Ching Chow
Ching Chow was a one-panel cartoon that was created by Sidney Smith and Stanley Link. It first appeared on January 20, 1927 and ran for at least 50 years, under a variety of different creators. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune/New York Daily News Syndicate.[1]
The title character was a stereotypical Chinese man with slanty eyes and a big, toothy grin. He offered pearls of Confucius-style wisdom, like "Beware of silent dog and still water."[2]
As one critic wrote about Ching Chow, "It wasn’t as much a strip as it was a daily fortune cookie."[3]
In later years, Ching Chow was viewed by many as a secret tip sheet for playing the numbers -- the panel would appear far in the back pages of the New York Daily News. In a 1978 Village Voice article, one believer is quoted as saying, "Why you think Ching Chow has been in the newspaper all these years? Because it's funny? Hah, hah."[4] The strip was discontinued on June 4, 1990.[5]
References
- ^ http://www.toonopedia.com/chingch.htm
- ^ http://www.umich.edu/~csie/comicart/StripArt/chingchow/chingchow.html
- ^ http://bmj2k.com/2011/08/27/the-saturday-comics-ching-chow/
- ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1299&dat=19780731&id=eA4QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aosDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5084,2267476
- ^ Mandl, Dave. "Ching Chow's Hidden Agenda". WFMU.org.