The state-owned China News Service last week bid farewell to Gary Locke, the ethnically Chinese, outgoing U.S. ambassador, with a pseudonymous news item referring to him as a "yellow-skinned white-hearted banana man."
What, perchance, could ignite a Chinese-language newspaper to use what non- Chinese would ordinarily regard as a racial slur? As outlined by this 64-year-old, Communist Party-controlled, globally oriented CNS, he had favored U.S. interests over Chinese ones. "Mr. Ambassador, what if your ancestors knew of your performance?" The news wire asked. "If they'd known, they would have thrown you out of the house."
To American ears, at least, this might sound naive, if not a little mad. To many if not most Chinese, it sounds much the same, and in the days since the news item first ran, it's been roundly ridiculed, criticized and outright derided on Chinese social media, with one well-known user of Sina Weibo referring to it as the "single worst article I've ever seen."