Ching chong

For the Hong Kong journalist for the Straits Times jailed in the People's Republic of China for espionage, see Ching Cheong.

Ching chong is an ethnic slur used to mock people of Chinese ancestry or other Asians who may look Chinese, and an onomatopoeia used to represent Chinese language speech patterns by those unfamiliar with them. Many public commentators on the recent usage of the term have deemed it derogatory, and referred to its derogatory usage in history.

Origin

See also: Romanization of Chinese and Standard Mandarin § Phonology

The most probable origin of the phrase "ching chong" is a mimicking of the Chinese language by those unfamiliar with it, as in reality the Chinese language does not have many "ch"-sounding words that are phonologically equivalent to the "ch" in the English language. Ching Chong words also make up a minority of the chinese language.

In Mandarin, Chinese, various transliteration systems, such as pinyin and especially Wade-Giles, "c" or "ch" are substituted for many distinct consonants that in reality do not sound like the English "ch" at all. Because the Wade-Giles transliteration system in particular tends to substitute "c" and "ch" for many different-sounding Chinese consonants, the transliteration may help give unfamiliar people the notion that the Chinese language does indeed have many "ch"-starting sounds. In fact, in the Chinese language, only "q" in the Hanyu Pinyin transliteration system and "ch' " (but not "ch") in the Wade-Giles transliteration system sound like the "ch" used in the English language.

The following table presents transliterations containing "c" or "ch" sounds in them, which are usually not equivalent to the "ch" sound in English but rather the "ts" and "ds" sounds in English as in nuts and beds.

Selected Transliterated Mandarin Chinese Consonants

Approximated English sound	cheen	jien	jione	dsuh	dsih	tzuh	tzih	tsuh	tsih
Wade-Giles transliteration	ch'in	chien	chiung	chê	chih	ch'ê	ch'ih	ts'ê	tz'ŭ
Hanyu Pinyin transliteration	qin	jian	jiong	zhe	zhi	che	chi	ce	ci

• Note 1: Wade-Giles is an older system that is currently used in Taiwan (ROC) and formerly in use in Mainland China, although it has now been replaced by Hanyu Pinyin there.
• Note 2: "Ts" is pronounced as in nuts, and "ds" as in beds. "Tz" has roughly the same pronunciation as "ts" but is simply more heavily pronounced than "ts."

Historical usage

The prevalent usage of this phrase began during the gold-rush eras of the 19th century in Ballarat, Australia, when the Chinese gold prospectors were of Ch'ing (Chinese: 清 ; also spelled "Qing" in Pinyin, with the same pronunciation) Dynasty origin.

There are recorded incidents of using this phrase as an insult. Mary Paik Lee, a Korean immigrant who arrived with her family in San Francisco in 1906, writes in her autobiography that on her first day of school, girls circled and hit her, chanting:

Ching Chong, Chinaman,
Sitting on a dong.
Along came a yellow man,
And chopped off his bannana.

A variation of this rhyme is repeated by a young boy in John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row in mockery of a Chinese man.

In 1917, a ragtime piano song entitled "Ching Chong" was co-written by Lee S. Roberts and J. Will Callahan. Its lyrics had, e.g., the following words:

"Ching, Chong, Oh Mister Ching Chong,
You are the king of Chinatown.
Ching Chong, I love your sing-song,
When you have turned the lights all down;

Contemporary usage

In the Lucky Luke episode L'Héritage de Ran Tan Plan (Ran Tan Plan's inheritance), when the Dalton brothers are hiding in the Chinatown of Virginia City, one of them, in order to "blend with the crowd", starts uttering phrases like "ching-chong-chang-cheng". The leader of the Chinese community there tells him he wouldn't use such raw language even in reference to his worst enemy.

The film Cannonball Run II had a scene where Jackie Chan was called 'Ching-Chong' by a motorcycle thug - Chan's character beats the entire motorcycle gang up.

In December 2002, the term gained international notoriety when NBA star Shaquille O'Neal directed it, apparently in jest, at fellow NBA star and Chinese Yao Ming, during an interview on Fox Sports Radio. O'Neal was quoted as saying, "You tell Yao Ming, 'Ching chong yang, wah, ah soh.'" Yao responded with: "Chinese is a hard language to learn." After a public outcry, O'Neal apologized for making the comment, insisting that no prejudice or malice had been intended.

In November 2003, Kim Ng, an American baseball executive for the Major League Baseball Los Angeles Dodgers organization, was involved in an incident when New York Mets special assistant to the general manager Bill Singer mocked her ethnic Chinese background. (Her father was U.S.-born of Chinese descent and mother Thailand-born of Chinese descent.) Singer was dismissed for his remarks on November 18, 2003.

On January 24, 2006, comedian Dave Dameshek created an audio parody of the Asian Excellence Awards for the Adam Carolla Show. The premise of the parody was using the words "ching" and "chong" to mimic the awards show. The awards honor Asian Americans in media who have made a difference in the United States and were conducted in English. Branding the segment as demeaning and racist, several Asian American organizations threatened to ask advertisers to withdraw their support from the show if the station did not issue an apology. On February 22, 2006, Carolla read a brief apology for the segment. On April 26, 2006, Carolla invited the head of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, Guy Aoki, to further explain that when he aired the bit, he had no idea that "ching chong" was a racial slur.

On December 5, 2006, comedian and co-host of The View, Rosie O'Donnell, used a series of ching chongs to imitate newscasters in China. O'Donnell made a comment in reference to the November 29, 2006 appearance by Danny DeVito, she was amazed that it was an international news media item, and joked that it was being talked about as far away as China.[57] "You know, you can imagine in China it's like, 'Ching-chong, ching-chong. Danny DeVito. Ching-chong, ching-chong-chong. Drunk. The View. Ching-chong.'"[58] Some, including the Asian American Journalists Association, interpreted her comments as a "mockery of the Chinese language She later apologized on The View, saying "To say 'ching chong' to someone is very offensive, and some Asian people have told me it's as bad as the n-word. Which I was like, 'Really? I didn't know that.' I'm sorry for those people who felt hurt or were teased on the playground. But I'm also gonna give you a fair warning that there's a good chance I'll do something like that again, probably in the next week, not on purpose. Only 'cause it's how my brain works."

In November 2006, Bryn Mawr College cancelled a performance by the independent band Ching Chong Song, both of whose members are white, after protests from various campus groups, including the Asian Students Association. The situation escalated one month later when a band member wrote an inflammatory letter to the student newspaper, claiming that the university had mistreated them while lobbing profanities at the student body. Some critics considered the outrage to be inconsistent, because in January 2005 two Asian comedians hired by the college, joked during the university's comedy night that the Chinese language sounds like "ching chong." However neither comedian was Chinese and the performance was considered controversial.

On February 14, 2007, Ching Chong Song performed at New York University. Members of NYU's Asian Heritage Club demonstrated, and the band agreed to change its name to Church of Lurch. They have since decided to retain the name Ching Chong Song and the band performs regularly without incident.

See also

• List of ethnic slurs

External links

• "Group wants sincere apology, diversity in NBA", ESPN.com, January 17, 2002.
• "Shaq's Apology Not Good Enough", The San Francisco Chronicle, January 14, 2002.
• "Shaq says mock accent was used jokingly", ESPN.com, January 10, 2002.
• "Apology demanded from Adam Corolla", Hyphen Magazine, February 1, 2006
• "Rosie O'Donnell mocks asians with ching chong joke", racialicious.com, December 7, 2006.
• "The Rosie O'Donnell Ching Chong Song", by Bobby and the Yellow Perils (satirical song about the Rosie O'Donnell 'Ching Chong' incident).