little. yellow. different. A weblog by Ernie Hsiung

Mister Wong, the Offensive Social Bookmarking Portal

Alex, I’ll take “European Web 2.0 companies that make you say WTF” for $200: In Germany, a country where there is the most broadband users in Europe, the biggest social bookmarking website isn’t Yahoo! owned del.icio.us, but a site called… Mister Wong. Why yes, that WOULD be the logo of Mister Wong to the right, thank you for noticing.

Yeeeeeah. Wow.

I mean, being an engineer in the web industry, I’m sure it has some of the standard features that make a social bookmarking portal interesting and relevant, but seriously, who were the branding and advertising geniuses that came up with this one? I mean sure, it’s based in Germany, which is practically a whole world away. Maybe people aren’t as sensitive to political correctness as they are here in North America. But seriously, one of their web badges has the slogan “ping pong, king kong, Mister Wong.” Which I, of course, interpret as “ching chong, Mister Wong” and get INCREDIBLY FUCKING ANGRY. It’s like the Ask Jeeves butler and Uncle Ben had a illegitimate Asian coolie son.

I mean, Christ, his face is on soccer jerseys. SOCCER JERSEYS.

And just when you think I couldn’t get anymore WTF’ed - Mister Wong has a Chinese version of their site. Seriously. Now, I’ll fully admit to being the naive American here - maybe my cultural American bias is slanted and that people from mainland Chinese won’t be completely horrified to see a caricature of someone their ethnicity touting the virtues of the social web. Hell, you have Wang Lan of the Chinese support team on the front page. “It’s okay to use this page,” she seems to beckon. “I’m Chinese too, you see?”

Since I don’t speak German and there is just an intro English page, maybe there’s a story on how the site came up with its name and branding and someone can help out. Mister Wong had better been based on a real person and saved twenty burning orphanages in Stuttgart, because otherwise, I’m calling foul.

(Cross-posted from 8 Asians. Thanks for the heads-up, MJ.)

SIGH. I’ve lived in Germany for about six years now, and they seem to regard Asia the way Americans see Africa: as one big, culturally homogenous country. It makes me grit my teeth.

A cursory scan of the site offers no information on why they chose that name and logo, and the only contact information is the email address of the site design agency: info@construktiv.de . I’ve written them to ask who is responsible for the name and logo, so I can lodge a complaint, and I would urge anybody else who is interested to do so as well. Feel free to write in English; if they have an English page, they’ll probably understand. If they answer in German, send it to me and I’ll translate it for you.

Argh. Argh, argh. argh.

Maybe it’s revenge for “White Man” brand toothpaste?

I don’t understand why you’re so upset. I mean, after all, he is the “master of all bookmarks.” The MASTER. Wouldn’t you want to be the master of bookmarks? What an important job!

Have you ever noticed that all of the weird news always comes from either (1) Florida or (2) Germany? Both of those areas should just have a giant WTF labeling them on maps.

Perhaps the algorithm will kill him now that it’s already killed Jeeves.

This is tricky. According to an article found on German Wikipedia, the name Mister Wong was the idea of PR-agency “contructive”, who are behind Mister Wong. I assume the manager and his staff did not realize its offensiveness and thought more about slogans (Wong the Web), an easily recognizable logo/mascot for possible merchandizing and maybe even creating a new verb like ‘googling’. I don’t think that there is an Asian stereotype in Germany that would lend itself to Mister Wong. Those are more about hard-working Japanese Salary-men, Chinese rice farmers with the typical hats or “Thai”-prostitutes. Chinese servants come to Germany only in old Hollywood movies. Mister Wong are expanding into English-speaking countries and are looking for a country-manager for the US, Canada and UK. (Weren’t you looking for a job? ;-). I’m sure the PC police will pounce once they get here.
Germany’s racial sensitivities are more geared towards Turks (the biggest minority) and Jews (for obvious reasons) and less so on Africans, Asians and Hispanics, who are only small fractions in Germany. Mister Wong is not the only example of German racial insensivity. My Jewish-American boyfriend’s mother was offended when she saw the mascot of popular German chocolate maker Sarotti’s logo (http://www.sarotti.de/), the Sarotti-Mohr. On their chocolate bars the boy is clearly black in an Arabian Nights outfit. Try to imagine the instant uproar a ‘Hershey’s moor’ would create here in the US.

On a web site I found an interview where Kai Tietjen, the founder was asked why he chose the name (http://klauseck.typepad.com/prblogger/2006/06/wong.html).
He said”Mr. Wong is meant to make social bookmarking more human in the truest sense of the word. Many Web 2.0 offers like delicious or reddit have a very minimalistic text-based interface. But why shouldn’t Web 2.0 be nice and friendly in appearance and be fun visually?
That’s why we made it more colorful and have created an emotional figure.”
So take that as you will.
I don’t think the Germans are any more guilty of not being able distinguish between Asian cultures than most people who don’t have to deal with a large population in their midst who thus become familiar with the differences. Besides maybe in CA everyone know the difference, but do they in Iowa, for example? None of this is meant to be an excuse, just food for thought.
Ernie, maybe ask Yitz what he thinks. He still has a foot in both worlds.

You really hit it on the head, Ern. America is, in fact, pretty advanced on race issues and cultural identity especially when it comes to both sides of the “Old World.” In China they think a real American is white and in Germany, they think all Asian women look like “Grey’s Anatomy.”*

And this shouldn’t be anything new. How many of my Filipino friends have gone to Europe only to hear “konichiwa” hollered at them from all sides?

It was quite sobering when, in an Asian American Studies class at SF State, we had a (white) German student attending. She complained about how in America everyone just assumes she’s American until they hear her speak with an accent. Her identity was robbed! OMG!

Suffice to say, she got little love from the Asian Ams in the class and none from this holier-than-thou American either.

good post dude, keep up the good work here and on 8Asians.

I’m heading to Germany in Sept. So if you want to type up a cease and desist letter and have me deliver it, I’m available.

* true story, I can show you a MySpace profile on this.

So is this anything like ask jeeves having a caricature of an english butler as their mascot?

Two Wongs Can Make it White! lol

http://us.f6.yahoofs.com/blog/43664f8fz3fb60752/19/__hr_/2889.jpg?mgQ2HTGB05eQAqTU

I thought I’d make a mock up of Mr Ben and Ask Jeeves. I hope the link came through.

“maybe my cultural American bias is slanted”

Yeah, like your eyes!

Sorry, couldn’t resist lightening up the indignant commenting. When I read the Jeeves/Uncle Ben line I was ROTFL on the shuttle. But, agreed this is WTF.

It’s different from the ask Jeeves butler because Mr. Wong is a racist caricature. Mr. Wong is a distorted image of an Asian man. The ask Jeeves butler, it isn’t a degrading portrayal of a white person, or of a butler. There is a history of racist imagery that is anti-Asian. Is there a corresponding history of racist imagery aimed at white people? Mr. Wong and Jeeves images aren’t the same because they aren’t used for the same purposes.

[…] Great stuff from Ernie: Mister Wong, the Offensive Social Bookmarking Portal […]

Since it’s in Deutsch, wouldn’t it be Herr Vong instead?

Can you really claim that America is more advanced when you look at the Cleveland Indians logo?
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=law/070410

I think Americans and Europeans (and everyone else) just have different blind spots.

LOL!

‘in Germany, they think all Asian women look like “Grey’s Anatomy.”*
* true story, I can show you a MySpace profile on this.’

Well, as long as we’re fighting stereotypes due to small anecdotes, I can s–hey, wait a minute!!!!

Does no one really remember the Mr. Wong Icebox cartoon? Icebox should sue them for copyright violation =)

Ernie,

Try going to http://babelfish.altavista.com

You can put in a URL, and it will translate many languages to other languages. German-to-English is there. Of course, it’s a machine translation, but you’ll likely get the gist of it, since German and English are so closely related.

Conversely, the Japanese-to-English that I tried yesterday needs some work.

your site is called ‘little. yellow. different’ and you are complaining about one called ‘mister wong’?

the wahmbulance is on route, you big baby.

Forp, you sound kind of dim. Just stop.

I feel like I’m missing how this is so offensive. It’s a caricature of a Chinese guy, which I honestly can’t see as worse than a caricature of an English butler. It’s a play on a common Chinese name as transliterated into English and, I guess, German.

I mean, clearly you can be offended by it, because you are. But why? How does it harm anyone? I’ll admit I don’t see who’s harmed by the Indians or the Braves or the Redskins logos/teams, either. Or a Moor on the logo of a candy bar.

Ok, I rarely leave comments, but had to for this topic. As another (gay) Asian guy, I have to say that I didn’t really find Mister Wong offensive. He’s a cartoon Asian guy. The only thing that I find a little stereotyped is the whole “master” moniker, obviously a reference to the whole “kung fu master” thing. But other than that, “ping pong, King Kong, Mister Wong” is just a rhyme in my opinion.

Anyway that’s my take on it. Had there been a quote saying “Onry me is best numma one masta of dee bookamarkas” or something similar… THEN I’d be a bit pissed off.

As an interesting side note, there was a brand of toothpaste in China called “Darkie” (now changed to “Darlie”) that had a Black man in a top hat. THAT was far more offensive than this site. Unless there’s some history of this site I don’t know of. It wasn’t “Mister Coolie” at one point, was it?

Actually… I had to do dig deep inside and figure out what I really didn’t like about that Mister Wong logo, because you’re right - I don’t like the branding at ALL… and I think it boils down to two things to me:

1) For the most part, and all my friends will vouch for this - I’m the most politically UNcorrect person you’ll meet, ever. Very little things will offended me if you make Asian jokes (or any other type of jokes) so long as the context is appropriate and it’s thoroughly hilarious. The one thing that annoys me is when people “speak in Chinese” and start screaming that “ching chong ching chong” bullshit. And I won’t fucking have that, at all. The “ping pong king kong Mr. Wong” just hits a bit too close to home in that regard.

2) As far as the mascot? What makes him offensive to me personally is the fact that he’s drawn in such a way that it reminds me of other caricatures that HAVE been used in a racist manner, images such as:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=racist+asian+cartoon&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

I think all American ethnic minorities just want at the end of the day to somehow maintain the fine line between self-identity and blending into American society. A caricature such as this does neither.

Also, I’m bad at writing “serious.” Gah.

It’s like the Ask Jeeves butler and Uncle Ben had a illegitimate Asian coolie son.

A gay interracial family. Ernie, you just created the scariest thing possible for Bush supporters.

Too funny, I hate PC bullshit.

Dave
Ride it like you stole it!

Eddo from 360 went to a book signing by Amy Sedaris….she drew a buck toothed Chinese caricature in his books and wrote “Ching Chong”. He didn’t find it funny either. Now we all want to hurt the unfunny biatch.

ernie:

Thanks. I still don’t quite get it, but I think I have some model for what offended you about it, which is a start.

Let’s try this again.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyrotterdam/521178099/

Wow. I thought I’d read through the German explanation page to try to figure out how on earth this could be happening. But they seem to actually be very matter-of-fact about it; they don’t explain the horrible stereotype at all. This is so weird. I’m trying to figure out how I might be misunderstanding it, but I can’t come up with anything. This is actually indefensible. What one earth is going on.

http://www.hotpocketsdojo.com

Look, this kid has his own karate-chopping coolie to serve him those delicious Hot Pockets!

Ad also airs on TV.

You US of Americans sure have that political correctness shit stuck up your sorry arses.
Poking fun at racial stereotypes is not racism. Nobody has the right to not be offended.
As a German, I’m not offended at all by caricatures of a “typical german” which usually looks like a blond Bavarian or Austrian in traditional clothes.
Also, that guy on the Mister Wong logo is not an “asian stereotype”, it’s obviously a communist chinese politician. I dont see why someone could be offended by that, unless he was a communist chinese politician.

Well at least your politicial UN-correctness has just added to Mister Wong’s popularity and number of clicks. Yay for you

http://www.showyourgaypride.com

Well, look at it this way. At least they’re not starting world wars and committing unprecedented genocide anymore. So it’s progress!

According to the article by the German Financial Times found here:
http://www.ftd.de/technik/medien_internet/:social%20bookmarking%20world%20wide%20wong/190946.html

“Den Namen verdankt Mister Wong dem Grafiker der Agentur. Er hatte den Auftrag, ein Logo zu zeichnen, das in Erinnerung bleibt. “Als er uns dann den Kopf zeigte”, sagt Pressesprecher Christian Clawien, “wussten wir: Das ist es.” Angeblich hieß der Graphiker auch Wong - so verlieh er der Suchmaschine nicht nur das Aussehen, sondern schenkte ihr auch noch den Namen.”

Translation: Mister Wong owes his name to the graphic artist of the agency. He was given the job to create a logo that would be remembered. “When he showed us the head,” says press speaker Christian Clawien, “we knew: That’s it.” The graphic artist is reportedly named Wong. So, he not only gave the search engine its look, but also its name.

_____

Excuse me if I’m wrong, but how does that make them racist? The logo was created by someone named Wong, who is with all probability Asian. They did, indeed, give their site a personal feeling, which was not meant to offend anyone.

Also, in Germany, they don’t sing ching chong, so they couldn’t have known that their rhyme (and clearly that’s all it is) ping pong king kong mister wong would be considered a different version of ching chong.

I hope that helps.

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who gets the creeps from Mister Wong. I think it would be pretty cool if Mr. W had some super powers or did some stuff on the page (fetch bookmarks! order links! chop sockey!), but all he seems to be there for is to look vaguely like a seasick Charlie Chan.

It’s funny how some nationalities just don’t seem to get that others might view something as offensive. Case in point: Darlie toothpaste, in Thailand. The logo is an old fashioned B&W Minstrel character, surely the only place I’ve see one in the last 10 years. The suggestion: that if you use this toothpaste you will have teeth that show like the ones on them there darkies. [Note, I wrote that ironically, as if I were a racist - being in aninteracial marriage myself, you can’t pin that one on me!] Oh, did I just say darkie? Didn’t I just say the toothpaste was called ‘Darlie’? Well, yes … but it used to be called ‘Darkie’ until the company changed the name because it was obviously too offensive. Now it’s just ’slightly less offensive’.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie

Just realised there was a mention of white man toothpaste earlier. Was that supposed to be a mention of this?

[…] Im Ausland kommt Mister Wong nicht so gut an. [via Jeremy Keith] […]

Hmmm…. Out of interest, why is this about Germans “regard[ing] Asia the way Americans see Africa: as one big, culturally homogenous country”? Would it be less offensive if Mister Wong were dressed in traditional Chinese garb? Say, with a coolie hat?

“You are to cease using the name Mister Wong, because I think it’s offensive towards Asian people.”

“Or else.. I will sue you!”

I understand that America is hyper-sensitive about racial issues, but there are other, more sane nations out there..

And here we have people chiming in to offer help in.. what.. suing Mister Wong? “Look at how racist I am not!! -Can I have a cookie?”

The site may have a stupid name, and a stupid logo. -If it’s actually an offensive site, it will even have a user-base of stupid people.

But if that’s the case, so be it. -It’s stupid people who made Youtube worth 2 billion.

Uhoh! Now this not exactly good…

I know a few people from Mr Wong myself. And they are defenitively not racist. Quite the contrary actually. I asked them about the EXACT context about half a year ago. “Do you not think this might look racist?” and they were surprised. Their Chinese employee was surprised, too. And everyone I have asked was surprised as well!

This is the first post are other opinion I have seen, that implies a racist look to the logo. As it seems, there do not seem to be very many people that think this way.

And as far as I can check, Mr Wong seems to be getting along quite well in China. No criticism there until now. And they should know!

So, maybe we are simply overreacting a bit? But Mr Wong is a very interesting subject, because it is one of the very very few German web services that are quite sucessful at expanding into other countries. Especially in China, where foreign services virtually never get along well…

Google, Amazon, ebay, skype… they are all nearly irrelevant in China. And since Mr Wong tries to inform themselves as well as possible about the culture and the market before going in, I wish them success.

and sorry for the bad spelling in there… It is 1 am here and I should be in bed by now…

Germans are fuct up anyway. It’s institutionalized so they haven’t a clue. Check out this link from Fedex Germany……yeah, this isn’t racist either….
http://andrewhammel.typepad.com/german_joys/2006/12/german_federal_.html

Hi,
My name is Fabian, one of the managers at Mister-Wong.com. First of all, I´d like to apologize to anybody that may have been offended by the use of the original illustration in the logo. It was never our intention to hurt anybody´s feelings with the character. Now, I would like to point out that we have reacted to these comments by removing the illustration in question. Please read our CEO´s statement on our blog for further information. http://blog.mister-wong.com/a-message-from-the-founder/2007/07/27/

Can I still be irritated by the fact that one of the snazzy Web 2.0 gadgets they offer is called a “Wong Roll”?

And, do I get a Wong Roll free with any order, or is there a minimum?