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

[Jonathan Lighter]

I said stereotype.

JL

On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 7:53 AM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: And in (additional) honor of the Giants' World Series
> win...
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 12:30 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > The popular American stereotype of the Chinese in the early 20th C. was
> not
> > that they were "cheap," but that they were inscrutable, violent, probably
> > unassimilable, often sinister, users and purveyors of opium, eaters of
> dogs,
> > cats, and rats, atheistic, extremely prolific, and occasionally possessed
> of
> > odd but profound wisdom unattainable by anybody else. Â (Thus Earl D.
> > Biggers' Charlie Chan, inspired by a real detective, was a giant step
> > forward in ethnic understanding.)
>
> Purveyors of opium? The Chinese fought, and lost, two wars to try to
> stop British opium trafficking.
>
> Paul
>
> Paul Frank
> Translator
> Chinese, German, French, Italian > English
> Espace de l'Europe 16
> Neuchâtel, Switzerland
> paulfrank at bfs.admin.ch
> paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
>
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