The Heathen Chinee

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The Heathen Chinee, originally published as Plain Language from Truthful James, is a narrative poem by American writer Bret Harte. It was published for the first time in September 1870 in Overland Monthly.^[1][2] It was written as a parody of Algernon Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon (1865).^[1] Although Harte considered Plain Language from Truthful James to be "the worst [poem] I ever wrote"^[2], it reached a worldwide fame that made him the most popular literary figure in America in 1870.^[1] The poem also focused racial hatred against East Asian immigrants in California.^[2] It was republished multiple times under the popular title The Heathen Chinee.^[1]

[edit] The poem

Here is the poem in full:

Which I wish to remark,

And my language is plain,

That for ways that are dark

And for tricks that are vain,

The heathen Chinee is peculiar,

Which the same I would rise to explain.

Ah Sin was his name;

And I shall not deny,

In regard to the same,

What that name might imply;

But his smile it was pensive and childlike,

As I frequent remarked to Bill Nye.

It was August the third,

And quite soft was the skies;

Which it might be inferred

That Ah Sin was likewise;

Yet he played it that day upon William

And me in a way I despise.

Which we had a small game,

And Ah Sin took a hand:

It was Euchre. The same

He did not understand;

But he smiled as he sat by the table,

With the smile that was childlike and bland.

Yet the cards they were stocked

In a way that I grieve,

And my feelings were shocked

At the state of Nye's sleeve,

Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers,

And the same with intent to deceive.

But the hands that were played

By that heathen Chinee,

And the points that he made,

Were quite frightful to see, --

Till at last he put down a right bower,

Which the same Nye had dealt unto me.

Then I looked up at Nye,

And he gazed upon me;

And he rose with a sigh,

And said, "Can this be?

We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor," --

And he went for that heathen Chinee.

In the scene that ensued

I did not take a hand,

But the floor it was strewed

Like the leaves on the strand

With the cards that Ah Sin had been hiding,

In the game "he did not understand."

In his sleeves, which were long,

He had twenty-four packs, --

Which was coming it strong,

Yet I state but the facts;

And we found on his nails, which were taper,

What is frequent in tapers, -- that's wax.

Which is why I remark,

And my language is plain,

That for ways that are dark

And for tricks that are vain,

The heathen Chinee is peculiar, --

Which the same I am free to maintain.

[edit] Further reading

• Brown, Darren Lee. "The Heathen Chinee": stereotypes of Chinese in popular music. ISBN 1885864175. San Francisco State University. 2003.
• McClellan, Robert. "Heathen Chinee: A Study of American Attitudes Toward China, 1890-1905". Pacific Affairs, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Winter, 1971-1972), p. 603.
• Johnsen, Leigh Dana. "Equal Rights and the "Heathen 'Chinee'": Black Activism in San Francisco, 1865-1875". Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jan., 1980), pp. 57-68.
• Scharnhorst, Gary. "Ways That Are Dark": Appropriations of Bret Harte's "Plain Language from Truthful James". Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Dec., 1996), pp. 377-399.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Railton, Stephen. Harte: "The Heathen Chinee". West Meets East: Depicting the Chinese, 1860 - 1873. University of Virginia. URL accessed 2006-12-12.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Henderson, Victoria. Mark Canada, editor. "Bret Harte, 1836-1902". All American: Literature, History, and Culture. University of North Carolina at Pembroke. URL accessed 2006-12-12.