Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. Chinaman, chinaman (n.) Chinaman is an ethnic slur, taboo in American English; the accepted term, noun (singular and plural) or adjective, is Chinese. An echo of the taboo word is in the idiom (now much suppressed as well) a Chinaman’s chance, which means “no chance at all.” ******************* "Chinaman" and "Chinamen" During the era of anti-Chinese prejudice, the terms "Chinaman" and "Chinamen" were used in a derogatory way when speaking about the Chinese. Unfortunately, many people still use those words without realizing that today both terms are perceived by many as having racist connotations. If used at all, the words "Chinaman" or "Chinamen" should always have quotes around them, or be contained within a phrase that is itself a direct quotation. For more information, please refer to pp. 47-48 of the booklet, Asian Pacific Americans: A Handbook on How to Cover and Portray Our Nation's Fastest Growing Minority Group, edited by Bill Sing (1989, National Conference of Christians and Jews, Los Angeles). http://www.uidaho.edu/LS/AACC/SENSITIV.HTM ************ The usage of the word dates back to the 1800's when Chinese immigrants were brought to the States to work on the Transcontinental Railroads. These workers had little rights and were forced into labor under wretched conditions for many years. Furthermore, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882, which prohibited Chinese immigrants from becoming US citizens. The Chinese are the only ethnic group to have been denied the right to citizenship based on their ethnic origin. It is akin to the African Americans being regarded as 2nd class human beings during periods of slavery. ******************** The Reader's Companion to American History CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Those on the West Coast were especially prone to attribute declining wages and economic ills on the despised Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation's population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white "racial purity." The statute of 1882 suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and declared the Chinese as ineligible for naturalization. Chinese workers already in the country challenged the constitutionality of the discriminatory acts, but their efforts failed. The act was renewed in 1892 for another ten years, and in 1902 Chinese immigration was made permanently illegal. The legislation proved very effective, and the Chinese population in the United States sharply declined. American experience with Chinese exclusion spurred later movements for immigration restriction against other "undesirable" groups such as Middle Easterners, Hindu and East Indians, and the Japanese. The Chinese themselves remained ineligible for citizenship until 1943. http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_016400_chineseexclu.htm ************** The usage of the term references a time when Chinese people in America were discriminated, prosecuted, and denied their rights because of their ethnic origin, directly violating the fundamental principles of this country. I am Chinese and I find this term offensive. Maybe some others do not, but this does not mean anyone should not respect those who do.
I mean it's like saying "Indian" instead of "Native American", it's not the right word to use in public.
Some words about the "-ese" suffix From merriam-webster on-line... Main Entry: 2-ese Function: noun suffix Inflected Form(s): plural -ese 1 : native or resident of (a specified place or country) <Chinese> 2 a : language of (a particular place, country, or nationality) <Siamese> b : speech, literary style, or diction peculiar to (a specified place, person, or group) -- usually in words applied in depreciation I also found an interesting fact that people named with -ese are nearly all from the countries which had been enemies to UK or US before: Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, ... , comparing with British, Spanish, French, Italian, American, ..., even Korean. Why? I guess, it's the Britsih who intended to choose this kind of -ese names when they were invading or fighting with these countries in18th or 19th century. At that time, people from these countries weren't able to deny the "name" given by their enemies. When Persia changed country name to Iran in last century, some US report and media started to call their people "Iranese", Iran gov fought really hard with UN about it and changed it to "Iranian", Unfortunetely, Chinese, Japenese and other people didn't have the chance to do the same when British gave them those names in Engish. In my knowledge, China, in Chinese language, means Central Kingdom Japan, means The place where sun rises, in Japanese Vietname, means Southern Kingdom? a guess But now, I think, most people in the world don't think these -ese words have any negative meaning
Wow. Though it was originally used to mean 'person from China', it was historically used by those who oppressed Chinese and therefore has a racist connotation. Sorry folks. I never meant it that way. Thanks for the clarification. -- droxford
There are American Woman's --- well there is a song and it is very offensive: Have you ever heard such hate?
i think the idea is that annthuyn didn't like being singled out for her ethnicity. the same reaction can be expected if say a black kid goes up to her teacher in an all-white school, and another teacher looked over and said "oh look, you've got a black student!" i don't know if you're from the Commonwealth, but a british example might be if a teacher says to another "oh look! you've got a paki in your class!" i doubt "oriental" is meant in an offensive fashion. if anything "oriental" in education circles is probably associated with high academic performance and good classroom behavior more than anything else. but it's the singling out which is irksome i guess.
I disagree with this etymology. I'm pretty sure "-ese" comes from the Romance language suffixes, which aren't based on this at all Example, in French, an english guy would be an "anglais," a french guy would be a "francais", a chinese guy is a "chinois", a japanese person is a "japonais", etc. In Spanish, an english guy is an "ingles," a french guy is a "frances", the chinese are "chinos", the japanese are "japones" Now, some words, older ones that have been in English for a long time (English, french, spanish, danish, swedish, irish, finnish, etc) eventually evolved their own "anglicized" spelling. In fact, many countries/regions in Western Europe retained "-ese" like "Portuguese", "Genoese", "Viennese"; in addition, many non-Western peoples got names derived from the traditional Romance suffixes that were not "ese", Example: Indians, Egyptians, Arabians, Russians, Mongolians, Koreans, Filipinos, Turkish, Afghans, The reasons why "Chinese" and "Japanese" didn't become irregular like "Chinish" or "Japanish" seems to me to be more of a function of them not being words in english until well after irregular anglicized versions of W. European words evolved.
but there is Englishman and Frenchman (and German ...) i remember a couple of movies, mostly spaghetti westerns, in which white characters would refer to chinese people as chinamen, not necessarily with derogatory intent, but with functional intent (i.e. "let the chinaman go!" or "i need a chinaman who can cook/wash/shoot/translate" or "get that chinaman to work harder!", etc. etc.) hence my impression that the term is not necessarily used 100% with negative intent in the beginning. rather it was the low social status of most chinese immigrants at the time which gave the term the derogatory connotations over time. even then, it's a term which has become racially sensitive by poor historical association rather than direct implication. like say "paki", "arab" or "jew".
It's an ethnic slur, I'm surprised there was any more question after the dictionary defintion was quoted.
This seems to be a case of a word that would not have been derogatory being turned derogatory. My friend's Dad is from Scotland and he's proud to be Scottish or a "Scotsman." "Chinaman" probably would not be a bad term if it hadn't been drug through the mud in the early years of America.
We don't think its offencive in our house but we do think its poor or low class English.[chinaman =chinese man]
We sometimes use the word 'oriental' to discern that one type of Asian comes from the Orient and is quite different[Another Race] from the Asians from the West side of Asia, such as India. Asia is a Continent with peoples of many Races.
FYI "oriental" is a messy term to use because it represents a kind of 19th century imperialist mindset in which "the Orient" was a non-existant place, but imposed as a name upon anything ranging from Egypt/Iraq to Vietnam. Orientalism as an historical movement was one of colonial justification and the ranking of races...white on top.
Dictionaries have defined the word as a slur, and obviously people are offended by it. But now were learning more about WHY it's offensive. So, once a word like 'Chinaman' becomes a racist remark, does it have to stay that way? I mean, the negative connotation comes only from a historical reference. In time, couldn't the bad history behind the word fade away, and 'Chinaman' can join 'Englishman' and 'Frenchman' as being normally accepted, without being negative? -- droxford
We now all know that chinaman is an offensive term when used in reference to an Chinese person, but did you also know it is a term used in cricket?! chinaman n 1: offensive terms for a person of Chinese descent [syn: chink, Chinaman] 2: a ball bowled by a left-handed bowler to a right-handed batsman that spins from off to leg [syn: Chinaman]
Im still at a loss to figger out why you got the reaction you did in the other thread. Could it be because you were comparing/contrasting it with the other taboo word? and, really...IMO you shouldn't consider all the members the same just cause a few of them got offended in your thread from last year. You should already know by personal experience that we arent all that way.
