Chinese fire drill

A Chinese fire drill is a slang term that has been used by Westerners for more than a century, and is today considered offensive or racist.^[1][2][3] It is used to describe any situation that is chaotic or confusing.^[4]

It is also used to describe an American college prank (also known as red-light green-light) performed by a vehicle's occupants when stopped at a traffic light, especially when there is a need to change drivers or get something from the trunk. Before the light changes to green, each occupant gets out, runs around the vehicle, and gets back inside (but not necessarily in his or her original seat). If one of the participants lags, the others may drive off without him or her.^[5]

Less commonly, a Chinese fire drill may refer to a literal fire drill on a school bus or the aforementioned gag executed by misbehaving students on a stopped school bus,^[6] sometimes involving use of the rear emergency exit.^[7]

Origins

The term goes back to the early 1900s, and is known to have been used in the U.S. Marine Corps in the 1940s, where it was often expressed in the phrase "as fucked up as a Chinese fire drill."^[8] It was also commonly used by Americans during the Korean War and the Vietnam War.^[9]

It is alleged to have originated when a ship staffed by British officers and a Chinese crew practiced a fire drill in the engine room. The bucket brigade drew water from the starboard side, took it to the engine room, and threw it onto the fire. A separate crew hauled the accumulated water to the main deck and heaved the water over the port side. The drill went according to plan until the orders became confused in translation. The bucket brigade began to draw the water from the starboard side, run over to the port side and then throw the water overboard, bypassing the engine room completely.^[10]

Historians trace Westerners' use of the word Chinese to denote "confusion" and "incomprehensibility" to the earliest contacts between Europeans and Chinese people in the 1600s, and attribute it to Europeans' inability to understand and appreciate China's radically different culture and worldview.^[11] In his 1989 Dictionary of Invective, British editor Hugh Rawson lists 16 phrases that use the word Chinese to denote "incompetence, fraud and disorganization."^[12]

Examples of such usages include:

• "Chinese puzzle," a puzzle with no or a hard-to-fathom solution^[13]
• "Chinese whispers," also known as "Telephone," a children's game in which a straightforward statement is shared through a line of players one player at a time until it reaches the end, often having been comically transformed along the way into a completely different statement.
• "Chinese national anthem," an explosion
• "Chinese landing," a clumsy landing
• "Chinese cigarette," a bent, smashed, or slightly torn cigarette.
• "Chinese ace," an inept pilot, derived from the term One Wing Low (which sounds like a Chinese name), an aeronautical technique^[13][14]

References

1. ^ Stephenson, Alan R. (2009). Broadcast Announcing Worktext: A Media Performance Guide, Third Edition. New York: Focal Press. pp. 92. ISBN 0240810589. 
2. ^ Crouch, Ned (2004). Mexicans & Americans: Cracking the Cultural Code. New York: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. pp. 93. ISBN 185788342X. 
3. ^ Ammer, Christine (2008). The Facts on File Dictionary of Cliches: Meanings And Origins of Thousands of Terms and Expressions. New York: Checkmark Books. pp. 68. ISBN 0816062803. 
4. ^ Partridge, Eric (2008). The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. New York: Routledge. pp. 135. ISBN 0203962117. 
5. ^ Dorson, Richard Merser (1986). Handbook of American Folklore. Indiana University Press. pp. 176. ISBN 0253327067. 
6. ^ Jeff Walls. "The World According to Lenny!" Fenceviewer (Ellsworth Anmerican). 10 June 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2010. ("This is a state mandated TWICE a year deal we called "Chinese fire drill" in the 60's when bus driver evacuated the bus to practice a fire drill.")
7. ^ David Heiller. "Chiglo retires after 30 years on bus route." The Caledonia Argus. 27 June 2006. Retrieved 1 August 2010. ("There was the time students jumped out the back door and ran around the bus in a Chinese fire drill.")
8. ^ Safire, William (1984). I Stand Corrected: More on Language. New York: Times Books. pp. 84. ISBN 0812910974. 
9. ^ Jensen, Richard J. (2003). Trans-Pacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century. Praeger. pp. 155. ISBN 0791460223. 
10. ^ Chinese Fire Drill an article from archives of The Digerati Peninsula
11. ^ Dale, Corinne H. (2004). Chinese Aesthetics and Literature: A Reader. New York: State University of New York Press. pp. 15-25. ISBN 0791460223. 
12. ^ Hughes, Geoffrey (2006). An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-speaking World. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 76. ISBN 0765612313. 
13. ^ ^{a b} Blue Moons, Chinese Fire Drill, Cocktail, Galoot, Whazzat thing?, Scotious and Stocious
14. ^ The Mavens' Word of the Day