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  • 1998-06-09 (xsd:date)
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  • Prostitution Medallion (it)
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  • An oldie-but-goodie legend pokes fun at grande dames: The tale works on a couple of different levels. No matter who tells this story, it's always stressed that the medallion wearer is a society woman: an unnamed senator's or bishop's wife, or a fictitious grande dame with a drippingly snobbish name like Mrs. Throckmorton Montgomery Attell. Her high social position makes the story's denouement work -- one pictures the great lady proudly wearing her medallion to social event after social event, leaving in her wake Chinese diplomats shaking with laughter. Think of it as a Kick Me! sign that only the Chinese can read. More than being just another run-of-the-mill black eye for the Brahmins tale, it's an also ugly American fable. Liking the medallion solely for its appearance, the society dame grabs it without first learning anything of the culture behind it. She ends up self-labeled as a Shanghai prostitute because her lack of respect for traditions and meanings that aren't 100% American doesn't leave room for her to consider that the pretty bauble could serve any purpose other than as a decorative piece of jewelry. A similar story is told about a sweater: We're told a number of tattoo artists at one time displayed a joke Chinese alphabet on the walls of their establishments but quit doing so because one of the many customers who'd requested being imprinted with a name spelled out in that language later found out the characters he was wearing had nothing to do with anything. (Chinese doesn't have an alphabet; its characters represent entire words.) One savvy tattoo artist has now incorporated into her standard release form a sentence advising If the design you want is written in a language other than English, we are NOT responsible for what it may or may not mean. (en)
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