Communicating About Ching Chongs (Frank Wu / Yellow)

This is a short article by the author of "Yellow", Frank Wu. It's interesting that he actually utilizes "ching chong ching chong" in a description of an encounter with a young kid.

One thing to think about while reading this article, is what would Mr. Wu have done if his encounter had been with an adult and not a child. http://www.pbs.org/now/commentary/wu.html

AllLookSame

This is a hilarious website that got forwarded to me a while ago. I'm not sure I 100% agree with what he's saying since he seems to have choosen purposely confusing examples to make a point, but it is still great fun. It probably depends on the person, but I still think I can tell the difference hehe. http://www.alllooksame.com/

Yellow Fever (the bloodhound gang)

I recently came across some responses to the Bloodhound Gang tune "Yellow Fever," circa 2000. The subject was interesting to me because when Asian Americans protested the blatant racial epithets and song's saturation with negative stereotypes about Asians, some people commented that they should just get over it. The University of Maryland students protested Bloodhound Gang's performance on their campus.

Here are some links to pages I found:
1) http://www.asianweek.com/2000_04_27/news_yellowfeverlyrics.html
2) http://modelminority.com/music/yellowfever.htm
3) http://www.2tongues.com/yellowfist/
4) http://www.asianweek.com/2000_06_01/bay_bloodhoundgang.html
5) http://www.stanford.edu/~amwso/bloodhoundgang.html

To me the worst thing was that the singer said he didn't care. According to the group's MO, they're out to get everyone's goat anyway, so Asian Americans shouldn't feel singled out I guess. If that's the case, then they should own up to the charges instead of trying to evade them. Accused of condoning racism, the singer tried to turn the tables around on his accusors. He said the real reason Asian Americans protested the song was because they didn't like him talking about wanting to "bang" an Asian girl. It's true that there are differing gradations along degrees of racial prejudices, from chingchongs to hate crimes, but added up over hundreds of incidents, even with the smallest insults amount to significant damage to a person's psyche.

a recent ching-chong (abercrombie & fitch)

Contributed by Anonymous:

yes, ching-chong is a very real occurrence. remember all the hubbub a few weeks ago regarding abercrombie & fitch and their new line of t-shirts? that was a ching-chong on a grand scale, as abercrombie & fitch has stores nationwide. it may have been a big satire to them, but not to me. they call it satire, but i disagree. abercrombie is not exactly known for being satirists, and their t-shirts are certainly not considered a forum for satire. it's just plain racism. the sick thing is that they made money off of it.

check out asian man records

Contributed by "jakeyr (Jacob R)":

When I first encountered chingchong.com I immediately thought of Mike Park and Asian Man Records.

Mike Park is a local celebrity in the Bay Area and a veteran of such bands as Skankin' Pickle, The Bruce Lee Band, and The Chinkees. He also runs Asian Man Records.

He's done an enourmous amount to help fight racism, and many of his label tours are anti-racism benefits. Check out www.asianmanrecords.com. The links section has number of great sites too.

Also, check out the lyrics to "Don't Sit Next To Me, Just Because I'm Asian" here. Mike writes some great songs.

Have you ever been chingchonged?

While this site was just born yesterday, this journey started several years ago when Albert first mentioned this phrase casually to me in our cafeteria lunch line: "Have you ever been chingchonged?" At first, of course, I had no idea what he was talking about but after thinking about it, I knew. Since then I too have been asking that same question of my friends and them of theirs. Sometimes it takes several explanations to convince a person that this exists, but if they do they'll usually expand and relate their own experiences. On the other hand, some folks never believe (or admit to themselves) that it happens to them. For this reason, we began to feel like it might help to have a place to share and discuss the chingchong as well as other stuff about being Asian American.

Chingchong.com is born

After a long wait for the expiration of this domain, it is ours. For now chingchong will be hosted on free services, but I'll do my best to make sure the site is still usable. I hope you do not find this too distracting. Please contact me with anything suggestions, comments, etc. support@chingchong.com