Look up chinky in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In the United Kingdom, a chinky (alternatively known as a chinky chonky[1]) is a Chinese takeaway restaurant, or the meal that one buys from such a restaurant. (The name "chinky" is the adjectival form of chink, and like chink is an ethnic slur for Chinese people.[2] After several campaigns by the Scottish Executive, more people in Scotland now acknowledge that this name is indirectly racialist.[3] However the BBC Broadcasting Standards Commission held in 2002 that when used as the name of a type of restaurant or meal, rather than as an adjective applied to a person or group of people, the word carries no racialist connotation.[4]) These restaurants are known for serving food that no native of China would recognize as Chinese food.[5] Stereotypically, their food is cheap, and the restaurants themselves the subjects of popular prejudice that, according to Gill[6], makes it "difficult to improve the quality and sophistication of the dishes, or to charge more".

References

  1. ^ Ray Puxley (2004). Britslang: An Uncensored A-Z of the People's Language, Including Rhyming Slang. Robson. p. 98. ISBN 1861057288.
  2. ^ "Lessons in battle against racism". BBC News. 2003-08-21. ((cite news)): Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Scottish Executive (2006-09-13). "One Scotland Many Cultures 2005/2006 — Waves 6 and 7 Campaign Evaluation" (PDF). ((cite web)): Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "The Vicar Of Dibley" (PDF). the bulletin. Ofcom. 2002-07-25. p. 21. ((cite web)): Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Mark Shackleton (2004). "More Sour than Sweet? Food as a Cultural Marker in Timothy Mo's Sour Sweet, Zadie Smith's White Teeth and Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet". The Electronic Journal of the Department of English at the University of Helsinki. 3. ISSN 1457-9960.
  6. ^ A. A. Gill (2004-04-11). "Table Talk". The Sunday Times. ((cite news)): Check date values in: |date= (help)

See also

Categories