# Is the word "Chino/a" in Spanish a general term for Asians? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 14, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700 "2011-08-14T17:58:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/81 "2011-08-18T07:25:39Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > How odd. That would be like a Great Pyramid Restaurant specializing in Greek food. I know, that’s why I mentioned it. I think the sign was up first and the current owners figured that, since their customers will be expecting the menu to include some “Chinese restaurant stuff” anyway, they might as well skip the redecoration. ---
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/82 "2011-08-18T14:41:46Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Where do you live, exactly, that people take such severe offense? I’m from New York, and I doubt too many people would respond so violently there. > > As I mentioned, the word may be perceived as more offensive in areas where there is more conflict between Americans and Latinos, as in the border areas between Mexico and the US. Several years ago you said something quite contrary to this concerning the word’s usage in México. Were you traveling exclusively in border areas? And is there “conflict” there between the people of the 2 countries? [QUOTE=colibri] While I have only skimmed the thread in question, since BDEscapee is Mexican, and gringo tends to be used in a disparaging way by Mexicans in particular [/QUOTE] [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6989563&postcount=29](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6989563&postcount=29) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/83 "2011-10-06T09:08:56Z")
> [@auRa](#): > > Visiting my friend in Madrid earlier this year, most of our last-minute grocery shopping was preceded by “We’ll just get it at the chino”. It was the commonly used term among pretty much everybody. (We’re 25-30.) > [@Nava](#): > > Grocery? Interesting, either that’s a regional variation or that particular grocery is Chinese-owned. In most of Spain I’ve seen it used for dollar stores. It’s a recent development, too: for about a decade, they’ve been a market with a lot of Chinese ownership. For some reason we say “el chino” to mean a Chinese or Oriental restaurant (the “Great Wall” restaurant near my grandmother’s specializes in Thai cuisine) but “los chinos” to mean a dollar store. Update. Turns out that there is a kind of convenience stores which are uncommon in Spain, and which in Madrid (where I’m encountering a lot of them, I’ve also seen one in Seville and two in Bilbao; I haven’t seen any in Barcelona or Saragossa yet) appear to be run mostly by Chinese. My coworkers consider the greengrocer, the market, the supermarket and the _chino_ as distinctly different options: the first two are for when you want the best local produce, the supermarket for massive shopping, the chino for when you’re out of something and need it nooooooow. These convenience stores seem to be dedicated mostly to junk food and soda, with smaller areas for fresh produce, pasta or cleaning supplies. A quick poll among those of us from “the provinces” showed that the only place where a _chino_ is a convenience store and not a restaurant is Madrid, at least atm. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/84 "2011-10-06T12:17:40Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Yes, I would probably > > 1. Advise Latin Americans visiting the US to avoid using the word in order to avoid giving offense where none is intended. > > 2. Also advise any Americans, whether in the US or visiting Latin America, that they should not automatically take offense at the word, since the majority of Latin Americans use it as an non-pejorative descriptor. I’d add 3: Advise _everybody_ to watch out for the violent crackers of Florida who might fly off the handle at a word that wouldn’t anger a _Texan_. (Just call the Floridians _pinches gabachos_; they won’t understand.) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/85 "2011-10-06T12:41:49Z")
A further update: I just returned from Argentina, where I saw a couple of restaurants or other businesses called _La Gringa_, clearly not intended pejoratively. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/86 "2011-10-06T13:50:43Z")
I know the topic’s ranged far away, but I just wanted to add that in India Chinese are often referred to as “chinni” (long i on the first syllable, accent on the first syllable). I just found it interesting I guess. ---
**Author:** ![wespyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wespyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wespyu)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/89 "2014-02-24T01:10:20Z")
Chino Chino is the hispanic / latin equivalent of saying “Asian Ni88er.” South Americans and hispanics in general to not typically like Asians, and they consider anyone with slanted eyes to be Chinese. There is a long history of discrimination towards Asians by hispanics / latins. > [@I\_Know\_Nothing](#): > > One of our non English speaking Mexican cooks referred to a Vietnamese waiter as Chino. The waiter was offended and corrected to cook. “I’m not Chinese I’m Vietnamese.” The cook called him “Chino” once more, thoroughly pissing of said waiter. > > Trying to calm him down, another waiter who knew a little Spanish said that “Chino” in Spanish is a general term for all Asians, and that the cook was not deliberately trying to piss him off. > > Was he correct? ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/90 "2014-02-24T02:02:10Z")
> [@wespyu](#): > > Chino Chino is the hispanic / latin equivalent of saying “Asian Ni88er.” South Americans and hispanics in general to not typically like Asians, and they consider anyone with slanted eyes to be Chinese. There is a long history of discrimination towards Asians by hispanics / latins. Not in Peru, it isn’t. “Chinos” are, if anything, admired because they are perceived as hard working. There was much more discrimination in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but now not really. Assian Nigger is “chino de mierda”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/91 "2014-02-24T02:20:56Z")
> [@wespyu](#): > > Chino Chino is the hispanic / latin equivalent of saying “Asian Ni88er.” South Americans and hispanics in general to not typically like Asians, and they consider anyone with slanted eyes to be Chinese. There is a long history of discrimination towards Asians by hispanics / latins. Not so in Panama either. A pretty significant portion of population has some Chinese ancestry, due to immigration dating to the construction of the Panama railroad in the 1850s and later for the canal. A very large proportion of small groceries are run by people of Chinese ancestry, so much so that the slang term for such a store is a _chino._ As far as I can tell, no one seems to mind. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/92 "2014-02-24T03:51:50Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > Because Panamanian is in English and supposed to be capitalized, but colombiana is in Spanish, and gerunds in Spanish are not capitalized. If he were saying Panañemo and colombiana, you may have a point, although he may also be accused of incorrect Spanish grammar. I suspect he may not want to write panameño because he may not want to deal with the ñ. 😉 I do not think that that word–gerund–means what you think it means. ~I.M. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2014, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/93 "2014-02-24T03:56:48Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > You seem to have missed my “OR”. A childhood friend of mine missed several months of classes due to hepatitis and was left jaundiced for years: people who didn’t know or remember his name would call out “hey, ¡el chino!” and he knew it was for him. Mothers of jaundiced babies would be told “poor baby, I hope he gets better soon, he looks like a chinito!” Neither my friend nor those babies had epicanthic folds. > > . Lexical points! I think the last time I read “epicanthic folds” was in Thomas Mann’s _The Magic Mountain._ ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700/94 "2014-02-24T15:26:34Z")
When I was in my late teens, I lived in Phoenix and worked with a lot of young Hispanic men, who called me Chinita. It was definitely in an affectionate sense. I wouldn’t say I look especially Chinese. Maybe Inuit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-chino-a-in-spanish-a-general-term-for-asians/592700.md?page=4)