M & D Group Read (cont.)

Mon Jan 22 15:44:17 CST 2018

And as a bit of evidence that the resourceful wikipedians don't know
everything:
"In its original sense, Chinaman is almost entirely absent from British
English, and has been since before 1965."

The original sense obviously being: "a dealer of china". A British English
speaker in London in the 2nd half of the 18th century could only mean that.
(A new twist to the joak.)

2018-01-22 22:19 GMT+01:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:

> GREAT!, Jochen, great.
>
> more from wikipedia:
> (..absent from British English)
> Philip Herbst's reference work The Color of Words notes that it may be
> "taken as patronizing".[26] This distinguishes it from similar ethnic
> names such as Englishman and Irishman, which are not used
> pejoratively.[26]
>
> "In its original sense, Chinaman is almost entirely absent from
> British English, and has been since before 1965."
>
> On 1/22/18, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hey, you made me look up Chinaman in my OED – that is only available for
> > subscribers online – and I had to use a reading glass, a loupe, plus my
> > reading glasses that I need anyway TO DISCOVER:
> >
> > that the term Chinaman is in itself an anachronism for the time of Mason
> > and Dixon!
> >
> > The first (of 4, if I remember correctly) references is from 1772 and
> means
> > a dealer of porcelain. But as term for a man of a specific nationality it
> > was used not earlier than the beginning of the 19th century. There's a
> very
> > good article in you wikipedia about Chinaman as term, and I think most of
> > you wouldn't believe the strange blossoms that PC produced on that field.
> >
> > For example:
> >
> > On July 7, 1998, Canada <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada>'s
> province
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada> of
> > Alberta <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta> renamed a peak in the
> Rocky
> > Mountains <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains> from
> "Chinaman's
> > Peak" to "Ha Ling Peak <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha_Ling_Peak>"
> due to
> > pressure from the province's large Chinese community. The new name was
> > chosen in honour of the railroad labourer who scaled the peak's
> 2,408-metre
> > (7,900 ft)-high summit in 1896 to win a $50 bet to commemorate all his
> > fellow Chinese railway labourers. Ha Ling himself had named it
> "Chinaman's
> > Peak" on behalf of all his fellow Chinese railway workers.[6]
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman_(term)#cite_note-HaLingPeak-6
> >[28]
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman_(term)#cite_note-28>
> > But on the other hand, in 1922:
> >
> > The term has also been used to refer to Japanese
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_people> men, despite the fact
> that
> > they are not Chinese. The Japanese
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Japan> admiral Tōgō Heihachirō
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dg%C5%8D_Heihachir%C5%8D>, during
> his
> > training in England <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England> in the
> 1870s,
> > was called "Johnny Chinaman" by his British comrades.[15]
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman_(term)#cite_note-15> Civil
> rights
> > pioneer Takuji Yamashita <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takuji_Yamashita
> >
> > took a case to the United States Supreme Court
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Supreme_Court> in 1922 on
> the
> > issue of the possibility of allowing Japanese immigrants
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_diaspora> to own land in the
> state
> > of Washington <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_(U.S._state)>.
> > Washington's attorney general, in his argument, stated that Japanese
> people
> > could not fit into American society because assimilation was not possible
> > for "the Negro <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro>, the Indian
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States>
> and
> > the Chinaman".[16]
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman_(term)#cite_
> note-Gordon-Reed2002-16>
> > You see what a sneaky Menippean satirist our author can be?
> >
> > 2018-01-22 13:26 GMT+01:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:
> >
> >> "One can question the propriety of publishing these immoral
> >> disclosures to the world"--from the author's intro, paraphrased.
> >>
> >> https://books.google.com/books?id=1_lZAAAAMAAJ&
> >> printsec=frontcover&dq=Awful+Disclosures&hl=en&sa=X&ved=
> >> 0ahUKEwjiif6KyOvYAhXkc98KHRhOC0AQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Awful%
> >> 20Disclosures&f=false
> >>
> >> On 1/22/18, Thomas Eckhardt <thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de> wrote:
> >> > Speaking of checking off the obvious: The bar joke is echoed later on
> >> > in
> >> > the Captive's Tale (p. 511 ff.), that is it points forward to Zarpazo,
> >> > the Wolf of Jesus, and Captain Zhang, the Chinaman (although, as Zhang
> >> > emphasises, not necessarily a Lascivious Chinaman).
> >> >
> >> > China and Chinamen come in through the Jesuits exploits in China and
> >> > via, very broadly speaking, Feng Shui vs. Jesuit rationality and
> >> > scientific prowess. But keep in mind that Captain Zhang and Zarpazo
> may
> >> > actually be one and the same person.
> >> >
> >> > Behind this I see, as I said, Hofstadter's essay with its take on
> >> > Masonic and Jesuit conspiracy theories. The Captive's Tale appears to
> >> > be
> >> > inspired by the novel "Awful Disclosures", mentioned by Hofstadter.
> >> >
> >> > As for the balloons, see Francesco Lana de Terzi and Bartolomeu de
> >> Gusmão.
> >> >
> >> > I have no idea, however, who the Corsican might be...
> >> >
> >> >> On Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 4:50 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com
> >> >> <mailto:mark.kohut at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >>     A Chinaman, a Jesuit and a Corsican....etc.
> >> >
> >> -
> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>
> >
>
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