Wow. That’s quite the offensive moniker isn’t it?
Originally known as “Little Daddy and the Bachelors, “Four Niggers and a Chink” was the name of a Vancouver Rhythm and Blues group coined by the famous pot smoking comedian, Tommy Chong (of Cheech and Chong fame). Yes, it was the less politically correct days of the early 1960’s.
And this occurred in the young city of Vancouver, now a cosmopolitan city known for it’s ethnic and cultural diversity.
Four Niggers and a Chink struck a distasteful chord even back then.
The group later shortened it’s name to “4 N’s and a C”, but even that didn’t pacify many folks. So Tommy Chong and his friend, Bobby Taylor, soon changed their group’s name to Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers.
The rest is history.
Their hit “Does Your Mama know about Me” was a top 30 hit single in the 1960’s.
The group also signed on briefly on the Motown label. As a producer and solo artist, Bobby Taylor contributed to several other soul recordings, both inside and outside of Motown. Taylor is most notable for discovering and mentoring The Jackson 5. Tommy Chong later became famous as a comedian.
Also of interest is the fact that my granny’s neighbour’s grandson also played briefly with Bobby Taylor and Tommy Chong for about a year. You folks know this young grandson as the late great Jimi Hendrix. Yes, ours was quite the interesting neighbourhood back then.
For more information, please check out the Wikipedia site on Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers or check out the All Music website on Four Niggers and a Chink.
Tommy Chong, who wrote this piece, is of Chinese and white (Scottish/ Irish) heritage.
According to some R+B buffs, Chong wrote this song because of his experience of discrimination while growing up as a young man and marrying his first wife, a black woman.
It is suggested that this was what gave Tommy Chong the inspiration for this song.
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Charming and nostalgic, I suppose. Too bad there isn’t any actual footage.
I understand… yeh yeh I understand….
But I still hate like hell those terms: as their historic — and, sadly, current — meanings refer to slavery, slave-wages, lethal railroad/agricultural working conditions, racist violence, and murder of Black and Chinese people.
Ugly, thanks for this valuable piece of information.
I grew up with Cheech and Chong and used to own every one of their albums. They are even funnier after a few joints.
I like the title “4 niggers and a chink” better.
My first girlfriend was of Scotish descent and we had the best of times. When I did something goofy or idiotic, she used to say: ” oh, you chink you.” I didn’t find anything derogatory about it and there was a hint of love involved. She proposed engagement and I accepted. When we travelled across the country to announce the news to her parents, the first time I would be meeting them. Her father pulled me aside and said in clear terms that he did not want any Chinese babies. He wanted her daughter to marry a white person and did not want any Chinese blood in their lines of strong Scottish heritage. What he said that broke me was that her whole family would disown her and she would be completely devastated.
She was a very family oriented person, an excellent cook and homemaker, I believed in what he said. If I could sacrifice my own happiness so she can have hers, I would. And I did.
ChinkTalk, thank you for sharing your story.
We’ve always enjoyed your perspectives on this blog, and am really touched to learn of your own personal sacrifices made.
I guess that’s why people like ourselves ‘click’… we know of the real (and personal) struggles made by ours and earlier generations.
Thanks… from the bottom of one Chink’s heart to another.
Was Tommy Chong’s daughter from that first marriage named Rae Dawn Chong???
Dear CT
Sorry to hear of your unfortunate experience with racist objections to intercultural marriage. There have been many positive results of Chinese-Scottish unions such as Tommy Chong and poet Fred Wah (who is also Chinese-Scottish-Irish-Swedish).
I too had negative past experiences of somebody’s parents’ not happy to have a Chinese-Canadian dating their daughter, even if oftentimes, my own 5-generations of Canadian family had been in Canada 3 or 5 X longer than their family had been.
Times have sure changed after a few generations though…
Almost all of my multi-generation cousins married non-Chinese. We have little half-Chinese and 1/4 Chinese children running around at family banquets named McLean and McPherson. Heck – sometimes the kids even have First-Nations bloodlines too!
Ugly, thank you.
To me, “chink” like “jook sing” are terms of endearment.
I would rather have someone call me a chink and later have sex with me than someone call me Mr and wouldn’t look me straight in the eyes when talking with me. You ever talk to some people albeit they are very polite but only would look at you from the corner of their eyes. Or start lisping as if they are having problems communicating with you eventhough both of you are speaking English.
“Chink” is lexicon Canadiana, part of our Chinese Canadian heritage, we shouldn’t dismiss it.
Ugly, thank you.
To me, “chink” and “jook sing” are terms of endearment.
I would rather have someone call me “chink” and later would have sex with me than someone who’d call me Mr but can’t look me in the eyes when speaking to me or only would look at me from the corner of their eyes. Or someone who suddenly would talk with a lisp as if there is a problem in communications eventhough we are both speaking English. I used to live in Alberta where most people would consider as “red neck” country, yet these “red necks” were the first to break bread with me and share with me their most intimate personal details. They had no problems inviting me to their homes and get drunk together, laughing, even at each other. Yet, when I screw up, they would say, “what the fuck, you dumb chinaman!”, we all laughed.
To toddish:
Yup! Rae Dawn Chong is Tommy Chong’s daughter…
Toddish, my great-aunt was a Dakelh and my uncle spoke fluent Carrier. Over 50% of my family married non-Chinese with one cousin married to a Singh who spoke fluent Cantonese because he was born in Hong Kong.
Tommy Chong’s daughter Rae Dawn Chong has a place up in North Vancouver and she’s well connected with the Persian community. You can see her bombing around with her Mercedes up in North Van.
I have never heard of this band, really Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong was in this band that really cool. I think every band is intitled to have there own name but the name 4 nigger and a chink is really up in ur face and racistist they should of thought of something better
im happy they changed there name, it is so offensive, i agree with kflo, bands do deserve to have any name they want but they took it to the next level