And in (additional) honor of the Giants' World Series win...

[Victor Steinbok]

Am I the only one to recognize racist stereotypes? One image of the
Chinese has been being industrious to a fault--I suppose, this is a
positive stereotype. Another has been that of frugality--again, to a
fault, to the point of being cheap. This is the one that's being played
up here--a frugal choice in home runs, cutting corners to get one. Yet
another stereotype, perhaps more popular with East Europeans than with
Americans, is particular deviousness (and subtlety) in revenge--giving
rise to an idiomatic Russian expression for Chinese revenge (one that
you could not possibly expect). But I would bet the house on the
frugality/cheapness meme in this case.

     VS-)

On 11/3/2010 2:47 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> ... So what I was wondering if the etymology is
> just from the stereotype assumption of Chinese cheap labor>  (Chinese
> = cheap)>  (cheap home run = Chinese home run) or if there's some
> other motivation. ...

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