAustralia named "Chinaman's Creek". These are located inNew South Wales,Queensland,South Australia,Victoria, andWestern Australia. For example, due to theBrisbane suburb ofAlbany Creek being formerly known as "Chinaman's Creek",[42] the local state school (Albany Creek State School, renamed in 1887) went through two different names: Chinaman's Creek State School (from 25 January 1875) and Chinaman's Creek Provisional School (from 1883), plus a local road (Albany Creek Road) was formerly named "Chinaman's Creek Road".
There are also three beaches named "Chinaman's Beach", one inEvans Head, New South Wales,[43] another inMosman, New South Wales (a suburb ofSydney) and another inJervis Bay,Jervis Bay Territory.[44]
There is an island in theMurray River nearYarrawonga, Victoria named "Chinaman's Island",[45] as well as an island named "Chinaman Island" inWestern Port, Victoria.
There is a lagoon inMiles, Queensland named "Chinaman's Lagoon".[46]
There is a campsite in theBlue Mountains of New South Wales known as "Chinaman's Gully".[47]
The name "Chinaman's Hill" is used by two hills in New South Wales, one inEast Kurrajong,Sydney[48] and the other located in theGreat Dividing Range, west ofByron Bay.[49] The former is named after theChinese Australians who settled the area in the 20th century.
Chinaman's Hat is a structure inPort Phillip Bay, Victoria. This is also the name of a rock formation onMount Wilson in New South Wales.
Chinamans Hat Island is an island off the south coast of theYorke Peninsula of South Australia.
Chinaman Wells is a locality inSouth Australia, also off the Yorke Peninsula.
The town ofTimor in central Victoria has gone through several different names over its history, one of them being "Chinaman's Flat".
There are two bays inTasmania whose names contain the term, Chinaman Bay and Little Chinaman Bay.
There are two Australian places (one in New South Wales and one in Victoria) named "Chinaman's Knob".[50]
On July 7, 1998,Canada'sprovince ofAlberta changed the name of a peak in theRocky Mountains from "Chinaman's Peak" to "Ha Ling Peak" due to pressure from the province's large Chinese community. The new name was chosen in honour of the railway labourer who scaled the peak's 2,408-metre (7,900 ft)-high summit in 1896 to win a $50 bet to commemorate all his fellow Chinese railway labourers. Ha Ling himself had named it "Chinaman's Peak" on behalf of all his fellow Chinese railway workers.[8][51]
There is anislet off the coast ofSantiago Island in theGalápagos Archipelago namedSombrero Chino, which can be translated fromSpanish as either "Chinaman Hat" or "Chinese Man Hat".[52][b]
Historically, there was apub inDublin known as "The Old Chinaman".[53]
Chinaman Bay is a bay onTiritiri Matangi Island, a small island of the coast ofAuckland.[54]
Chinaman's Bluff is acrag inQueenstown known for hiking.[55]
Thebasalt islet ofMokoliʻi inHawaii is commonly known as "Chinaman's Hat", although this term is discouraged by many. A proposal to request that the Hawaii Tourism Authority officially disfavour the name Mokoliʻi over Chinaman's Hat failed.[56]
There are two places in the continentalUnited States named "Chinaman's Hat", located inOregon andTexas.[57]
There is a ranch inTecopa, California that was once named "China Man's Ranch". Presently, the ranch operates as adate farm, which was opened to the public as "China Ranch" in 1996.[58]
There is a lake in northernMinnesota named "Chinaman's Lake".[57]
There is a campsite inHelena, Montana named "Chinamen's Gulch".[59]
