Chinese fire drill
Encyclopedia
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. It is used to describe any situation that is chaotic or confusing.
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.
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, sometimes involving use of the rear emergency exit.
and the Vietnam War
.
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.
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. In his 1989 Dictionary of Invective, British editor Hugh Rawson lists 16 phrases that use the word Chinese to denote "incompetence, fraud and disorganization."
Examples of such usages include:
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
term that has been used by Westerners for more than a century, and is today considered offensive or racist. It is used to describe any situation that is chaotic or confusing.
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.
Less commonly, a Chinese fire drill may refer to a literal fire drill
Fire drill
A fire drill is a method of practicing the evacuation of a building for a fire or other emergency. Generally, the emergency system is activated and the building is evacuated as though a real fire had occurred...
on a school bus or the aforementioned gag executed by misbehaving students on a stopped school bus, sometimes involving use of the rear emergency exit.
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." It was also commonly used by Americans during the Korean WarKorean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
and the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
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
Bucket brigade
A bucket brigade or human chain is a method for transporting items where items are passed from one stationary person to the next.The method was important in firefighting before the advent of hand pumped fire engines, whereby firefighters would pass buckets to each other to extinguish a blaze. A...
drew water from the starboard side
Port and starboard
Port and starboard are nautical terms which refer to the left and right sides, respectively, of a ship or aircraft as perceived by a person on board facing the bow . At night, the port side of a vessel is indicated with a red navigation light and the starboard side with a green one.The starboard...
, took it to the engine room
Engine room
On a ship, the engine room, or ER, commonly refers to the machinery spaces of a vessel. To increase the safety and damage survivability of a vessel, the machinery necessary for operations may be segregated into various spaces, the engine room is one of these spaces, and is generally the largest...
, 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
Port and starboard
Port and starboard are nautical terms which refer to the left and right sides, respectively, of a ship or aircraft as perceived by a person on board facing the bow . At night, the port side of a vessel is indicated with a red navigation light and the starboard side with a green one.The starboard...
. The drill went according to plan until the orders became confused in translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
. 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.
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. In his 1989 Dictionary of Invective, British editor Hugh Rawson lists 16 phrases that use the word Chinese to denote "incompetence, fraud and disorganization."
Examples of such usages include:
- "Chinese puzzlePuzzleA puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...
," a puzzle with no or a hard-to-fathom solution - "Chinese whispersChinese whispersChinese whispers is one name for a game played around the world, in which one person whispers a message to another, which is passed through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group...
," 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 anthemNational anthemA national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
," 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