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Is China Girl racist?

Deleted member 15428

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
13,464


Or is it making fun of Asian fetishism? Is it about drugs?

Oh, oh, oh, little China girl
Oh, oh, oh, little China girl
I could escape this feeling, with my China girl
I feel a wreck without my, little China girl
I hear her heart beating, loud as thunder
Saw they stars crashing
I'm a mess without my, little China girl
Wake up mornings where's my, little China girl
I hear her heart's beating, loud as thunder
Saw they stars crashing down
I feel a-tragic like I'm Marlon Brando
When I look at my China girl
I could pretend that nothing really meant too much
When I look at my China girl
I stumble into town just like a sacred cow
Visions of swastikas in my head
Plans for everyone
It's in the whites of my eyes
My little China girl
You shouldn't mess with me
I'll ruin everything you are
You know, I'll give you television
I'll give you eyes of blue
I'll give you men's who want to rule the world
And when I get excited
My little China girl says
Oh baby, just you shut your mouth
She says, sh-sh-shhh
She says, sh-sh-shhh
She says
She says
And when I get excited
My little China girl says
Oh baby, just you shut your mouth
And when I get excited
My little China girl says
Oh baby, just you shut your mouth
She says, sh-sh-shhh
She says
Oh, oh, oh, little China girl
Oh, oh, oh, little China girl
Oh, oh, oh, little China girl
Oh, oh, oh, little China girl
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Click to shrink...
 
CloseTalker

CloseTalker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,658
They're certainly lyrics that no band in their right mind would release in 2018, but it doesn't read as terribly offensive to me.
 
andymcc

andymcc

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,316
Columbus, OH
it's about doing heroin and coke while bowie and iggy pop were in berlin in the 70s. though i think iggy's was more to do with the stooges as a band.

The original song came out in 1977 for the record.
 
BocoDragon

BocoDragon

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,207
Even if it's about heroin, using "China girl" as slang for it sounds like something that could only come from a pre-globalized world where China and Chinese people really were foreign to "our" culture.

Aint mad though. It's just clearly not a song from our generation.
 
TransEuropaExpress

TransEuropaExpress

Member
Dec 6, 2017
10,992
US
I stumble into town just like a sacred cow
Visions of swastikas in my head
Plans for everyone
It's in the whites of my eyes
My little China girl
You shouldn't mess with me
I'll ruin everything you are
You know, I'll give you television
I'll give you eyes of blue
I'll give you men's who want to rule the world

Pretty obvious what this section is about. I doubt the entirety of the song is about one specific subject as pretty much all tracks on The Idiot, the original album this appeared on, have really hard to pin down, drug-addled lyrics heavy on symbolism. It's probably some triple entendre about heroin, his Asian girlfriend of that era (she wasn't Chinese though so who knows) and colonialism.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,038
You'd never be able to make the song today, musically, that's for sure. Bowie would be widely criticized for cultural appropriation, or bastardizing/stereotyping traditional Chinese or Asian culture, for that hook.

Though I read that the producer, writer, or whoever thought the lyrics were about heroin and cocaine.
 
shnurgleton

shnurgleton

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,864
Boston
TransEuropaExpress said:
I stumble into town just like a sacred cow
Visions of swastikas in my head
Plans for everyone
It's in the whites of my eyes
My little China girl
You shouldn't mess with me
I'll ruin everything you are
You know, I'll give you television
I'll give you eyes of blue
I'll give you men's who want to rule the world

Pretty obvious what this section is about. I doubt the entirety of the song is about one specific subject as pretty much all tracks on The Idiot, the original album this appeared on, have really hard to pin down, drug-addled lyrics heavy on symbolism. It's probably some triple entendre about heroin, his Asian girlfriend of that era (she wasn't Chinese though so who knows) and colonialism.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
yup
 
TransEuropaExpress

TransEuropaExpress

Member
Dec 6, 2017
10,992
US
Birdseye said:
It's not as different from Bowie's version as I expected but if sounds nothing special when you're accustomed to Bowie's
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The Idiot is an album that has to be taken as a whole and its mood makes sense in the bigger picture. That being said, it's one of the weaker tracks. It's also an incredibly dark and down album as a whole so seeing where it comes from makes the rather nebulous nature of the lyrics much more understandable.
 
Landy828

Landy828

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,413
Clemson, SC
N2Bx-q.gif
 
TransEuropaExpress

TransEuropaExpress

Member
Dec 6, 2017
10,992
US
According to Bowie himself, the video was meant as a mockery of typical Asian stereotypes Westerners engaged in but it didn't turn out as well as intended and therefore went over people's heads. Do with that info what you will but that was apparently his intent including the silly main riff. If you listen to a lot of his work as a whole, he didn't use many 'obvious' poppy melodies so I think in that context it supports the riff being yet another mockery. Obviously it didn't work as intended it seems but I don't really doubt that original intention.

He's the same guy who quite aggressively called out MTV in an interview for not featuring more black artists, and if so ghetto-izing their music by shoving them into their own shows during horrible time slots, when it wasn't cool to do so.
 
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