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==Etymology and history==
==Etymology and history==
[[Image:Ironchinkworker.png|thumb|right|The ''Iron Chink'', a machine that guts and cleans salmon for canning,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2109|title=Automated salmon cleaning machine developed in Seattle in 1903|publisher=HistoryLink.org|date=[[2000-01-01]]|accessdate=2007-07-20}}</ref> alongside a Chinese fishplant worker, was racially marketed as a replacement for Chinese immigrants during the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]]]]A number of dictionaries have provided different suggestions as to the origin of ''chink''. Some of these suggestions are that it originated from the Chinese courtesy ''ching-ching'',<ref>{{cite book|title=Cassell's Dictionary of Slang|publisher=Orion Publishing Group|month=November|year=2005|isbn=0304366366}}</ref> that it evolved from the word ''China'',<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Slang|publisher=Oxford University Press|month=December|year=2003|isbn=0198607636}}</ref> or that it was an alteration of ''Qing'',<ref>{{cite book|title=21st Century Dictionary of Slang|publisher=Random House, Inc.|date=[[1994-01-01]]|isbn=978-0-440-21551-6}}</ref> as in the [[Qing Dynasty]]. Another version of this origin is that it was an adaptation of ''Zhongguo'', which means China. <ref>''The Facts on File World Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins'', Checkmark Books, New York, 2000.</ref> A final explanation posits that the word evolved from the other meaning of ''chink'', which is a small crevice, being a simile for small or slanted eyes (Sometimes, the word is used as an adjective, as in ''chink-eyed'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mcgill.lexibase.reverso2.net/Main.aspx?DictionaryID=326733|title=Chink|publisher=Collins Online Dictionary|accessdate=2007-03-22}}</ref> The word's first usage appears in 1878,<ref>{{cite book|editor=Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor|title=New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English|publisher=Routledge|date=[[2005-05-12]]|isbn=9780415212588}}</ref> originally as ''chinkie''. ''[[Chinky]]'' is still used in Britain as a nickname for [[Chinese food]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/chink.htm|title=Chink (chingk)|publisher=Interactive Dictionary of Racial Language|accessdate=2007-03-22}}</ref>
[[Image:Ironchinkworker.png|thumb|right|The ''Iron Chink'', a machine that guts and cleans salmon for canning,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2109|title=Automated salmon cleaning machine developed in Seattle in 1903|publisher=HistoryLink.org|date=[[2000-01-01]]|accessdate=2007-07-20}}</ref> alongside a Chinese fishplant worker, was racially marketed as a replacement for Chinese immigrants during the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]]]]A number of dictionaries have provided different suggestions as to the origin of ''chink''. Some of these suggestions are that it originated from the Chinese courtesy ''ching-ching'',<ref>{{cite book|title=Cassell's Dictionary of Slang|publisher=Orion Publishing Group|month=November|year=2005|isbn=0304366366}}</ref> that it evolved from the word ''China'',<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Slang|publisher=Oxford University Press|month=December|year=2003|isbn=0198607636}}</ref> or that it was an alteration of ''Qing'',<ref>{{cite book|title=21st Century Dictionary of Slang|publisher=Random House, Inc.|date=[[1994-01-01]]|isbn=978-0-440-21551-6}}</ref> as in the [[Qing Dynasty]]. Another version of this origin is that it was an adaptation of ''Zhongguo'', which means China. <ref>''The Facts on File World Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins'', Checkmark Books, New York, 2000.</ref> A final explanation posits that the word evolved from the other meaning of ''chink'', which is a small crevice, being a simile for small or slanted eyes (Sometimes, the word is used as an adjective, as in ''chink-eyed'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mcgill.lexibase.reverso2.net/Main.aspx?DictionaryID=326733|title=Chink|publisher=Collins Online Dictionary|accessdate=2007-03-22}}</ref> The word's first usage appears in 1878,<ref>{{cite book|editor=Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor|title=New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English|publisher=Routledge|date=[[2005-05-12]]|isbn=9780415212588}}</ref> originally as ''chinkie''. ''[[Chinky]]'' is still used in Britain as a nickname for [[Chinese food]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/chink.htm|title=Chink (chingk)|publisher=Interactive Dictionary of
'''
Hawwy'''
Racial Language|accessdate=2007-03-22}}</ref>


During the turn of the 20th century, Asian immigration was perceived as a threat to whites in North America. Chinese were seen as invasive, culminating into [[Yellow Peril]] hysteria. In the United States, the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] was passed, banning Chinese immigration, within a few years after the first recorded use of ''chink''. The dehumanizing use of the word is argued by one author to be a racist justifier for the passage of the Exclusion Act.<ref name=senn>{{cite web|url=http://aaichicago.org/news.01.10.07t.html|title=Written Testimony to Local School Council at Senn High School|author=Quon, Myron Dean|publisher=Asian American Institute|date=2007-01-10|accessdate=2007-04-04}}</ref>
During the turn of the 20th century, Asian immigration was perceived as a threat to whites in North America. Chinese were seen as invasive, culminating into [[Yellow Peril]] hysteria. In the United States, the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] was passed, banning Chinese immigration, within a few years after the first recorded use of ''chink''. The dehumanizing use of the word is argued by one author to be a racist justifier for the passage of the Exclusion Act.<ref name=senn>{{cite web|url=http://aaichicago.org/news.01.10.07t.html|title=Written Testimony to Local School Council at Senn High School|author=Quon, Myron Dean|publisher=Asian American Institute|date=2007-01-10|accessdate=2007-04-04}}</ref>

Revision as of 11:01, 29 September 2008

Look up chink in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
For other uses, see Chink (disambiguation).

Chink is an ethnic slur for any person of Chinese descent. It is also commonly used to insult people of general East Asian descent. Chink may also mean a small crevice or opening, often referring to a weakness such as a "chink in the armor", but also in purely descriptive contexts such as a chink between two bricks. The latter term is uncontroversial, since it predates the ethnic slur, though the slur may have origins from the original meaning. The usage of the word as an ethnic slur has sparked contemporary controversies in public and popular media.

Etymology and history

The Iron Chink, a machine that guts and cleans salmon for canning,[1] alongside a Chinese fishplant worker, was racially marketed as a replacement for Chinese immigrants during the Chinese Exclusion Act

A number of dictionaries have provided different suggestions as to the origin of chink. Some of these suggestions are that it originated from the Chinese courtesy ching-ching,[2] that it evolved from the word China,[3] or that it was an alteration of Qing,[4] as in the Qing Dynasty. Another version of this origin is that it was an adaptation of Zhongguo, which means China. [5] A final explanation posits that the word evolved from the other meaning of chink, which is a small crevice, being a simile for small or slanted eyes (Sometimes, the word is used as an adjective, as in chink-eyed).[6] The word's first usage appears in 1878,[7] originally as chinkie. Chinky is still used in Britain as a nickname for Chinese food.[8]

During the turn of the 20th century, Asian immigration was perceived as a threat to whites in North America. Chinese were seen as invasive, culminating into Yellow Peril hysteria. In the United States, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, banning Chinese immigration, within a few years after the first recorded use of chink. The dehumanizing use of the word is argued by one author to be a racist justifier for the passage of the Exclusion Act.[9]

However, labor shortage on the west coast still required Chinese and other Asian laborers. Alaskan fish canneries were so short on workers, appeals to Congress to amend the Exclusion Act went forward. The Iron Chink, an early 1900s fish preparation machine, was marketed during the shortage as a mechanical means and replacement (hence the name) to keep Chinese population low,[citation needed] utilizing anti-Asian fears as selling point to the product.[citation needed] The name of the product was bold by modern standards, and symbolic of anti-Asian racism during the era.[10][11] Usage of the word continued, such as with the story "The Chink and the Child" by Thomas Burke, later adapted to film by D.W. Griffith. Griffith altered the story to be more racially sensitive and renamed it to Broken Blossoms.

Although chink originally referred only to those of Chinese descent, the meaning expanded sometime in the 1940s to include other people of East Asian descent.[12] During the Vietnam War, the word was frequently used to refer to Vietnamese soldiers, with numerous examples of news reports attesting to this. In addition, literature and film about the Vietnam war, also contain examples of this usage of chink, including the 1986 film Platoon and the 1970s play (and later film) Sticks and Bones.[13][14]

Offensiveness and reclamation

Chink has been compared in degree of offensiveness to terms such as nigger. Like other ethnic slurs, association with violence and discrimination are made, which may be considered hate crimes.[15] Chinese people considered it offensive from an early time. In the 1920s, a Chinese merchant in Singapore said that he did "not like to be called a 'bloody chink,'" but that he accepted it "because that is the way of the white man" and that he would lose business if he protested against its use.[16]

Racially motivated violence and harassment has disturbed Asian communities and families, often performed in conjunction with slurs such as chink and at the expense of Asian youth. Asian American community members believe chink and other slurs are not taken seriously enough by public officials. In 2004, Bang Mai, a Vietnamese teenager residing in Boston, was stabbed and killed after a confrontation where he and other Asian youths were called chinks. The incident was believed to have been built up over a series of incidents involving harassment between youths.[17] Kenneth Chu has been used as an example of the seriousness of the slur, when he was found murdered with the word chink scratched into his car.[18]

File:Chinkdaddy.png
David Jung, aka Chink Daddy on CNN

Similar to the controversial reclamation of the word nigger, the word chink has been used in a positive manner. When targets of the slur use it in positive light, they are attempting to make the word less offensive or turn it towards their favor.

Wang Lee Hom, a Taiwanese American musician, named his Asian hip-hop fusion genre chinked-out in order to put positive light on the word. Eventually Wang hopes the word will become "cool".[19] Punk rock band The Chinkees, led by Mike Park, a Korean American, was named so to point out that current day racism against Asian Americans still exists.[20] Bay Area based Hip-Hop artist Chinky I, a Japanese and Filipino American uses the moniker to bring a positive light to the term which in Hip-Hop is used to describe some one as being high "chinky eye". [citation needed] "If more people use the term when referencing my music than I feel like I am doing the right thing. I'm proud to be Chinky". Chink-O-Rama, a New York City play in the vein of In Living Color, similarly uses chink and other epithets throughout the show to "disempower" the words through parody, humor, and satirical analysis. Kate Rigg, co-creator of the show, used the term in the title because racists assume "that all Asian people are/look the same," therefore having the single slur representing all Asians.[21] David Jung, co-creator and actor in Chink-O-Rama, created his character MC Chink Daddy, shortened to C-Diddy, as a parody of Asian stereotypes. He competed in the 2003 Air Guitar Championships, appearing on talk shows and news stations after his world victory.[22]

Controversies

In the United States

New York City radio station, Hot 97, came under criticism for airing the Tsunami Song. Referring to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, in which over an estimated 200,000 people died, the song used the phrase "screaming chinks" along with other offensive lyrics. The radio station fired a co-host and producer, and indefinitely suspended radio personality Miss Jones, who was later reinstated. Members of the Asian American community said Miss Jones' reinstatement condoned hate speech.[23]

Sarah Silverman appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 2001, stirring up controversy when the word chink was used without the usual bleep appearing over ethnic slurs on network television. The controversy led Asian activist and community leader Guy Aoki to appear on the talk show Politically Incorrect along with Sarah Silverman. Guy Aoki alleged that Silverman did not believe the term offensive.[18]

A Philadelphia eatery, Chink's Steak, created controversy, appearing in Philadelphia Daily News and other newspapers. The restaurant was asked by Asian community groups[24] to change the name or even spelling, which the current owner outright refused. The restaurant was named after the original Caucasian owner's nickname, "Chink", derived from the ethnic slur due to his "slanty eyes".[25]

During early 2000, University of California, Davis experienced a string of racial incidents and crimes between Asian and Caucasian students, mostly among fraternities. Several incidents included chink and other racial epithets being shouted among groups, including the slurs being used during a robbery and assault on an Asian fraternity by 15 Caucasian males. The incidents motivated a school-wide review and protest to get professional conflict resolution and "culturally sensitive" mediators.[26]

The American band The Bloodhound Gang performed a song on their album One Fierce Beer Coaster called Yellow Fever, describing a sexual relationship with an Asian woman, that was highly controversial. The chorus of the song goes "Chinky chinky bang bang, I love you/Chinky chinky bang bang, I know you love me too." One verse explained that dental floss would be sufficiently wide enough to blindfold the Asian woman for sexual purposes.

In the United Kingdom

The 1969 top 3 hit single for Blue Mink, Melting Pot, which talks of how the world would be happier if everybody was coffee-coloured, sings "Take a pinch of white man, Wrap him up in black skin. [...] Mixed with yellow Chinkees. You know you lump it all together And you got a recipe for a get along scene Oh what a beautiful dream If It could only come true". The lyric was also included on the 2003 reissue of 1983 multi-platinum Culture Club album Colour by Numbers, which included a cover of the song as a bonus track. The 1994 Boyzone album, A Different Beat, omitted the lyric however.

In 1999, an exam given to students in Scotland was criticized for containing a passage that students were told to interpret containing the word chinky. This exam was taken by students all over Scotland, and Chinese groups expressed offence at the use of this passage. The examinations body apologized, calling the passage's inclusion "an error of judgement."[27]

The musical Cats originally contained the lyric, "with a frightful burst of fireworks, the Chinks, they swarmed aboard!", but in recent times, all productions of the show revised the lyrics to, "with a frightful burst of fireworks, the Siamese swarmed aboard!"

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Automated salmon cleaning machine developed in Seattle in 1903". HistoryLink.org. 2000-01-01. Retrieved 2007-07-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Cassell's Dictionary of Slang. Orion Publishing Group. 2005. ISBN 0304366366. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ The Oxford Dictionary of Slang. Oxford University Press. 2003. ISBN 0198607636. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ 21st Century Dictionary of Slang. Random House, Inc. 1994-01-01. ISBN 978-0-440-21551-6. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ The Facts on File World Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Checkmark Books, New York, 2000.
  6. ^ "Chink". Collins Online Dictionary. Retrieved 2007-03-22.
  7. ^ Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor, ed. (2005-05-12). New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Routledge. ISBN 9780415212588. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Chink (chingk)". Interactive Dictionary of Hawwy Racial Language. Retrieved 2007-03-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); line feed character in |publisher= at position 26 (help)
  9. ^ Quon, Myron Dean (2007-01-10). "Written Testimony to Local School Council at Senn High School". Asian American Institute. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
  10. ^ Klingle, Mathew W. (n\a). "A History Bursting With Telling: Asian Americans in Washington State". Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington. Retrieved 2007-04-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Wing, Avra (2005-01-14). "Acts of Exclusion". AsianWeek. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
  12. ^ Random House Slang Dictionary
  13. ^ http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Platoon.html Accessed March 31, 2007.
  14. ^ New York Times, April 26th, 1971, pg. 10.
  15. ^ Guillermo, Emil (2004-08-24). "Is SF Soft On Hate Crime?". Hearst Communications Inc. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
  16. ^ Foster(1930), p.222
  17. ^ Tang, Irwin (2004-08-13). "Protect Your Children". AsianWeek. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
  18. ^ a b "ABC's Politically Incorrect Tackles Comedian's 'Chink' Joke". AsianWeek. 2000-08-24. Retrieved 2007-03-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "Pop Stop". Taipei Times. 2006-01-13. Retrieved 2007-03-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "label it... chink". gURL. Retrieved 2007-03-22.
  21. ^ "Kate's Chink-O-Rama". Kate Rigg. 2003. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
  22. ^ Rigg, Kate (2003). "Chink-O-Rama: Bio: David Jung aka MC Chink Daddy aka C. Diddy". Retrieved 2007-04-04.
  23. ^ Fang, Jennifer, James Fujikawa (2005-02-16). ""Tsunami Song" Host Miss Jones Returns". Yellowworld.org. Retrieved 2007-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ^ "The OCA approves Chink's Steaks resolution". Organization of Chinese Americans - Greater Philadelphia Chapter. 2004. Retrieved 2007-03-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  25. ^ "Only 21, she's leading steak-shop fight". The Asian American Journalists Association - Philadelphia. 2004-04-01. Retrieved 2007-03-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ Banerjee, Neela (2001-02-16). "Hate Crimes Galvanize U.C. Davis Students". Asianweek.com. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
  27. ^ "Chinese 'slur' wins apology". BBC News. June 29, 1999. Retrieved 2007-04-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

References

  • Foster, Harry. A Beachcomber in the Orient. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1930.
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