{"id":1250,"date":"2014-09-08T09:18:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T16:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slowsuburbandeath.com\/?p=1250"},"modified":"2014-09-08T09:18:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T16:18:53","slug":"ching-chong-time-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/?p=1250","title":{"rendered":"Ching chong time machine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rosie O&#039;Donnel Impersonating Chinese.\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Dmv04yKG-po?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Our softball team of the Richmond District and Rossi Playground played in the championship game of the summer CYO league.\u00a0 <!--more-->The opponents were from Catholic schools around San Francisco, an assembly of pretty, freckled white girls with sun kissed sin and gentle smiles.\u00a0\u00a0 I was the only Catholic school girl in our squad of Buddhist kids from other San Francisco public school, mostly from around Chinatown.<\/p>\n<p>By this time in my young teenage life, I had already become well versed in racism.\u00a0 Being called a chink was nothing new, although the setting in which the name calling occurred was always interesting.\u00a0 Chink was yelled to us by day camp leaders as they saw our little JCYC (Japanese American) troupe wander past occupied barbecue grills in Golden Gate Park or babbled to us by drunken adults seated in the pricey seats at San Francisco Giants games.\u00a0\u00a0 I never became immune to hearing \u201cchink\u201d, no matter how many humiliating times it seemed to cut through us in our silent response.<\/p>\n<p>It seemed so appropriate that our game opponents would begin to yell \u201cching chong ching chong ching chong\u201d from the bench, followed by titters and nasty looks.\u00a0 Sporting opponents should at least have a modicum of class, or it should have warranted an adult discussion from the coach.\u00a0 No such thing occurred as we ended up losing the game by 3-1.\u00a0 My other team mates were happy the whole season was over, but I was still hung up on the whole \u201cching chong&#8230;\u201d incident from the 5th inning.\u00a0 I told my friend Diane how it made me angry, but she seemed to store the incident into a long library of memories of incidents and suggested we go eat ice cream like every great childhood best friend would do.<\/p>\n<p>Someday, we would both be big enough to combat the catcalls.\u00a0 In the interim, I developed a fear and loathing of the ching chong. Where did that taunt come from?\u00a0 I know people whose last names are Ching or Chong, but those words seem so non-existent when listening to someone speak in Mandarin or Cantonese.\u00a0 Ching chong is similar to the judo chop, a wrestling word frequently used except when realizing that there is no such actual move in judo.\u00a0 So in using the words \u201cching chong,\u201d is that a summon to every Ching and Chong?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Someday, I might just pound someone over the head for ching chonging or go all Peter Finch and yell out the window \u201cGODDAMMIT, WE\u2019RE JAPS! \u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the ching chonging was hurtful, I seemed to live with the main culprit.\u00a0 My mother, a Japanese woman true to her Emperor saluting and Chinese hating generation, seemed to blame the Chinese for everything.\u00a0 They were responsible for the toilet paper wars that caused long lines at Value Giant.\u00a0 They had too many children.\u00a0 They spoke too loudly on the 1 California, and they were dirty.\u00a0 These were just starter complaints, which would eventually boil down to war time stereotypes of opium hooked coolies and distrustful, money grabbers who were not quite on par with her.\u00a0 What Chinese we did know were above the norm, people who managed to overcome being Chinese, transforming into acceptable people.<\/p>\n<p>My father seemed to counter my mother\u2019s prejudices by immersing me in a universe of delicious food made from steamed rice noodles, along with white sugar rice cakes and Char Siu Bao.\u00a0 He brought home his little pink box of dim sum from the Eastern Bakery in Chinatown, never seeming to care much for my mother\u2019s protests.\u00a0 Between the two of them, my parents seemed to play out World War II in my living room, the aggressive country versus the nation trampled over by the Imperialist army.\u00a0 There were times when they wanted me to choose sides, a silly notion.\u00a0 My life, to that point, was neither Japanese nor Filipino nor American.\u00a0\u00a0 For all intents and purposes I was simply ching chong to most.<\/p>\n<p>Though times have changed, and I have become older as the world has become smaller, these prejudices against race are still far too strong for my liking.\u00a0 We do live in a time when a sad segment of people believe that our President is a Kenyan and where Sikhs are mistaken for Sheiks.\u00a0 A producer friend once asked about film ideas for her new movie, and I suggested an Asian American actor for the role.\u00a0 Her response was, \u201c&#8230;but they have small penises&#8230;.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Somehow, living through a ching chong remark seemed so much simpler.<\/p>\n<p>Over time and with age, I have learned to let ching chong lose its effectiveness.\u00a0\u00a0 Such remarks are an indictment against the taunter, a badge of ignorance and intolerance, unleashed from anger or too much beer.\u00a0 Other times, the remarks come with curious experiences.<\/p>\n<p>I accompanied a Japanese tourist friend through a big box store one day, a journey he seemed compelled to take in order to experience real America.\u00a0 I explained the different merchandise to him, speaking in Japanese, when two elegant looking old ladies approached us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStop speaking in Chinese. Ching chong!\u00a0 Speak in English!,\u201d one yelled, pinching her mouth so tightly that all flesh disappeared from her lips.<\/p>\n<p>Of the range of responses I could offer, I stuck with the one basic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d I replied, offering a little smile as I grabbed my friend by his jacket and led him away from the unfriendly confines of the cereal aisle.\u00a0 He had no idea what had transpired.\u00a0 He did not speak ching chong.\u00a0 Hopefully, he never would.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">(c) 2014 Slow Suburban Death.\u00a0 All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">[contact-form][contact-field label=&#8217;Name&#8217; type=&#8217;name&#8217; required=&#8217;1&#8217;\/][contact-field label=&#8217;Email&#8217; type=&#8217;email&#8217; required=&#8217;1&#8217;\/][contact-field label=&#8217;Website&#8217; type=&#8217;url&#8217;\/][contact-field label=&#8217;Comment&#8217; type=&#8217;textarea&#8217; required=&#8217;1&#8217;\/][contact-field label=&#8217;Country&#8217; type=&#8217;text&#8217;\/][\/contact-form]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our softball team of the Richmond District and Rossi Playground played in the championship game of the summer CYO league.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,28,43],"tags":[95],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}