A Cautionary Tale of Language: Miss Finland's Racist Gesture

Sarah Dzafce, the newly crowned Miss Finland, was thrust into a firestorm earlier this month after a social media post sparked widespread accusations of racial insensitivity. The controversy snowballed rapidly, culminating in the revocation of her title and the abrupt collapse of her public career.

In a 15-second video posted online, Dzafce sat at a table laid with Chinese-style tableware and pulled up the corners of her eyes with her index fingers, mimicking the so-called "slanted-eye" gesture. The caption read, "Having dinner with Chinese people."

In Western societies, this gesture has long been recognized as a racist caricature used to mock people of Asian descent. The video immediately sparked outrage among the Chinese community in Finland, before spreading across Asian communities in Europe and throughout East Asia, including China, Japan and South Korea.

Confronted with criticism, Dzafce first claimed she was merely "massaging her temples for a headache," accusing netizens of overinterpretation. She later argued that the caption was an unauthorized joke posted by a friend. These unconvincing explanations only fueled public anger.

Matters worsened when she subsequently posted a photo taken in the business-class cabin of Finnair, accompanied by a caption widely read as provocative. Even more troubling, several Finnish right-wing lawmakers openly voiced support for her and went so far as to imitate the same offensive gesture, further inflaming tensions.

Commercial partners soon severed ties. Under sustained public pressure, pageant organizers announced that Dzafce's Miss Finland title would be withdrawn and awarded instead to the original runner-up.

Dzafce issued a public apology, saying she had hurt the public, particularly people of Asian descent. Yet many questioned her sincerity, viewing the apology as a formulaic response made under duress rather than a genuine act of reflection.

Ultimately, Dzafce deactivated her major social media accounts, her personal website became inaccessible, and what had once seemed a promising public career came to an abrupt end. The episode has since been widely cited as a cautionary tale, underscoring that public figures must uphold cultural respect and social responsibility, and that racism has no place in today's multicultural world.

As the old Chinese saying goes, "Know yourself and know your opponent, and you will never be defeated." Language – including body language – should be treated with the same care.

Anti-China sentiment has long existed in various parts of the world, sometimes visible, sometimes latent. Many Westerners struggle to distinguish among Asian faces, meaning that people from East and Southeast Asia often become collective targets.

Discrimination is also embedded in language. English contains numerous ethnic slurs, and for historical reasons, a significant portion of them are directed at Chinese people. In Western eyes, East Asians have often been lumped together, making the misuse and conflation of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian slurs a longstanding phenomenon.

What, then, are these derogatory terms? To address this question, I consulted more than a dozen authoritative English dictionaries and conducted a focused, neutral linguistic study. Some of the words discussed below may appear jarring and evoke strong emotional reactions. Yet understanding them – knowing what they mean and how they are used – helps one respond with clarity rather than naivety, avoiding the predicament of being insulted without even realizing it.

I began with classification-based reference works, including the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Oxford Dictionary of Slang and relevant entries on Wikipedia, to map out the overall range. I then verified each term in definition-based dictionaries, notably the Oxford English Dictionary and Wiktionary, while relying heavily on specialized slang references such as Green's Dictionary of Slang, the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, The Cassell Dictionary of Slang, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, the Dictionary of American Slang, The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang and Urban Dictionary.

The findings indicate that English contains at least 50 derogatory slurs targeting Chinese people. What follows is a matter-of-fact discussion of language, not an invitation to over-interpretation.

The most notorious of these slurs is "Chink," whose offensiveness and frequency are often compared to the N-word. It is generally believed to derive from "China" or "Chinese," possibly reinforced by the literal meaning of "chink," evoking the stereotype of narrow eyes.

Related terms include "Chinaman" and "China boy," the latter carrying an added layer of condescension, as "boy" was historically used by masters to address servants.

Some slurs are tied to geography. "Oriental" reflects a Eurocentric worldview, while "celestial" stems from China's historical self-image as the "Celestial Empire."

Another group centers on physical features, especially the eyes. Because East Asian eyes are stereotyped as slanting upward, terms such as "slant-eyed," "slant-eye(s)" and "slope," along with variants like "slopehead" and "slopey," emerged as mockery. Eye size also became a target: "slit," "slit-eye(s)," and "zip" or "zipperhead" liken eyes to a narrow slit or a zipped line.

Beyond eyes, facial structure has also been ridiculed. Compared with Westerners, East Asians are often stereotyped as having flatter features and rounder faces, giving rise to insults such as "pancake," "pancake face" and "panface."

Skin color has been another major source of discrimination. While "yellow" may appear neutral in Chinese usage, in English it has long carried derogatory connotations when applied to people, as in "yellow peril," which frames individuals or nations as a threat. Related slurs include "yellow," "yellow face" and "yellow monkey."

Some terms draw on abstract traits. "Monkey," sometimes shortened to "monk," has been used by whites to demean people of color as inferior. "Gook," of uncertain origin, may mimic sounds Westerners associate with incomprehensible Asian speech; like "Chink," it is both highly offensive and widely used. "Coolie" is tied to occupation, reflecting the low social status historically assigned to Asian manual laborers. "Chow" or "chow-chow," possibly derived from a Chinese-origin word for food, uses cuisine as a metonym for people.

Other slurs are based on names. "Ching" or "ching-ching" likely stems from stereotypical perceptions of Chinese names. Particularly noteworthy is "ching-chong," which imitates the phonetic features of Chinese names. Before the advent of pinyin, Wade-Giles romanization rendered sounds such as "j," "q," "zh" and "ch" as "ch," while many Chinese syllables ended in "-n" or "-ng," making "ching-chong" a crude parody.

In predominantly white English-speaking societies, the acronym "ABC" (American-born Chinese) is also used, and many Chinese Americans regard it as derogatory. Another term, "banana," refers to people who are "yellow on the outside but white on the inside," again a pejorative label.

We need not wield ethnic slurs to harm others, nor should we be consumed by rage when encountering them. As another Chinese saying goes, "Do not rely on the enemy not coming; rely on being prepared when they do." By understanding these terms, we equip ourselves to respond – sometimes with wisdom and humor, sometimes with firm and serious rebuttal – in defense of our dignity. The Miss Finland incident stands as a timely reminder of this reality.

(The author, who earned a PhD in linguistics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is a professor of English and college dean at Sanda University in Shanghai.)