residents, they now are used more broadly in reference to anyone with an
Asian appearance.
These two syllables spoken together have a history and a significance
that evoke strong reactions from Asians:
[Ching Chong] comes from an ugly place deep in this country’s
history, when Chinese were viewed as strange interlopers, the
“heathen Chinee,” an economic and social scourge. Those words once
accompanied violence and lynchings. “Ching-Chong Chinaman”
rhymes dating to the 19th century weren’t just schoolyard taunts. To
be ignorant of that ... doesn’t eliminate the history.Nor are schoolyard taunts harmless:
“I would get ‘sighted’ – picked out – as the ‘chinky girl’ and those
words would come out, then fists would hit me,” remembered Doris
Owyang, the program manager for San Francisco State University’s
Center for the Integration and Improvement of Journalism. Three
years ago, a group of white teenagers attacked Asian-American
youths while shouting imitation Chinese, a case that ended in felony
and misdemeanor convictions.
(Chung 2006)Chung’s article – and many others like it – were written in response to an
exchange that took place on The View, a popular morning television talk
show, on December 5, 2006. The panelists were discussing a guest from
the previous taping who had, it seemed to them, showed up drunk for his
televised interview. Rosie O’Donnell, a panel member, commented on the
whole matter:
The fact is that it’s news all over the world. That you know, you can
imagine in China, it’s like: “Ching chong ... ching chong. Danny
DeVito, ching chong, chong, chong, chong. Drunk. ‘The View.’ Ching
chong.”
(The View, ABC, December 5, 2006)Objections from the Asian community followed immediately in the form
of newspaper articles, letters to the editor, and television interviews and