18 Am. expressions about the Japanese (Asians) with racist overtones
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This article is from the Japanese FAQ, by TANAKA Tomoyuki tanaka@cs.indiana.edu and Olaf Meeuwissen olaf@IMSL.shinshu-u.ac.jp with numerous contributions by others.
18 Am. expressions about the Japanese (Asians) with racist overtones
note that smart-aleck Americans who like to use the
following words/expressions when talking about the
Japanese (or Asians) are intending subtle racial mockery.
--- (puns about) "dioriented"
--- "have a yen for"
--- "to kowtow"
--- "Japan, Inc" (a modern euphemism for "yellow peril",
"yellow horde", etc)
--- "island nation" ("archipelago")
(do the white Americans who like these expressions
also use it for the UK, which is smaller than Japan?)
--- "ideogram" or "ideograph" (most Chinese characters
don't reprensent ideas, just sounds)
--- "inscrutable" "Oriental", "Asiatic", "Far East", "Mongoloid"
--- "Nippon", "Nipponese", "-san"
--- "Geisha doll", "China doll", "Drangon Lady"
--- "the Japanese version" (the notion of copycat Japanese)
--- "lose face", "(culture of) shame"
--- mentioning "Samurai", "Madame Butterfly" out of context
(e.g. "Samurai from Outer Space" == stupid book title)
(Buddhahead, Buddhaland, ...)
then there are the American racial slurs:
Jap, Nip, Tojo, Japland, Japlish, Niplish, ...
< cdnow.com> and PGA recently stopped using the short
form "JAP" for Japan/Japanese
and now uses JPN.
see http://www.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=418173245
most commonly used American racial slurs for Asians:
Chink, Chinaman (cf. Seinfeld episode)
Gook, Slope, Slant
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