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

[David A. Daniel]

I would imagine that the Chinese being users and purveyors of opium is right
up there among the top five or so factors of stereotype considered by most
Americans. Everyone who has ever seen a western movie knows that the Chinese
live in tents on the outskirts of town and run the local opium den where the
bad guys are often found and where they often get their comeuppance (lesson
to be learned: don't be a bad guy, and stay away from evil Chinese drug
dens). I don't know why you would think that anyone who is not a PhD in
history would know any correct details of the Opium Wars. It was a British
problem after all and all they got was Hong Kong and they had to give that
back anyway. Big waste of time if you ask me. As to Chinese home runs: never
heard of them before seeing it here. However, when I was a teenager we used
to hold Chinese fire drills at stoplights or in traffic jams. Four guys all
burst out of the car at once, run around it in a complete circle and get
back in the same doors they came out of. Chinese fire drill. Now there's
something that is worth knowing about.
DAD


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Paul Frank
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 11:21 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: And in (additional) honor of the Giants' World Series win...

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

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:
>
>>
...
>>
>>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>>
>> 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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org