Fancy a Chinese?

[Tinktravels]

Now I know this is ridiculous but it might give you a laugh.

American people on tik tok have discovered that we call it ' a Chinese' rather than 'Chinese food'.
There has been so many stitches of videos from mainly English or Irish people saying things like 'I haven't had a Chinese in ages' or 'I really fancy a Chinese tonight'. There are many that are actually calling it racist which is we all know is rubbish!

They are also slating the food itself for not being authentic Chinese and having dishes like curry sauce and chips. Cant argue with that one we all know its not authentic but its bloody lovely.

Has it ever even crossed your mind that people would consider this racist?

(Search A Chinese British on tik-tok there are so many videos on this.)

Urghhh this has taken me back a good 20 years and it isn't a happy memory.

DH and I were part of a weekend away when he and his friend offended an American lady who was part of the group (but most people had never met her before) by saying they wanted a Chinese. She made a right old fuss, accused of all of being racists and made the weekend miserable for everyone. As you can imagine everyone was dumbfounded by her attitude.

We mustnt forget Americans are very different culturally to us. It might be a curiosity on TikTok but it's vital it doesn't become a cultural norm here
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It's a shame in the last 20 years weve allowed British culture to be eroded by Americanisation. If you look at the mess America is in with regard to healthcare, race relations, environment it's so important we don't follow their path.

Women don't even have reproductive rights on the other side of the pond. Maybe they should focus on that before decrying British people"s racism.

They are also slating the food itself for not being authentic Chinese and having dishes like curry sauce and chips

It's completely normal to adapt & be influenced by the customers you are serving.

Exactly what about Tex Mex food!?

What about fortune cookies or chop suey? Both widely served in America, fortune cookies are Japanese by origin and chop suey is Californian.

TikTok just seems to serve as a tool to club people with these days. If I had kids there's no way I would expose them to it.

I wouldn’t exactly use “Americans on Tik Tok” whatever that category means as representative of what Americans think do you calling it Chinese not Chinese food.

The other day it was headline news that “Americans” on Tik Tok discovered eating crisps with your sandwich it something random and started a shit storm of how Brit’s discovered it first etc.

it was so dumb because just one person says something on Tik Tok doesn’t mean anything.

Doesn't US have massive issues with anti Asian racism? Maybe the tiktokers could take that on

I saw a funny response video to this where the poster exposed the stupidity of the original video by going through a few terms where Americans add extra words to certain things whereas we don't. The British horse riding vs the American horseback riding was one example. Like where else was a rider planning to sit?

Or even simply 'riding' in British English. A 'Riding School' for example. In the absence of any other qualification, 'riding' is generally taken to mean horse riding.

And this is coming form a country that has squeezy cheese !

Having had what Americans sell as Chinese food, also Indian food (and other cuisines, this whole authenticity thing is laughable. I've had "real" Chinese food, "real" Indian food etc and it's nothing like the sweet bland American offerings. (I have Chinese friends and my city is full of authentic home style Indian food, it's different to high street places)

What are Chinese chips?

I always say it. It's not racist

@Vegetus "You sound fun at parties"

I am. I am particularly partial to sharing a Chinese takeaway.

I see loads saying that but they are not saying it to be racist. Its just what people have always said. Like same with going to the p*ki shop.

Chinese takeaway chips. You can't seem to get them anywhere else. It's just the oil they are cooked in that makes them taste different I think.

Substitute 'Americans' with 'Puritans' and you'll find your answer.

I cannot bare this new culture of telling other people how to think and speak.

I'm not sure a country that eats squirty cheese and jam with peanut butter is in any position to comment on the food anywhere else!

Ok thank you. I’m not in the UK and have never heard of this. But will definitely try next time I’m there! 😂

Couple of points.

1. America has more professionally offended then we do

1. American language is very simple.

1. Many Americans rarely if at all venture outside of america . So the thought of things being different somewhere else is mind blowing.

That has more in common with the term "ch*nky" and is most definitely racist. I have not heard anyone use either for many years.

Just like poor old Richard III.

Could replace that now with Charles III 🤷‍♂️

One of the reasons it blew up was a fairly big Asian American content creator questioning it because a Chinese, a Mexican etc, has been/is used in America about people as a way of dehumanising people.

She questioned whether the same would apply to Italian food or Greek food in the U.K.

But it does and referring to a person as a nationality with no noun or pronoun on the U.K. would be jarring.

Not saying racism doesn’t exist, obviously, but that particular language feature doesn’t work here.

But instead of accepting that it’s a food related language difference, she doubled down and it went viral.

The Chinese lady I knew (parents ran a takeaway) despised this term. Chinese wasn't offensive and was accepted as shorthand for takeaway/meal

"Pa*i shop" is in no way comparable to saying "a Chinese"

"Pa*i" is a racist slur. "Chinese" is not.

Tiktokers are not representative of an entire nation.

Surely a nation that abbreviates "shock absorbers" to "shocks" can see the grammatical similarity with abbreviating "Chinese takeaway" to "Chinese"🤔

I remember that thread, unless there's more than one poster out there finding it offensive!