Asian hair for halloween!
by Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man
Well, it’s October, and that means Halloween is coming. It also means we can expect to see the unending variety of typically racist Halloween costumes that pop up every year. You too can be Oriental, just for one night. Here a few ridiculous ones, with a hair-centric theme…
The above costume item was recently spotted at a Party City. Want to be a “China Man” this Halloween? Apparently, all it takes is a crappy-looking moustache. It’s easy. Just affix this nasty piece of hair on your upper lip, and there you go, instant China Man! Adding some fu to your manchu. (Thanks, Brandon.)
But hey, why stop there? There are other fun and easy ways to be Chinese. Just try on the Chinese Man wig, “an ancient style with bald front and long pigtail in the back.” But even at the low sale price of $41.48, the Chinese Man wig might just be a little outside your budget. That’s okay, because the Bargain Chinese Man wig is also available for just $22.05. Because nobody should miss out on the racist mockery.
Speaking of bargains, how about this kickass Oriental Guy wig? The attention to detail is just tremendous. I swear, every Oriental Guy I know wears his hair just like this! That’s amazing. Wearing this crappy piece of mess on your head, you will be the coolest Oriental Guy at the office Halloween party.
Finally, my favorite one. The Old Chinese Man wig! I have no idea what exactly makes this monstrosity “Chinese.” But it apparently comes in white, gray, brown and black. And according to the website, this wig also works for “eccentric recluse” and “prospector.” Yes, I’m scratching my head too. But the fun doesn’t end there. There are just so many ways to get your Oriental Mystique on! It’s going to be another great Halloween. That’s racist!
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Genevieve wrote:
I…. well…. uh…. I don’t really know what to say. Um. Don’t forget the “geisha” wigs!!
Are we going to do a whole feature on racist costumes this year? Because I don’t think I have that kind of energy.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 7:39 am ¶
Lauren wrote:
Old Chinese Man? I was not aware that Grizzly Adams was of Chinese descent…
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 7:53 am ¶
Charlotte wrote:
Uhm.
Yeah. Uhm.
Of course it doesn’t stop at race issues for Halloween costumes - I think I stopped going through Halloween stores as a tween, since finding a costume for women that didn’t make you into some kind of vampy RPG-game cartoon was impossible. I realize this depends on where you are, but Halloween here is *cold*. It’s not even practical!
(And that’s not even getting into how Hallowe’en has been completely taken over and destroyed from its original traditions of being a very sacred and serious time of year. Thank you so very much, early Christians…and thank you so much Hallmark/commercialism for sounding the death knell.)
I don’t know about you, but I’m going to dress up as a humanist for Halloween.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 8:43 am ¶
CVT wrote:
Last I checked, “China-man” as a phrase went out of style a few decades ago. The only time I’ve heard it, directly, was when I was living in Tanzania. And yet - they still NAILED my facial hair!!!
As disgusting as this all is, I can’t help but laugh at the image on the “China Man” box. Is that guy trying to pull a sexy “China Man” face with his slick-backed “China Man” hair?
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 9:03 am ¶
Jess wrote:
Gotta say, the first Chinese man getup is actually more offensive to me than the others, here’s why:
I could see using the old dude thing or the samurai thing for the relevant costume — like if I was dressing up as Pai Mei from “Kill Bill” (which yeah, I know, could itself be seen a kind of racist trope, though I have more mixed feelings about it since it was invented by Chinese people as part of the whole wuxia cinema thing — Pai Mei has been showing up in one form or another in all those HK movies).
But maybe that’s because in that case I am shooting for something/someone specific. Does that make sense? Whereas “Chinese guy” seems to say that “this is what all Chinese guys look like.”
If the long beard thing was mentioning a specific character I guess that would be better from my perspective. Hey, maybe it’s just me.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 9:21 am ¶
anon wrote:
old chinese man…looks like karl marx
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 9:56 am ¶
GeeLennox wrote:
Ugh. This as bad as those damn afro wigs.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 9:58 am ¶
B wrote:
Agreed. These are pretty f-ed up. Interestingly, the first thing I thought when I saw the 2nd wig was “Klingon.” Go figure.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 10:15 am ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
A lot of people dress up as American Indians for Halloween too, of course. See http://www.bluecorncomics.com/hallowen.htm for examples.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 11:59 am ¶
Jess wrote:
@B
Hey! That’s a great idea
(The Klingon).
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 12:15 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
WTF?!
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 12:27 pm ¶
heyhey wrote:
I’m going to side with Jess on this one. Yes, the top one is ridiculous, and the grey wig seems better suited to a Rumplestilskin costume, but if someone was, as Jess said, going all-out and do a badass wuxia outfit or anime character with this wig (I’ve seen some awesome samurai costumes that were tributes to fighter videogames and the kabuki white wig on one of those pages would make an aweseome “Bride with White Hair” ), I wouldn’t find it offensive.
I understand that some of those images in both sources (anime/games) are in themselves problematic. And it’s *easy* to see how this could be offensive in the wrong hands, or head, as it were. I guess with some of those wigs I’d need to see the whole get-up. Judge it case-by-case.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 1:21 pm ¶
jln wrote:
“China-man” ?
WTF???
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 1:29 pm ¶
khia213 wrote:
Let’s not forget the dreadlock wigs.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 2:11 pm ¶
Wayne Park wrote:
wow.
the “china man” get up is really kind of funny tho. I had no idea Burt Reynolds was Chinese.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 3:34 pm ¶
Thea Lim wrote:
I run a creative arts workshop for Asian youth and next week we are having a workshop on how to make anti-racist Halloween costumes. I’ll report back with ideas…
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 3:49 pm ¶
hexy wrote:
Ugh. This kind of stuff makes me really hate Hallowe’en.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 7:58 pm ¶
Gothic Guera wrote:
why can’t people think of creative costumes?
I understand going as Frida Kalho or Marlin Monroe(spelling), but really. By that way, the last one look like Ted Kaczynski.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 8:00 pm ¶
Emmeaki wrote:
Let’s not forget the “African-American Styles”!
http://www.maxwigs.com/african-american-styles-c61/
Check out the rainbow ‘fro. Yeah, we all wear our hair like that!
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 10:36 pm ¶
NancyP wrote:
On the other hand, wig #2 would make a decent Vulcan priestess wig for your next TrekCon.
Wig #3 is the perfect Rip van Winkle or Rasputin wig.
No excuse for wig #1.
Rainbow afro wigs are not intended to look like anyone’s hair - the whole point is that it’s fake, and it’s big. (It also is more likely to stay put than the Marge Simpson beehive). The rainbow wigs are to be worn with size 34 EEEEEEE white tie shoes with big toes and huge obnoxious color laces. In other words - clown outfit.
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 2:22 am ¶
adamson wrote:
People are so fucking idiotic.
I just hate the fact that people like to capitalize off of racist, old, washed-up ideas.
#20… is that saying something else? I think you’re making your own point…
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 11:19 am ¶
adamson wrote:
I didn’t notice this on that website, at first, but you can also get a Buckwheat wig.
That company is REALLY racist. I wouldn’t get a regular wig from them.
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 11:30 am ¶
Westerly wrote:
I just don’t get it.
Why do people want to dress up as another race of people anyway? Why is this ‘entertaining’? Why is it innately funny to ridicule and disrespect other people ‘all in good fun?
For the longest time now, I’ve thought that Halloween’s spicy catalogue (Blacks, Indians, American Indians, unspecified indigenous groups, trolls, witches, ogres, fairies, and other mythical beings and scary monsters) works along a similar taxonomy as an episode of National Geographic. (Lions, tigers, gorillas, orang-utans, snakes, amazonians, sub-saharan tribes, Eskimos, indigenous groups and all those other highly interesting animals.)
Natural groupings I suppose. Still, must admit that I’m surprised but now enlightened, because I hadn’t realised before that the Chinese had been added to role call.
@ NancyP
I live in NZ and I’ve seen rugby crowds where there’s a match between the All-Blacks and South Africa. It’s not unusual to see white males in brown face with a huge exaggerated afro wig (that’s either black OR rainbow coloured) as a ‘homage’ to Nelson Mandela (who in their mind is a rugby mascot) and as a show of support for SA.
Maybe they need to get your memo about “what to wear” with their caricature afros and how those mock ‘fros *don’t* have any racial associations at all.
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 10:27 pm ¶
Westerly wrote:
@NancyP.
I figure (hope?) you’re being sarcastic NancyP, but it’s still dispiriting to hear people trot out how it’s ‘not supposed to resemble human hair’ and how it’s just all in the name of ‘fun’ with a perfectly serious expression.
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 10:38 pm ¶
Amanda Amaterasu wrote:
“The Old Chinese Man” looks like the Geico caveman to me. Weird.
I would love to have someone explain to me how this isn’t racist. Stuff like this quite literally makes me sick.
Posted 20 Oct 2008 at 6:29 am ¶