When and where did the term "chinaman" originate, and is it considered offensive?

Question

When and where did the term "chinaman" originate, and is it considered offensive?

Answer 1

Chinaman originated the same way Frenchman, Englishman, Scotsman, Welshman, etc. originated: a man from France is a Frenchman, a man from England is an Englishman, and a man from China is a Chinaman.

Nowadays Chinaman is not politically correct, as over time it was used derisively toward people of any Asian nationality.

Answer 2

around the time of the wild west there were thousands of chinese immigrant workers and dumb red neck cowboys didn't know how to correctly say "chinese" so they called them china men

if anything saying it today means your trying to make a joke or you just end up looking stupid.  

Answer 3

Chinaman is a term that refers to a Chinese man. It was not defined as offensive by older dictionaries. Today, Asian American organizations and others have objected to the use of the term as offensive, and it has been defined as such by current dictionaries. The term has been used without stated offensive intent, and has also been used as a self-referential archetype by authors and artists of Asian descent.

The term "Chinaman" has been historically used in a variety of ways, including legal documents, literary works, geographic names, and in speech. Census records in 1800s North America recorded Chinese men by names such as "John Chinaman", "Jake Chinaman", or simply as "Chinaman". In a notable 1852 letter to Governor of California John Bigler which challenges his proposed immigration policy toward the Chinese, restaurant owner Norman Asing, at the time a leader in San Francisco's Chinese community, referred to himself as a "Chinaman". Addressing the governor, he wrote, "Sir: I am a Chinaman, a republican, and a lover of free institutions."

More info at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman

Answer 4

it's a man from china

i'd say hmmmm san francisco 1840's

Answer 5

...it was probably when they came to the West (1849) in America to find gold and worked on the rails...

Answer 6

The term "Chinaman" has been historically used in a variety of ways, including legal documents, literary works, geographic names, and in speech. Census records in 1800s North America recorded Chinese men by names such as "John Chinaman", "Jake Chinaman", or simply as "Chinaman". The term has also been used to refer to Japanese men, despite the fact that they are not Chinese.

The use of the term Chinaman in public platforms and as names of geographical locations has caused several public controversies in recent times. On 1998-04-09, television sitcom show Seinfeld aired an episode in which a character referred to opium as "the Chinaman's nightcap". The episode prompted many Asian American viewers, including author Maxine Hong Kingston, to send letters of protest. In her letter, Kingston wrote that the term is "equivalent to ******* for blacks and kikes for Jews". Media watchdog Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) called on NBC, broadcasting network for the show, to issue a public apology. NBC did not issue an apology, but it removed the offending term from the episode in the episode's rerun in May 1998. NBC's executive vice president for broadcast standards and content policy sent MANAA a letter stating that the network never intended to offend. MANAA was pleased with the studio's response despite the lack of an apology, and Kingston, while disappointed there was no apology, was pleased that the term was removed from the episode.

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