Chinked-Out

Towards the end of the week, we took a moment to discuss cultural appropriation while using the term nigger as an example. Nigger was used as a derogatory term in the South towards slave and has been a tabooed word in society ever since. Now people such as Jamie Foxx and Chris Rock are attempting to change the meaning connotation of the word and make it a positive term. Well this reminded me of an effort made by a Taiwanese musician named Wang Lee Hom who tried to appropriate the slur word Chink.

In 2004, Lee Hom released a new music album that contained a fusion of hip-hop music with old lost Chinese music and coined the music as “chinked-out.” Lee Hom, a well educated singer that grew up in America is fully aware that the word chink was used in a derogatory way towards Orientals in America and he wanted to change the association of the word to something positive rather than negative. He wants the word to be associated with this music that fuses the great music from the past to the great music in the present. Personally, I found his efforts inspiring although I noticed the comments from an article regarding this attempt contained mixed reactions. Some think his efforts are “lame” and I find that very disappointing.

Words such as chink or nigger may have a very offensive past but they will continue to have an offensive future unless someone takes a stand and tries to change it. Words have meaning but those meanings are assigned by society so it can be changed. It’s sad that there are people out there who are willing to let unjust things be as they are even though it can be changed. I think this says a lot about our society in how they are so unaware of how much power they possess and what change they can bring about if they just try.

http://blog.japundit.com/archives/2005/12/17/1716/