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

[Dan Goncharoff]

In examining the stereotype, one should consider the DW Griffith film
"Broken Blossoms" from 1919.

DanG

On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 1:11 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: And in (additional) honor of the Giants' World Series
> win...
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> > 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.
> >
> Americans of 2010 might be presumed to know a lot of stuff that in fact
> most of us don't, and and doubtless the situation in 1910 wasn't much
> better.  How it can have been worse is a question, of course.
>
> In any event, at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries, tour guides, Chuck
> Conners being the best publicized among them, used to lead guided tours of
> Chinatown, always featuring a visit to a genuine opium den, where there was
> always to be seen a genuine white woman so degraded by her habit that. . . .
> Well, what can be said, it's too sad.  Though there were skeptics who
> questioned the genuineness of these shows.
>
> Meanwhile, HDAS I has a number of entries for expressions beginning
> "Chinese . . . ", all of course derogatory, the earliest dating to 1898.  So
> by the end of the 19th C, "Chinese" had joined "Dutch", "French" &c as a
> term of disparagement.
>
> Meanwhile, the term for these guides to Chinatown was "lobbygow".  HDAS II
> has this only from 1930, used historically.  A quick check of Proquest Times
> & Tribune shows a nice item from 1925: PASSING OF THE LOBBYGOW, New York
> Times, April 26, 1925, the Magazine Section, p. 23.
> Later on I will try checking the papers in the American Memory file, to see
> whether there is anything from Conners lifetime.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
> We have seen the best of our times, and they were a long time ago, and not
> so very good, at that.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
> Date: Thursday, November 4, 2010 9:32 am
> Subject: Re: And in (additional) honor of the Giants' World Series win...
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> > 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: ?? ?? ?? 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,
> > 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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>
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