Niggar King
Some Einstein in Zhongli decided to name his store “Nigger King” not long ago. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before some westerner saw it and reported it to the authorities, who called the Zhongli police and suggested they pay the guy a visit. The owner was apparently quite apologetic and promised to change the offensive sign immediately. Oh Happy Day. But what did he change it to?
“Niggar King”
Wow, he spent all that money to change a letter. Legally speaking, there’s not much the police can do, as there simply aren’t many laws here dealing with such issues. That’s why we get stores here with English names like this, “Motherfucker” (a clothing shop in an alley off Dunhua South Road) “Darkie toothpaste” “Hitler Cafe” etc. In general it’s not malicious behavior; they simply don’t see what the big deal is. For most shop owners it’s enough to have any English, even garbled nonsense, just to the majority of their customers see them as hip and trendy even though they don’t care what the English actually says, and they tend to be baffled when they’re told the signs are offensive. Though Western “offensensitivity” seems to have no bounds in some cases, it would be disingenuous to suggest that the Taiwanese cannot be racist, however. Just ask a worker from any Southeast Asian nation.
In any case, the Zhongli police apparently made another visited to the owner and suggested that “Niggar King” isn’t quite what they had in mind when they told him to change the sign. The Chinese name, by the way is “Hei ren wang” or “King of The Black People”. Looks like the owner’s going to have to shell out to change more than a letter this time.
Maybe “Nagger King”?
hello Poagao, my friend and i are very intersted in cross-cultural comparions. and we recently set up a blog called “wasai taiwan”…. http://wasaitaiwan.blogspot.com/
can we repost your article in our blog ?
Comment by louis hsu — September 10, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
Sure, go ahead.
Comment by Poagao — September 12, 2007 @ 9:38 am
What a great website you have…I’ll be adding it to my favorite links section soon!
Regards from Shenzhen
Comment by Des — September 14, 2007 @ 11:13 am
can i have your email? i am a grad student in TESOL from National Chaio Tung University in Hsinchu and would like to discuss a few things with you.
Comment by louis hsu — September 28, 2007 @ 2:55 pm
omg. i would have never believed you if you didn’t post the picture. wow. maybe they were right to start promoting not to use that word anymore here in the states.
Comment by Tiffany — October 7, 2007 @ 2:57 am
[…] is the latest segment of the N***** King story. According to Poagao some westerners saw the sign, alerted authorities, who in turn alerted the owner to the meaning of […]
Pingback by Niggar King | The Real Taiwan — May 18, 2008 @ 7:59 am
It’s not malicious behavior; it’s just stupidity. Maybe if they realized randomly inserting foreign words into inappropriate contexts WASN’T “hip and trendy”. And think before you bitch about this comment; this page has a screenshot from South Park on it.
Comment by Required Name — July 17, 2008 @ 9:52 pm
[…] Zobacz również tajwaÅ„ski sklep z odzieżą hip-hopowÄ… „Niggar Kingâ€. […]
Pingback by Krótka opowieść o Hitler Cafe « Kuba Station — March 10, 2009 @ 11:19 am
[…] Zobacz również tajwaÅ„ski sklep z odzieżą hip-hopowÄ… „Niggar Kingâ€. […]
Pingback by Krótka opowieść o Hitler Cafe | SpÅ‚ywy kajakowe — March 10, 2009 @ 9:06 pm
There is no more free speech. Everyone must walk on eggshells and be super careful not to in any way even slightly or remotely offend a non white person for fear of such reprisals
Comment by bobbo ricks — September 27, 2009 @ 4:25 pm
Southpark is quite funny but some of the scenes maybe a bit too morbid even for adults.-“*
Comment by Aidan Bailey — May 10, 2010 @ 2:44 am