''Jook-sing'' or ''zuk-sing'' (竹升) is a
Cantonese
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
term for an
overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese people are Chinese people, people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. As of 2023, there were 10.5 milli ...
person who was born in the
West
West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...
, or a
Chinese person who more readily or strongly identifies with
Western culture
Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...
than traditional
Chinese culture
Chinese culture () is one of the Cradle of civilization#Ancient China, world's earliest cultures, said to originate five thousand years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia called the Sinosphere as a whole ...
.
Etymology
The term ''jook-sing'' evolved from ''zuk-gong'' (竹槓/竹杠; ''zhúgàng'' in Mandarin) which means a "bamboo pole" or "rod". Since ''gong'' (杠) is a Cantonese
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...
of the inauspicious word 降 which means "descend" or "downward", it is replaced with ''sing'' (升), which means "ascend" or "upward".
The stem of the
bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...
plant is hollow and compartmentalized; thus water poured in one end does not flow out of the other end. The
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
is that ''jook-sings'' are not part of either culture; water within the ''jook-sing'' does not flow and connect to either end. The term may or may not be derogatory. Use of the term predates World War II.
Modern term
North American usage
In the United States and Canada, the term refers to fully
Westernized American-born or Canadian-born Chinese. The term originates from Cantonese slang in the United States. ''Jook-sing'' persons are categorized as having Western-centric identities, values and culture. The term also refers to similar Chinese individuals in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, and New Zealand.
Related colloquialisms
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Banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...
() (referencing the yellow skin and white insides of the fruit when fully matured) and
Twinkie (based on the snack produced by American company
Hostess - again, it denotes something that is "yellow" on the outside and "white" on the inside); may be used as a pejorative term or as a non-pejorative term.
*FOB (Fresh Off the Boat):
antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship. For example, something that is ''even'' entails that it is not ''odd''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members i ...
of ''jook-sing.'' Typically meant to indicate a Chinese-born person who propagates excessively Chinese stereotypes while living in the West.
See also
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Lost Years: A People's Struggle for Justice
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Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese people are Chinese people, people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. As of 2023, there were 10.5 milli ...
American ChineseBritish Chinese
British Chinese (), also known as Chinese British or Chinese Britons, are people of Chineseparticularly Han Chineseancestry who reside in the United Kingdom, constituting the second-largest group of Overseas Chinese in Western Europe after Fran ...
Chinese Canadian Chinese Australian Chinese New Zealander
*
American-born Chinese
American-born Chinese (abbreviated as ABC) is a term widely used to refer to Chinese people who were born in the United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily ...
*
Third culture kid
Third culture kids (TCK) or third culture individuals (TCI) are people who were raised in a different culture than their parents, for a large part or the entirety of their childhood and adolescence. They typically are exposed to a greater volume an ...
References
Bibliography
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External links
Pilgrimage to Chinaby Beth Boswell Jacks
Lost Yearsby Julie D. Soo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jook-Sing
Cantonese words and phrases
Chinese diaspora
Ethnic and religious slurs