Hah! Haven't seen this cartoon in some 40 years. Last time I saw it was at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it was presented as a part of retrospective of the art of animation. I remember everyone in the audience gasping at the portrayal of Chinese people - along with the mention of the word "chink." After our initial shock, we all (myself included, the partial Asian that I am) just accepted the fact that racial stereotypes were common during the 1920s-1940s. Why get offended?
Isn't it interesting how well Asians do, though? I know NYC schoolteachers, and all tell me Asian students always do well without exception. They're the most satisfying students to have. And that's all of them (from China, Laos, Korea..) They do enormously well in the U.S., from small business to big business. I guess they were always smart enough to not play the victim-card, and just work and achieve.
This definitely was not meant to be mean-spirited. Political correctness wasn't invented until many, many, many years after this cartoon was released. People have lost their sense of humor.
@coolcat6651 - - "Political Correctness" wasn't an Invention - it Is a recognition of past predjudices and ignorance. I do agree that the sense of humor found in this sort of comedy has been lost - and that is a Good Thing. Consider yourself as the subject of ridicule and constantly made fun of... Consider yourself. Don't get me wrong - there is humor we can all share within the confines of race - but it is when we Ridicule that it is an evil part of our thinking. Walk a mile in their shoes
@guarddog22 Not meant to be mean spirited...? Well no offense but asians were the only ethnic background who weren't even allowed in this country in like the 1860's - 1880's and a few years later finally "allowed" in but only a certain amount can come in to the country per year...
@THORTHETHUNDERER But I think this Max Fleischer cartoon, though it reduces Chinese men to one-dimensional comical characters, is not meant to hurt anyone's feelings. It's an exaggeration of- let's face it- probably the way the Chinese were percieved by much of the movie audience of Americans, whose only contact with them was in laundries, restaurants, and the various Chinatowns. The Chinese seemed distant, exotic, the language (with all those vowels) did SOUND funny to American ears, etc.
@guarddog22 They seemed distant cause White Americans distanced themselves from Asians with sentiments like "ugh they're so "foreign" why are they coming in to "our" country!?" They forgot everyone in this country came from immigration, hell if anyone should feel "their" country is flooded with foreigners it's the Native American Indians...
The "Chinese Exclusion Act". After making the railroad for the U.S, the White Americans thought they are bringing too much "Chinese in the country and thus they put this law to reduce the Chinese immigrants also during that time there were alot of Anti Chinese sentiments probably because the Chinese had balls to revolt against the White men during Boxer Rebellion and Opium War.
It was somewhere in the 1950 or 1960 that this Exclusion act was finally taken away.
@hanchiman Tell me something I don't know asians really got shat on, by ethnically discriminating White Americans (not all white people) in the past and even til this day it hasn't completely died out. Just name as many Asian male sex symbols in American media and name Caucasian male sex symbols, do the math...
Well Chinese in Western Media like Hollywood is either a Triad Member, Kung Fu side kick or asexual feminine Honor Student. So we can't say that the stereotype of Asian is over.
The only time I ever seen Chinese portrays as "normal citizen" is in UK tv shows even though it is still rare they appear in major roles (they appear less than say Blacks and South Asian like Pakistani and Indians) .
In "Harold and Kumar" at least try to kick these stereotype.
@hanchiman That's why the Harold & Kumar movies are the coolest, those movies portray regular guys with no focus on their ethnicity. The fact they both are Asian has nothing to do with the story in the movie(nor are there any stereotypical jokes about Asians from non-Asians regardless if they were meant to offend or if the script writer unintentionally thought the stereotypes were not stereotypes). It's refreshing to see the main characters of a movie are not always Caucasian by default.
@THORTHETHUNDERER That sounds horrible to me. I hate to think the Chinese developed 3000 years of culture only to be portrayed in Hollywood films as an ordinary mailman or something.
@guarddog22 A mailman or something is better than always being the cooks, waiters or martial arts masters in my opinion especially in movies... Asians in America should be considered the normal American just like every other citizen in the country, not just a "foreign asian guy in white man's land who can't speak English or if they do has a heavy asian accent"
@THORTHETHUNDERER By that philosophy, we should wipe out the term "Chinese food". It's just food. No Chinese restaurants should exist. Or anything ethnic at all. Sounds like a terrifyingly bland world to me, but I guess some people (tyrants) would want that.
@guarddog22 You misunderstood the point I was making and it is not based on a "philosophy", my point is when people look at a white Americans they usually assume he is American, speaks English and has an American accent but when they look at an Asian they usually will assume they don't speak English or if they do will have a heavy Asian accent. Why can't Asians be accepted as an American just like white people in this country I didn't say Asians should give up their culture or heritage...
@THORTHETHUNDERER And I'll tell you this- if anybody ever went into Chinatown (where I go a lot) and told them, "Now you have to take down this whole place and get rid of everything Eastern, and just be exactly like every single other American.." he'd promptly get his ass kicked.
In the old days it was the sexy Dragon Lady like Anna Mae Wong. Or villain like Fu Manchu. Or Charlie Chan (who was a positive though stereotypical character).
Back in the day Charlie Chan and Dragon Lady was seen as "positive" towards the Asian, that was already the "limit" on that time (same like the1960's Native Americans being portrayed as comical trying to adapt to the White Settlers from any John Wayne movie).
Nowadays we think Charlie Chan as a "Kiss ass" and Dragon Lady an exotic sensual but treacherous Eastern woman.
Actually there are only Asian woman and no Asian male according to Hollywood.
@hanchiman I don't think a Dragon Lady was seen as totlly positive. Sexy and smart, yes, but I think that was part of the whole "Yellow Peril" thing. Like Fu Manchu.
People during that time in the early 20th century thought it was "positive" portrayal of a Dragon Lady who might be evil but at least she would later have a change of heart towards the White American male hero who opened her "Ice Cold heart" (compared to Fu Manchu who is totally Evil-Evil Chinaman). She represent that "Not all powerful Chinese (especially female) are evil". I might take it out of context but that's how I view it.
@hanchiman That's probably true, too. With a few variations. Anyway, I still hate the idea of Chinese being portrayed as just "regular joes" in films, just for the heck of it. If I ever, once, see a Chinese kid on the subway (NYC) jumping around and rapping and annoying everybody (like blacks do, and even a few white trash), then I'll admit they're like everybody else. Never seen that. Not once. They have too much in the brain for that.
That would be called a "Parody" or "Satire", in college a media teacher one time told me stereotyping is necessary in media, is a device to "identify" a group of people (be it race, sexuality, religion, culture or interest) without stereotype it would be hard to reach or identify their target audience.
Gay people always wear pink and are happy all the time.
Arabs who are beardy are portrayed as radical while those who are shaved and dress in Western clothes are liberal muslims.
@hanchiman That's true, to send the audience that "message." But if they tried to go too hard against the stereotype (since stereotypes are sometimes based on truth) it would just look stupid to the audience. Like if they made a film about the recent UK riots and showed Asians amongst the rioters and looters. The audience would be too smart for that.
I don't know much about the racial profiling in the riot over there, they just summed up the rioters as "everybody" (from children to O.A.P from different kind of profession) this time for a change... Actually outside of media, they blame the riot was made by "Chavs" (who are sort of "Urban Rednecks" Caucasian people living in run down estates. Low educated, most unemployed, become a father/mother when they are 14 years old, always going to steal) and now I am being stereotype.
@guarddog22 Maybe you just don't get around much or have a stereotype of all Asians as somehow pure, saintly and extremely intellectual. Here in central California for instance there are a lot of kids of all colors including Asians who talk to each other exactly like typical rappers. You can probably find kids like that in NYC too if you actually walk around there.
@guarddog22 Also the media and Hollywood has been mean spirited to asians (particularly asian men e.g. (asian stereotype)all asian men have little penises or are virgins who can't for the life of them get laid) until like the late 1990's when the portrayal of asians were finally kind of stopping the stereotypes.
@guarddog22 I'm confused so you' would be considered either well endowed and stupid or very smart, quick witted but your life long companion "third leg" (err ahem pinky) would not be noticeable?
@THORTHETHUNDERER Yes! As a basic rule. Also... perfectly straight hair on the head shows Asians are more advanced. At least some people believe that. I could almost believe it, but only as a VERY general rule. (Jews often have kinky curley hair, and they have high I.Q.s).
@THORTHETHUNDERER Actually, I'll admit I couldn't possibly know if Asian men have smaller genitals than other races. And I don't think there's ever been a definitive scientific study on that. But I sort of don't care, because it's such an inconsequential subject.
Not a moment of that was PC. xD I like when they start chanting "chow mein! chow mein!" Can you imagine what it would be like if Chinese people were actually like that? o.o
I'm all for a little racism, but this was just stupid.
Reedynn 4 weeks ago
Quite a nice tune though. (:
HerEyesWereWild 1 month ago
This was one of the more racist thing that I've seen today
lenhoj85 1 month ago
Google art tatum chinatown my chinatown and be amazed..
16yearoldwhiteboy 1 month ago
Hah! Haven't seen this cartoon in some 40 years. Last time I saw it was at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it was presented as a part of retrospective of the art of animation. I remember everyone in the audience gasping at the portrayal of Chinese people - along with the mention of the word "chink." After our initial shock, we all (myself included, the partial Asian that I am) just accepted the fact that racial stereotypes were common during the 1920s-1940s. Why get offended?
nycruise 3 months ago
People evolve. this is very funny.
glockchem 3 months ago
Isn't it interesting how well Asians do, though? I know NYC schoolteachers, and all tell me Asian students always do well without exception. They're the most satisfying students to have. And that's all of them (from China, Laos, Korea..) They do enormously well in the U.S., from small business to big business. I guess they were always smart enough to not play the victim-card, and just work and achieve.
guarddog22 4 months ago
Kinda funny that the Chinese was still wearing "pig tails" even though in 1929, they already stopped having that hairstyle after the 1911 revolution.
Anyways as the uploader says its not PC but still funny as hell being a "Chinaman" myself watching this.
Also the "language" they use is just gibberish.
hanchiman 4 months ago
This definitely was not meant to be mean-spirited. Political correctness wasn't invented until many, many, many years after this cartoon was released. People have lost their sense of humor.
coolcat6651 1 year ago 7
@coolcat6651 - - "Political Correctness" wasn't an Invention - it Is a recognition of past predjudices and ignorance. I do agree that the sense of humor found in this sort of comedy has been lost - and that is a Good Thing. Consider yourself as the subject of ridicule and constantly made fun of... Consider yourself. Don't get me wrong - there is humor we can all share within the confines of race - but it is when we Ridicule that it is an evil part of our thinking. Walk a mile in their shoes
resculptit 1 day ago
Honestly, I think it's funny just how politically incorrect and ridiculously stereotyped a lot of this is.
Murasame123 1 year ago 4
SO politically-incorrect. But I don't think it was meant to be mean-spirited.
guarddog22 1 year ago
@guarddog22 Not meant to be mean spirited...? Well no offense but asians were the only ethnic background who weren't even allowed in this country in like the 1860's - 1880's and a few years later finally "allowed" in but only a certain amount can come in to the country per year...
THORTHETHUNDERER 4 months ago
@THORTHETHUNDERER But I think this Max Fleischer cartoon, though it reduces Chinese men to one-dimensional comical characters, is not meant to hurt anyone's feelings. It's an exaggeration of- let's face it- probably the way the Chinese were percieved by much of the movie audience of Americans, whose only contact with them was in laundries, restaurants, and the various Chinatowns. The Chinese seemed distant, exotic, the language (with all those vowels) did SOUND funny to American ears, etc.
guarddog22 4 months ago
@guarddog22 They seemed distant cause White Americans distanced themselves from Asians with sentiments like "ugh they're so "foreign" why are they coming in to "our" country!?" They forgot everyone in this country came from immigration, hell if anyone should feel "their" country is flooded with foreigners it's the Native American Indians...
THORTHETHUNDERER 4 months ago
@THORTHETHUNDERER
The "Chinese Exclusion Act". After making the railroad for the U.S, the White Americans thought they are bringing too much "Chinese in the country and thus they put this law to reduce the Chinese immigrants also during that time there were alot of Anti Chinese sentiments probably because the Chinese had balls to revolt against the White men during Boxer Rebellion and Opium War.
It was somewhere in the 1950 or 1960 that this Exclusion act was finally taken away.
hanchiman 4 months ago
@hanchiman Tell me something I don't know asians really got shat on, by ethnically discriminating White Americans (not all white people) in the past and even til this day it hasn't completely died out. Just name as many Asian male sex symbols in American media and name Caucasian male sex symbols, do the math...
THORTHETHUNDERER 4 months ago
@THORTHETHUNDERER
Well Chinese in Western Media like Hollywood is either a Triad Member, Kung Fu side kick or asexual feminine Honor Student. So we can't say that the stereotype of Asian is over.
The only time I ever seen Chinese portrays as "normal citizen" is in UK tv shows even though it is still rare they appear in major roles (they appear less than say Blacks and South Asian like Pakistani and Indians) .
In "Harold and Kumar" at least try to kick these stereotype.
hanchiman 4 months ago
@hanchiman That's why the Harold & Kumar movies are the coolest, those movies portray regular guys with no focus on their ethnicity. The fact they both are Asian has nothing to do with the story in the movie(nor are there any stereotypical jokes about Asians from non-Asians regardless if they were meant to offend or if the script writer unintentionally thought the stereotypes were not stereotypes). It's refreshing to see the main characters of a movie are not always Caucasian by default.
THORTHETHUNDERER 4 months ago
@THORTHETHUNDERER That sounds horrible to me. I hate to think the Chinese developed 3000 years of culture only to be portrayed in Hollywood films as an ordinary mailman or something.
guarddog22 4 months ago
@guarddog22 A mailman or something is better than always being the cooks, waiters or martial arts masters in my opinion especially in movies... Asians in America should be considered the normal American just like every other citizen in the country, not just a "foreign asian guy in white man's land who can't speak English or if they do has a heavy asian accent"
THORTHETHUNDERER 3 months ago
@THORTHETHUNDERER By that philosophy, we should wipe out the term "Chinese food". It's just food. No Chinese restaurants should exist. Or anything ethnic at all. Sounds like a terrifyingly bland world to me, but I guess some people (tyrants) would want that.
guarddog22 3 months ago
@guarddog22 You misunderstood the point I was making and it is not based on a "philosophy", my point is when people look at a white Americans they usually assume he is American, speaks English and has an American accent but when they look at an Asian they usually will assume they don't speak English or if they do will have a heavy Asian accent. Why can't Asians be accepted as an American just like white people in this country I didn't say Asians should give up their culture or heritage...
THORTHETHUNDERER 3 months ago
@THORTHETHUNDERER And I'll tell you this- if anybody ever went into Chinatown (where I go a lot) and told them, "Now you have to take down this whole place and get rid of everything Eastern, and just be exactly like every single other American.." he'd promptly get his ass kicked.
guarddog22 3 months ago
In the old days it was the sexy Dragon Lady like Anna Mae Wong. Or villain like Fu Manchu. Or Charlie Chan (who was a positive though stereotypical character).
guarddog22 4 months ago
@guarddog22
Back in the day Charlie Chan and Dragon Lady was seen as "positive" towards the Asian, that was already the "limit" on that time (same like the1960's Native Americans being portrayed as comical trying to adapt to the White Settlers from any John Wayne movie).
Nowadays we think Charlie Chan as a "Kiss ass" and Dragon Lady an exotic sensual but treacherous Eastern woman.
Actually there are only Asian woman and no Asian male according to Hollywood.
hanchiman 4 months ago
@hanchiman I don't think a Dragon Lady was seen as totlly positive. Sexy and smart, yes, but I think that was part of the whole "Yellow Peril" thing. Like Fu Manchu.
guarddog22 4 months ago
@guarddog22
I said "Positive" with two quotation mark.
People during that time in the early 20th century thought it was "positive" portrayal of a Dragon Lady who might be evil but at least she would later have a change of heart towards the White American male hero who opened her "Ice Cold heart" (compared to Fu Manchu who is totally Evil-Evil Chinaman). She represent that "Not all powerful Chinese (especially female) are evil". I might take it out of context but that's how I view it.
hanchiman 3 months ago
@hanchiman That's probably true, too. With a few variations. Anyway, I still hate the idea of Chinese being portrayed as just "regular joes" in films, just for the heck of it. If I ever, once, see a Chinese kid on the subway (NYC) jumping around and rapping and annoying everybody (like blacks do, and even a few white trash), then I'll admit they're like everybody else. Never seen that. Not once. They have too much in the brain for that.
guarddog22 3 months ago
@guarddog22
That would be called a "Parody" or "Satire", in college a media teacher one time told me stereotyping is necessary in media, is a device to "identify" a group of people (be it race, sexuality, religion, culture or interest) without stereotype it would be hard to reach or identify their target audience.
Gay people always wear pink and are happy all the time.
Arabs who are beardy are portrayed as radical while those who are shaved and dress in Western clothes are liberal muslims.
hanchiman 3 months ago
@hanchiman That's true, to send the audience that "message." But if they tried to go too hard against the stereotype (since stereotypes are sometimes based on truth) it would just look stupid to the audience. Like if they made a film about the recent UK riots and showed Asians amongst the rioters and looters. The audience would be too smart for that.
guarddog22 3 months ago
@guarddog22
I don't know much about the racial profiling in the riot over there, they just summed up the rioters as "everybody" (from children to O.A.P from different kind of profession) this time for a change... Actually outside of media, they blame the riot was made by "Chavs" (who are sort of "Urban Rednecks" Caucasian people living in run down estates. Low educated, most unemployed, become a father/mother when they are 14 years old, always going to steal) and now I am being stereotype.
hanchiman 3 months ago
@guarddog22 Maybe you just don't get around much or have a stereotype of all Asians as somehow pure, saintly and extremely intellectual. Here in central California for instance there are a lot of kids of all colors including Asians who talk to each other exactly like typical rappers. You can probably find kids like that in NYC too if you actually walk around there.
verdew8181 3 months ago
@guarddog22 Also the media and Hollywood has been mean spirited to asians (particularly asian men e.g. (asian stereotype)all asian men have little penises or are virgins who can't for the life of them get laid) until like the late 1990's when the portrayal of asians were finally kind of stopping the stereotypes.
THORTHETHUNDERER 4 months ago
@THORTHETHUNDERER Well, in actuality, the men aren't as hung as Vikings, Thor.
guarddog22 4 months ago
@guarddog22 Are you saying you've checked out every Asian man's tool on Earth for dick measuring?
THORTHETHUNDERER 4 months ago
@THORTHETHUNDERER No, but I go by the rule : the higher the I.Q., the smaller the penis.
guarddog22 4 months ago
@guarddog22 I'm confused so you' would be considered either well endowed and stupid or very smart, quick witted but your life long companion "third leg" (err ahem pinky) would not be noticeable?
THORTHETHUNDERER 4 months ago
@THORTHETHUNDERER Yes! As a basic rule. Also... perfectly straight hair on the head shows Asians are more advanced. At least some people believe that. I could almost believe it, but only as a VERY general rule. (Jews often have kinky curley hair, and they have high I.Q.s).
guarddog22 4 months ago
@THORTHETHUNDERER Actually, I'll admit I couldn't possibly know if Asian men have smaller genitals than other races. And I don't think there's ever been a definitive scientific study on that. But I sort of don't care, because it's such an inconsequential subject.
guarddog22 4 months ago
This is the same artist that created Popeye The Sailor Man. There were also many stereotypes there.
Clamms 1 year ago
This is great! Productions like this helped me form my world view. :)
saxondog2001 1 year ago
Not a moment of that was PC. xD I like when they start chanting "chow mein! chow mein!" Can you imagine what it would be like if Chinese people were actually like that? o.o
ObsTheGreat 1 year ago 2
Actually, Screen Songs were not called Screen Songs before sound.
ThePopeyeFan 2 years ago 2