rosie's ching chong view of china- Page 2

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 8:33pm

Well, my object of contention isn't so much what she did, but more that she wouldn't tolerate that sort of joking if it were reversed.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 8:34pm

Oh please, you cannot compare the two.

Rosie's was said with a smile on her face, in the context of a joke, with the entire audience cracking up.

Mel Gibson and Michael Richards are a completely different story. Have you watched the Richards and the Rosie clips? Nothing alike.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 8:35pm

For all we know, Rosie has a working knowledge of mandarin
Speak for yourself. Her comment was gibberish.

Rosie's was said with a smile on her face, in the context of a joke, with the entire audience cracking up.
How does the fact that the audience laughed at a racist joke make it BETTER as opposed to WORSE?

Updated On: 12/9/06 at 08:35 PM

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 8:37pm

I think most languages sound like pots and pans panging together until you are used to listening to them. It's like music, some people don't like a certain kind of music until they get used to it. I just get the feeling Rosie doesn't get away from English much. It's ignorance, sure, but it's not really hurtful or mean spirited.

"If we all could just admit that we are racist a little bit and everyone stopped being so PC, maybe we could live in harmony!"

You're right though Tiff. I almost kind of want to see her taken to task so she knows what it feels like to be scrutinized so severely for being mistaken.

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 8:39pm

"Mel Gibson and Michael Richards are a completely different story. Have you watched the Richards and the Rosie clips? Nothing alike."

Yes I have watched the two. What they have in common is that something slipped out of both their mouths which is revealing. That's all. And I don't take what Rosie said seriously. It's just interesting that she jabbered on like that in such a stereotypical way. And Tiff is right-if it were reversed, we'd never hear the end of it.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 8:40pm

Exactly! Gibberish. Nonsense syllables to convey the genral sound of a foreign language. It used to be a staple of comedy shows. An itnerviewer would say to Sid Caeser "I'm here with General Ivan Ivanoff of the Russian Army. Sir? What has the siege of Leningrad been like?" And Sid Caesar would say "OffKoff, shlok oomph off koff grrvband cold as Grrfoff!" and the audience would roar.

So let's get some ananlysis. Are you offended cause she spoke gibberish to imitate chinese or because somehow the syllables "Ching chong" are offensive? I don't get it.

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 8:47pm

If you're only asking me why I'm offended, please don't just depend on my answer. I know that if someone were trying to imitate a Jewish person speaking Yiddish, and they kept on repeating the same unrealistic stereotypical "Jewish" sounds, I may take offense. It's a personal thing. Some of us are offended, and some aren't. I'm not here to convince anyone to be offended. We all have our own opinions.

Updated On: 12/9/06 at 08:47 PM

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 8:48pm

Speak for myself? About what? I was speaking about Rosie. You know her personally? You know she doesn't know one word of Chinese? As JoeKV said, her comment was gibberish because if she had spoken real Chinese, it wouldn't have been funny. She's aware as the rest of us that no Chinese language consists of "Ching chong ping pong."

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 8:50pm

Roninjoey, except "ching chong" etc. isn't used to imitate every foreign language that people don't "understand the music" of yet, it's historically always been used to mock the Chinese. I've yet to hear someone use "ching chong" to imitate/mock French or Spanish or Swahili.

JoeKv99, I meant that it's gibberish in Mandarin, since Roninjoey implied that Rosie might possibly speak actual Mandarin and we just don't understand it.

Updated On: 12/9/06 at 08:50 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 8:56pm

I'm Asian. I was upset. I did not think it was racist. I know she didn't mean to offend.

HOWEVER, what many, many people don't realize is that you can't liken certain racial slurs (or whatever you want to call this) to other ones.

The mockery of an Asian language recalls -- probably for every Asian American kid out there, save for ones who grew up in mostly Asian areas -- very, very hurtful incidents from our childhood. Things other kids said either to intentionally bother us or to just have fun and not know any better.

It was inappropriate and she didn't know better. Yes, she was joking. No, she did not say "I hate all Asians and let's kill them and then we'll save cats from their kitchens."

But please don't tell me that people who are up in arms are uptight or easily offended. Please don't tell an ethnic group what they're supposed to be (or not be) offended by.

I'm glad she half-way apologized on "Ask Ro"; I just wish she'd gone completely through with it.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:02pm

OK. I'm sorry. I had never heard the phrase "Ching Chong" used as a racial slur. I heard it as her simply trying to "sound" like she was speaking chinese.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:03pm

I heard it as her simply trying to "sound" like she was speaking chinese.

AND THAT IS NOT OKAY EITHER.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:09pm

Why? That is why I'm trying to understand. I'm not trying to be a jerk but why is it offensive to "Sound like" you are speaking another language?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:09pm

This person put it better than I could. It's good to read the entire post, too.

http://www.racialicious.com/2006/12/07/rosie-odonnell-mocks-asians-with-ching-chong-joke/#comment-2365

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:11pm

Orangeskittles, you have got to go back to school and learn English before you can start getting upset at people for murdering other languages. I have no clue what you even said to me in that first sentence. I think if someone was going to mock French they'd say something like what I said, "oui oui monsieur", if Spanish they'd say "hola taco bueno", if Swahili they'd probably click their tongues (which is TOTALLY offensive and inaccurate). JEWISH people make fun of yiddish all the time. It's a comedic staple! You should see how Japanese people make fun of English. It's hilarious.

When did I imply that she spoke Mandarin on television? Of COURSE she didn't actually say anything in Mandarin. She was using gibberish for comedic effect. I was just saying we don't know that she's totally ignorant about Mandarin, but she probably is.

LizzieCurry, I understand how your upset. I always get really pissed off when people make fun of the Japanese language and say things like "Ching chong" because it doesn't even sound like that. It's completely moronic to make fun of all Asian languages with an approximation of Mandarin.

-would just like to point out that the ching and chong sounds are used in Chinese language, even in names, and that most funny jokes are rooted in some kind of recognizable truth. Lots of Italian words do end in -o.

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:14pm

"JEWISH people make fun of yiddish all the time. It's a comedic staple! You should see how Japanese people make fun of English. It's hilarious."

YES!" JEWISH " is the operative word. NOW you're getting it.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:15pm

I'm not upset at her anymore. More like disappointed. What I am upset about are the people defending her, mostly because they're speaking from a POV which has nothing to do with the upbringing of those who were offended.

Yes, these are old middle school jokes I'm recalling, but that doesn't make it okay since they were so long ago. It also makes Rosie look even more juvenile than she already is at times.

I'm not easily offended -- really, I'm not -- but I've pretty much relived 7th grade in the past few days thanks to Rosie, and the ensuing fallout!

"Hey, I can speak Chinese too! (insert joke here)"

"What does this mean in Chinese? (insert joke here)"

(And my school was about 10% Asian...go figure.)

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:15pm

So if she had said "This is even news in China! Newscasters there are saying "Blah blah blah blah Danny Devito Drunk!"
would that be offensive? People say "Blah blah blah (nonsense syllables)" to imitate speech that they didn't understand or don't want to repeat....is that mocking?

I'm not trying to mock people or pick on their ethnicity or anything, I'm jsut trying to understand the rules here. If I was speaking to a Polish person and then tried to relay the conversation could I say "So I said I don't speak Polish" and the polish lady said "Ja, ja, upski ka po po!" and pointed down the stairs AGAIN!!!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:19pm

No. It is not offensive. Because "blah blah blah" is not ethnicity-specific, nor is it mocking. It's used in English as well to substitute words. All languages have a "filler" type of syllable.

The thing is, the "rules" you're talking about aren't across the board. Just know that people are offended. Don't try to tell them otherwise.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:25pm

OK I give up. I apologize for trying to understand what offended you. The last thing I was trying to do was tell you that you can't be offened.

But I will shatter one bubble: No one was happy in Junior High. Those kids who (wrongly) teased you or asked offensive questions probably got picked on for being fat, or polish, or gay or (in my case) ALL OF THE ABOVE. There is certainly way too much pain in the world. I am sorry if I added to it, it was certainly not my intention!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 9:30pm

But who wants to relive that?

I recommend you read the comments on the Racialicious post. Here's another good one, too: https://mamazilla.blogspot.com/2006/12/ching-chong-really.html
https://gawker.com/news/clips/rosie-odonnells-sophisticated-grasp-of-mandarin-stuns-and-impresses-220029.php

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 12:31am

So it's okay if you are Jewish to make fun of Yiddish? Okay, lemme mark that down in the book. How about laughing at such jokes. Is that okay? What if a Jewish person and I were talking about Yiddish, and he/she said "Oh, I've got such a schmitzer in my schlemoigel! Can you putz my meshugganah for a gnosh?" and I laughed, would that MAKE me a racist? Note: I am not Jewish.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 12:36am

Jane2, aren't you late for work already?

And orangeskittles...well....what more can I say?

I'm half Italian and half Irish. Should I be offended every time someone tries to sound Italian or Irish? My God. If I were offended by that, I'd spend all my life being offended.

Get over it already.

Updated On: 12/10/06 at 12:36 AM

[RachLaura]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 12:56am

I don't think Rosie did anything wrong. It's not like she mocked a religion, belief system, orientation, etc...she just started saying chinese sounding syllables to get a joke across. I don't know about anyone else but if I heard a Chinese person making the same joke but instead of using ching chong ching they said some commonly used english syllable/word I wouldn't be offended at all, I'd actually think it was pretty funny. I could understand if people were offended if she grouped all asians together because as someone said before, not all Asian languages are the same...but she was simply generalizing a language to the audience on a level everyone knew.

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/10/06 at 12:59am

"So it's okay if you are Jewish to make fun of Yiddish?"

Of course it is!