I’m sure everyone’s had the experience of hearing a song on the radio that mentions something Asian and wondering—hey, is this song racist? Should I be offended?
Well, I’m here to help you take the guesswork out. Here are four such songs and the stories behind them to help you come to an educated conclusion about whether these tunes are indeed…chinky or not chinky?
‘TURNING JAPANESE”
THE VAPORS
(1980)
If you’re like me, when you first heard this, your reaction was, “what the hell is this song about? How can anyone turn Japanese? You’re either born Japanese or you’re not.”
Paying closer attention to the lyrics only made things more confusing—For the love of God, what the hell does having your picture in my cell have to do with turning a man Japanese?!
It wasn’t until a friend who was wiser than me in the ways of the world told me the song had nothing to do with turning or being Japanese. It was actually about masturbation (“turning Japanese” referring to the squinty-eyed face one makes when climaxing while pleasuring oneself). Suddenly, the lyrics made perfect sense—it was about a dude in jail who had a photo of some chick that he was obsessed with and masturbated to it with some frequency and urgency as the up-tempo song suggests.
This has become the popular and accepted story about the song’s meaning. The only problem is the Vapors themselves deny this. In a VH1 True Spin special, Vapors lead singer Dave Fenton said “Turning Japanese” was actually a love song about someone who lost their girlfriend and was going slowly crazy. Whatever, Dave. And Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself” is really about a dude dancing with himself.
“CHINA GIRL”
DAVID BOWIE
1983
Although David Bowie had a huge hit with his version of this ‘80s classic, Iggy Pop (who co-wrote the track with Bowie) first performed it on his The Idiot album:
In the song, Bowie warns the China girl of the title that he will destroy her culture by corrupting her with his decadent and superficial Western values but the girl just brushes off his warnings:
“You shouldn’t mess with me
I’ll ruin everything you are
I’ll give you television
I’ll give you eyes of blue
I’ll give you men 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…”
The song can, in a way, be read as a critique of the evils of Western Imperialism which I certainly think is evident in Iggy Pop’s version which is simultaneously both darker and more “tongue-in-cheek.” But the main problem in trying to read it this way in Bowie’s version has more to do with his accompanying music video. There’s nothing really ironic or subversive about the images in the video—it’s a straight-on Madame Butterfly fantasy which undermines any critique inherent in the song itself.
The other popular interpretation of the song is that it’s about heroin addiction (“China White” being the slang for the drug at the time). Both Pop and Bowie were well-known for their drug use when they wrote this and the lyrics do seem to support this interpretation: “I’m a mess without my little China Girl/Wake up mornings where’s my little China Girl?”
“MR. ROBOTO”
STYX
(1983)
This was the big hit off the band’s Kilroy Was Here album. Is there anyone reading this who doesn’t know the song’s famous opening:
“Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto
Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto
Mata ahoo Hima de
Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto
Himitsu wo Shiri tai”
For those of you who’ve wondered what those lines mean, here is the English translation:
“Thank you very much Mr. Roboto,
until we meet again,
thank you very much Mr. Roboto,
I want to know your secret.”
Unfortunately, knowing what those lines are in English doesn’t necessarily make the meaning of the song clearer. Yes, it’s about too much technology being bad, robots and machines with parts made in Japan and, dude, we get it—you have a fucking secret. But what does all this add up to?
To better understand “Mr. Roboto,” you need to actually be familiar with the whole album. Kilroy Was Here is a concept album where all the songs are connected to each other to tell one story, in this case, about a famous rock star named Kilroy who is jailed by a fascist group called the Majority for Musical Morality. In prison, human workers have been replaced by robots, and Kilroy escapes disguised as a robot; taking on the identity of Mr. Roboto.
The song is about Kilroy’s escape, how he reveals his true identity to the masses (his big secret is that he’s really Kilroy not Mr. Roboto) and “makes a statement about the dehumanizing of the working class.” (Found that description on a Styx fan site and sounds good to me)
The phrase “Kilroy was here” was something that was graffitied on the side of buildings alongside a drawing of a dude with a real big nose peering over a wall. No one knows how the phrase and drawing originated but it gained popularity because it was painted in Allied-occupied areas of Germany and Japan after World War II.
At the time of the song’s release, Japan was coming into its own as a super power, especially in the field of new technology. The Japanese references are serving as a metaphor for the decay of humanity amidst the rise of this cold, robotic technology. Who said rock n’ roll couldn’t be deep?
“CHINESE”
LILY ALLEN
(2009)
When I found out that the always interesting Lily Allen had a song titled “Chinese” on her latest album, I was curious. Any musician who can write brilliant lyrics like “I could be your fag hag and you could be my gay” is definitely worth paying attention to in my book.
But as it turns out, the song “Chinese” has nothing to do with being Chinese or Asian or having yellow fever or any of the other things the title might suggest. In fact, the mention of anything “Chinese” only happens in the chorus and it’s a curious use of the term:
“I don’t want anything more
Than to see your face when you open the door
You’ll make me beans on toast and a nice cup of tea
And we’ll get a Chinese and watch TV
Tomorrow we’ll take the dog for a walk
And in the afternoon then maybe we’ll talk
I’ll be exhausted so I’ll probably sleep
And we’ll get a Chinese and watch TV…”
What does that mean exactly—“we’ll get a Chinese?”
The song itself is a lovely ballad that Allen wrote about visiting her mother—film producer Alison Owen (Shaun of the Dead, Proof). The album is in fact filled with songs about her family including her sister (“Go Back To The Start”) and father (“He Wasn’t There”).
So what is a line about getting a Chinese doing in a song paying tribute to a mother? Is it a not so lovely song about a daughter and mother picking up a Chinese man-whore to take home for a three-way as a friend of mine suggested?
Nope. According to Allen, the song is, “about how, when people go away from home, they just want to be back on the sofa eating (take-out Chinese food), watching TV.”
I’ll buy that, but it still is a strange choice of wording. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to sing, “and we’ll get some Chinese and watch TV?”
Still, if you can get over that, it really is a beautiful song. Check out this version by Britain’s Capital Children’s Choir. It was arranged by the music teacher who took Allen under her wing when she was a rebellious teen after her other teachers had given up on her. A loving and tender tribute (but is it just me or do the Asian girls look slightly uncomfortable singing this song?):
[...] one of my earliest blogs, I wrote about popular songs that may or may not be offensive. Now I return for a look and listen to four more songs and the stories behind them so you can [...]
[...] So actress Kirsten Dunst joined forces with director McG and artist Takashi Murakami to make this video entitled “Akihabara Majokko Princess” which is basically their remake of the Vapor’s ‘80s hit “Turning Japanese.” [...]
[...] songs about the joys of self-love. And yes, I know I left off some obvious choices like the Vapors’ “Turning Japanese,” Chuck Berry’s “My Ding-A-Ling,” Violent Femmes’ “Blister In The Sun,” the Divinyls’ [...]
Lily Allen’s “It’s Not Me It’s You” is one of my favorite albums of last year. I had no idea the song was about her mum, I thought it was about complacency/comfortability in a long-term relationship, where the mundane things become simple pleasures. I knew she was talking about Chinese food, but in my head I humorously pictured Lily cuddling with her man, watching TV, albeit next to an old Chinese man tied to a chair, bound and gagged, wanting to escape from captivity for dear life…lol.