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

[Paul Frank]

Hi Jonathan,

I got that but I thought that the notion that the Chinese were opium
dealers was the strangest of the stereotypes, because I presume that
most Americans in the early 20th century heard of the Opium Wars.

Paul

On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 2:05 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I said stereotype.
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 7:53 AM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu>wrot=
> e:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â 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, probab=
> ly
>> > unassimilable, often sinister, users and purveyors of opium, eaters of
>> dogs,
>> > cats, and rats, atheistic, extremely prolific, and occasionally possess=
> ed
>> of
>> > odd but profound wisdom unattainable by anybody else. =C2 (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

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