“How Bret Harte's satirical poem "The heathen Chinee" helped inflame racism in 1870s America” (Publication, 2011)
Year
2011
Text
Métraux, Daniel A. How Bret Harte's satirical poem "The heathen Chinee" helped inflame racism in 1870s America. In : Southeast review of Asian studies ; vol. 33 (2011). (HarB10)
Type
Publication
Mentioned People (1)
Harte, Bret
(Albany, N.Y. 1836-1902 Camberley, Surrey) : Schriftsteller, Dichter, Dramatiker
Subjects
Literature : Occident : United States of America
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References / Sources
Chronology Entries (1)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1870 |
[Harte, Bret]. The heathen Chinee. = Plain language from truthful James [ID D29476]. Which I wish to remark, And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar, Which the same I would rise to explain. Ah Sin was his name; And I shall not deny, In regard to the same, What that name might imply; But his smile it was pensive and childlike, As I frequent remarked to Bill Nye. It was August the third, And quite soft was the skies; Which it might be inferred That Ah Sin was likewise; Yet he played it that day upon William And me in a way I despise. Which we had a small game, And Ah Sin took a hand: It was Euchre. The same He did not understand; But he smiled as he sat by the table, With the smile that was childlike and bland. Yet the cards they were stocked In a way that I grieve, And my feelings were shocked At the state of Nye's sleeve, Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers, And the same with intent to deceive. But the hands that were played By that heathen Chinee, And the points that he made, Were quite frightful to see, -- Till at last he put down a right bower, Which the same Nye had dealt unto me. Then I looked up at Nye, And he gazed upon me; And he rose with a sigh, And said, "Can this be? We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor," -- And he went for that heathen Chinee. In the scene that ensued I did not take a hand, But the floor it was strewed Like the leaves on the strand With the cards that Ah Sin had been hiding, In the game "he did not understand." In his sleeves, which were long, He had twenty-four packs, -- Which was coming it strong, Yet I state but the facts; And we found on his nails, which were taper, What is frequent in tapers, -- that's wax. Which is why I remark, And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar, -- Which the same I am free to maintain. Sekundärliteratur Tary Penry : In the article two miners hope to cheat the Chinese character Ah Sin in a card game, only to find that he turns the tables and bests them both by holding spare cards of his own inside capacious sleeves. As the poem took on a life of its own, the prejudiced, cheating, and violent Bill Nye became a symbol of decent working men. By September 1870, when Harte's poem appeared, the Overland monthly had declared itself on the employers' side of local debates about the competitive pressure of Chinese men on California wages – welcoming Chinese labor. The magazine had also established a selectively sympathetic tone toward Chinese culture, a habit of reticence and skepticism with respect to dialect writing, and a voice of gentility quite at odds with the voice of 'Truthful' James. The monthly have become increasingly engaged in the Chinese immigration question during Harte's tenure as editor. Sekundärliteratur Daniel A. Métraux : A number of anti-Chinese immigrant writers and spokesmen ignored the satirical quality of The heathen Chinee and used it to promote their venomous hatred for the Chinese. Harte's satirical poem helped formulate certain stereotypes of Chinese immigrants in North America. The poem appeared at a moment of strong sentiment against Chinese immigration in California. Many of the Irish laborers who move to California hoping to find steady high-paying jobs following the gold rush found both a depressed economy and thousands of young hardworking Chinese who were willing to work longer hours at lower pay. Harte himself opposed all forms of racial discrimination. His poem specifically satirized Irish laborers' prejudices against Chinese immigrants at that time, though the poem itself fails to portray any of its characters in a remotely favorable light. The ironic twist is that many readers failed to see the satirical bent of the poem. Taken literally, Harte paints a very ugly picture of Ah Sin and thus Chinese in general. Like the two characters in the poem, they sincerely believed that there was nothing wrong with racially superior men like themselves cheating Chinese, Indians, or members of any other non-white minority group. To Harte's chagrin, many racist whites in California and across the nation were only too glad to endorse the racist overtones of the poem. When later versions were published with illustrations of the characters, the two miners were depicted as normal looking white men of the period. Ah Sin was portrayed as a sinister creature with feline features would appear in later stories, plays and early movies as a sinister, perhaps even evil and certainly untrustworthy alien who served for decades as a foil of frontier melodrama. Ironically, Harte's poem helped define and entrench the feelings of anger, resentment, and suspicion that many whites had for Chinese at that time. Harte's poem was widely quoted around the world both to condemn and to justify discrimination and violence against the Chinese. Because it was so widely published, it was not uncommon to hear opponents of Chinese immigration quoting passages which they took to demean and humiliate Chinese. Hart was himself apparently surmised and appalled to see his work misunderstood and misused. In later years, he called the poem 'trash' and characterized it as 'the worst poem I ever wrote, possibly the worst poem anyone ever wrote'. On the other hand, he seemed to enjoy the fame that came with its publication. |
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Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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