Asian Americans in
Popular Culture
Asian Americans and the Law
Dr. Steiner
Racial Stereotypes in American Music
Minstrel Shows and Chinese Immigrants
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Shows presented “insurmountable cultural
differences” between whites and Chinese
 Language
 Food
 Hair
--Robert G. Lee, Orientals: Asian
Americans in Popular Culture (1999)
Language
Chinese Song, Charles A. Mason (1885)
Ki, Ki, Ki, Ching, Ching, Ching
Hung a rung, a chickel neckey
Suppe, fatte hung
Eno Posa keno Posey, keno John
Chinese manee goode manee from Hong Kong
Food
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The Heathen Chinee, Luke Schoolcraft
(1878)
Lady she am vellie good, plenty chow chow
She live way up top side house,
Take a little pussy cat and a little bow wow
Boil em in a pot of stew with a little mouse
Hi! hi! hi!
Hair
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Big Long John, Luke Schoolcraft (1878)
Big Long John was a Chinaman,
and he lived in the land of the free
He wore a long tail from the top of his
head,
Which hung down to his heels. . .
Popular Songs: “John Chinaman”
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John Chinaman (1855)
John Chinaman’s Appeal (1856)
John Chinaman, My Jo (1868)
John Chinaman’s Marriage (1868)
Here and in China alike the English and Americans
nickname every Chinaman “John.”
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Samuel Bowles , A Summer's Journey to the Rocky
Mountains, the Mormons and the Pacific States (1866)
John Chinaman (1855)
John Chinaman, John Chinaman,
but five short years ago,
I welcomed you from Canton, John–
But wish I hadn't though;
For then you honest, John,
Not dreaming you’d make
A citizen as useful, John,
As any in the state.
I thought you’d open wide your ports
And let our merchants in
To barter for their crepes and teas,
Their wares of wood and tin.
John Chinaman (1855)
I thought you’d cut your queue off, John,
And don a Yankee coat,
And a collar high you’d raise, John,
Around your dusky throat.
I imagined that the truth, John,
You’d speak while under oath.
But I find you lie and steal and cheat.
Yes, John, you're up to both.
John Chinaman (1855)
I thought of rats and puppies, John,
You’d eaten your last fill;
But on such slimy pot pies
I’m told you dinner still.
Yes, John, I’ve been deceived by you,
and all your thieving clan,
for our gold is all your after,
John to get it as you can.
Since the Chinese Ruint the Thrade
(1871)
For I kin wash an’ iron a shirt,
An’ I kin scrub a flure;
An’ I kin starch a collar as stiff
As any Chineseman, I’m shure;
But ther dhirty, pigtailed haythens;
An’ ther prices they are paid
Have brought me to the state you
See–
They’ve ontirely ruint ther trade.
John Chinaman’s Appeal (1856)
Oh, now my friends I’m going away
From this infernal place, sir;
The balance of my days I’ll stay
With the Celestial race, sir.
I’ll go to raising rice and tea;
I’ll be a heathen ever,
For Christians all have treated me
As men should be used never.
John Chinaman, My Jo (1868)
John Chinaman, my jo, John,
You’re coming precious fast
Each ship that sails from Shanghai bring
An increase on the last.
And when you’ll stop invading us
I’m blest, now, if I know
You’ll outnumber us poor Yankees,
John Chinaman, my Jo.
John Chinaman, My Jo (1868)
John Chinaman, my jo, John,
You not only come in shoals,
But you often shake the washing stuff
And spoil the water holes.
And, of course, that riles the miners, John
And enrages them, you know
For they drive you frequently away
John Chinaman, my jo.
John Chinaman, My Jo (1868)
John Chinaman, my jo, John,
You used to live on rice,
But now you purchase flour, plums
And other things that’s nice.
And I see a butcher shop
At your Chinese place below,
And you like your mutton now and then
John Chinaman, my jo.
John Chinaman, My Jo (1868)
John Chinaman, my jo, John,
Though folks may at you rail,
Here’s blessings on your head, John
And more power to your tail.
But a piece of good advice, John
I’ll give you, ere I go
Don’t abuse the freedom you enjoy
John Chinaman, my jo.
Get Out Yellowskins!
The Yellow-skins here in these hills
Now know how it appears
To have their gold by others stole
As we have suffered for years
Get out, Yellowskins, get out!
Get out, Yellowskins, get out!
We’ll do it again if you don’t go,
Get out, Yellow-skins, get out!
Workingman’s Party
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The object of this Association is to unite all poor and
working men and their friends into one political party,
for the purpose of defending themselves against the
dangerous encroachments of capital on the happiness
of our people and the liberties of our country.
We propose to wrest the government from the hands
of the rich and place it in those of the people, where it
properly belongs.
We propose to rid the country of cheap Chinese labor
as soon as possible, and by all the means in our
power, because it tends still more to degrade labor
and aggrandize capital.
Workingman’s Party
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We propose to provide decently for the poor and
unfortunate, the weak, the helpless, and especially the
young, because the country is rich enough to do so, and
religion, humanity, and patriotism demand that we should
do so.
When we have 10,000 members, we shall have the
sympathy and support of 20,000 other workingmen.
The party will then wait upon all who employ Chinese and
ask for their discharge, and it will mark as public enemies
those who refuse to comply with their request.
“Denis Kearney, The White Working
Man’s Hero”
You have heard of Moriarty, Mulcahey and Malone,
Also of McNamara, O’Malley and Muldoon;
But I will sing of Kearney, an anti-Chinaman,
He’s down upon Mongolians, and all their dirty clan
So give three cheers for Kearney,
For he’s a solid man;
He’ll raise a grand big army and drive out the Chinaman
“Denis Kearney, The White Working
Man’s Hero”
Last week we held a meeting, down forenest the
City Hall
The bold undaunted Kearney was first to get the
call.
Said he, my fellow laborers, if you’ll lead by me
We’ll make Capital respect us
And drive out the cursed Chinee.
“Denis Kearney, The White Working
Man’s Hero”
Now goodnight, my fellow-laborers, I have to go
away,
I’d like to stop and talk to you, but believe me I
can’t stay
So join me in the chorus now, and let your motto
be
God Bless the poor white workingman
And the devil take the Chinee.
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Bret Harte’s “The Heathen
Chinee” appeared first as a
poem entitled “Plain
Language from Truthful
James” in the Overland
Monthly in September 1870.
The poem was soon being
reprinted and republished
across the country as “The
Heathen Chinee.”
This is the one from Harte’s
official publisher.
Which I wish to remark,
And my language is
plain,
That for ways that are
dark
And for tricks that are
vain,
The heathen Chinee is
peculiar,
Which the same I would
rise to explain.
Ah Sin was his name;
And I shall not deny,
In regard to the
same,
What that name
might imply;
But his smile it was
pensive and childlike,
As I frequent
remarked to Bill Nye.
It was August the third,
And quite soft was the skies;
Which it might be inferred
That Ah Sin was likewise;
Yet he played it that day upon William
And me in a way I despise.
Which we had a small game,
And Ah Sin took a hand:
It was Euchre. The same
He did not understand;
But he smiled as he sat by the table,
With the smile that was childlike and
bland.
Yet the cards they were stocked
In a way that I grieve,
And my feelings were shocked
At the state of Nye's sleeve,
Which was stuffed full of aces and
bowers,
And the same with intent to
deceive.
But the hands that were
played
By that heathen Chinee,
And the points that he
made,
Were quite frightful to
see,-Till at last he put down a
right bower,
Which the same Nye had
dealt unto me.
Then I looked up at
Nye,
And he gazed upon me;
And he rose with a sigh,
And said, “Can this be?
We are ruined by
Chinese cheap labor,”
And he went for that
heathen Chinee.
In the scene that ensued
I did not take a hand,
But the floor it was
strewed
Like the leaves on the
strand
With the cards that Ah
Sin had been hiding,
In the game “he did not
understand.”
In his sleeves, which were
long,
He had twenty-four packs,
Which was coming it
strong,
Yet I state but the facts;
And we found on his nails,
which were taper,
What is frequent in tapers,
that's wax.
Which is why I
remark,
And my language is
plain,
That for ways that are
dark
And for tricks that are
vain,
The heathen Chinee is
peculiar, -Which the same I am
free to maintain.
“The Heathen Chinee”
Currier & Ives lithograph, 1871