November 10, 2017

A Chinese conspiracy theory about Trump.

From this fascinating, detailed BBC article about the meaning of the foods Trump ate in Japan, South Korea, and China:
The dish of chicken pieces stir fried with chillies originates from Sichuan province, as does another item on the menu, fish cooked in chilli oil.

It led some Chinese netizens to wonder if the menu was a subtle nod to "chuanpu", one of Mr Trump's nicknames which shares a Chinese character with Sichuan and is the source of one very odd conspiracy theory about Mr Trump's supposed Chinese origins. "Chuanpu's here, so time to serve Sichuan dishes?" asked one Weibo user.
That internal link goes to a BBC article from last December that says:
Last year, US President-elect Donald Trump was known as "bed-breaker" - a Chinese homonym for his name. This year, he's "chuanpu", one of two spellings of his name commonly used by mainstream media outlets. Some have joked about his connection to Sichuan, whose name shares the same Chinese character....

The conspiracy theory, spread on social networks Weibo and WeChat, is that Trump was born in 1946 in Sichuan when his father set up a business in China after World War Two. It's nonsense of course, but that hasn't stopped some locals from claiming him as "the pride of Sichuan"....

41 comments:

Chuck said...

I thought that Trump was born in Kenya.

Nonapod said...

If you buy into the idea of Trump as the grand master persuader, and you assume his powers have worked quite well on many jaded westerners, it's probably not a leap to think of him being able too enchant people of eastern cultures as well. Trump may become some sort of bizarre folk figure, like a Paul Bunyan in an ill-fitting Martin Greenfield suit.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

I’ve heard it said that the Japanese are weird people. Seems like the modern Chinese have them beat. Or maybe it’s similar to our country in which more than half of the country thinks he’s a fool.

JML said...

I'd like to see the DNC/FBI dossier on this...

rhhardin said...

The president's food is prepared by his own staff, and may just be McDonalds fare disguised as won ton soup.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Donald Trump not born in the United States? I like where this conspiracy theory is going. My personal theory is that he was born in Jamaica.

Ann Althouse said...

McCain wasn't born in the U.S.

Michael K said...

I think that must be the highest possible compliment as Han Chinese consider themselves the descendants of a master race. All else are Barbarians.

bleh said...

McCain was born on U.S. soil though, right? Also both his parents were U.S. citizens at the time of his birth, which I'm sure was sufficient under the law at the time for automatic citizenship at birth.

Was Trump's mother a citizen yet at the time of his birth?

How close is Sichuan to Manchuria?!?!?!?

Big Mike said...

If he can eat fish cooked in chili oil and not get the runs, then Trump is a better man than I am.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Come on, the really interesting conspiracy theory is that Trump has a time machine. Seems his uncle, a professor at MIT, was asked to go over Tesla's notes and equipment after Tesla died. He did so, and reported back to the government that there wasn't anything of interest. However, since everybody knows Tesla either had a working time machine or at least a theoretical way of constructing one, obviously the professor's report was a lie. He then went on to give the time machine to The Donald.

Here is a link to one of the many videos available on the Internet concerning this.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=donald+trump+time+machine+conspiracy&&view=detail&mid=FDC07A8BF414AD8BABC7FDC07A8BF414AD8BABC7&FORM=VRDGAR

traditionalguy said...

There must be a Chinese Alec Jones web site. We need Skip Gates on this case. Mitochondrial DNA could prove Trump is Putin's long lost cousin. Then the Collusion was just a family reunion.

There are worse things than being loved AND respected by 1,200,000,000 China men.

bleh said...

We don't have "American" presidents anymore, apparently. Trump has a foreign-born mother and two of his three wives are foreigners. Obama had a foreign father and was raised principally away from the U.S. mainland in Hawaii and Indonesia.

Clinton and the Bushes were old-time Americans, albeit representing different classes: Clinton the white trash hillbillies and the Bushes the patrician Mayflower types.

What were Reagan's immigrant roots? What about Carter, Ford, Nixon, LBJ, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman, FDR, etc., etc.? Are any of these guys less than two degrees of separation from a foreign-born relative?

Big Mike said...

The real "bed breaker" was Harry Truman. It's documented in the book "Upstairs at the White House" that he and Bess broke their bed in the White House.

Big Mike said...

The book only goes through the start of the first Nixon administration, however it's a good read and available through the Althouse Amazon portal.

Anonymous said...

Thank God! I thought he was a Russian sleeper-agent. It's a relief knowing he
is an honorary Han.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I don't know how you can beat someone who has a time machine. Unless! His enemies must have one as well!

buwaya said...

John Quincy Adams wife Louisa was born in London, to an American father. Closest there is, I think, to another foreign spouse among US Presidents.

buwaya said...

James Buchanan and Chester Arthur both had immigrant Irish fathers. Arthurs father was also Canadian, and he married his American wife in Quebec.
Herbert Hoovers mother was born in Ontario.

buwaya said...

There have been a fair number of Canadian and Irish sleeper agents among American politicians.

Infinite Monkeys said...

I’ve heard it said that the Japanese are weird people. Seems like the modern Chinese have them beat. Or maybe it’s similar to our country in which more than half of the country thinks he’s a fool.

You don't understand why they think something and that makes them "weird"?

traditionalguy said...

Trump has been preaching American independence as a goal for all nations.He told the Asians about our Manifest Destiny to reach the Pacific Ocean and trade with the Oriental countries bordering the Pacific Ocean.

That is Jacksonian Democracy in a nut shell. No matter where your parents are from, or where you were born, you are now committed to Our Nation keeping our part of the North America Continent belonging to us and NOT EVER under the military Power of any slave owning Empire. Jackson meant we refuse to be owned by the British, or by the Spanish and or by the French kings. But it was a good thing to be a former Brit, a former Hispanic, or a former Frenchie.

See also, the Monroe doctrine , the Battle of New Orleans,the Battle of Tripoli, the Battles of the Alamo, San Jacinto and Buena Vista, and 54/40 or fight.

Quaestor said...

The real "bed breaker" was Harry Truman. It's documented in the book "Upstairs at the White House" that he and Bess broke their bed in the White House.

Here is Bess Truman's official First Lady portrait, which means this is as good as it gets, people. "Give 'em Hell" and Bess doin' it hard enough to wreck the furniture is hard to imagine.

Bad Lieutenant said...

I dunno Q, she got a build on her...

Drago said...

Sometimes, trying to get a handle on Chinese conspiracies is like watching a Chinese fire drill.

Chuck said...

Blogger traditionalguy said...
Trump has been preaching American independence as a goal for all nations.He told the Asians about our Manifest Destiny to reach the Pacific Ocean and trade with the Oriental countries bordering the Pacific Ocean.

That is Jacksonian Democracy in a nut shell. No matter where your parents are from, or where you were born, you are now committed to Our Nation keeping our part of the North America Continent belonging to us and NOT EVER under the military Power of any slave owning Empire. Jackson meant we refuse to be owned by the British, or by the Spanish and or by the French kings...

But if your native-born parents were Cherokee, Jacksonian Democracy said, "Get The Fuck Out. Go to Oklahoma, or someplace else. Die, and go to hell, for all we care." Andrew Jackson, founding father of the Democratic Party.

Big Mike said...

@Quaestor, so go read the book.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Nice one Chuck. You can dish at Dems pretty well!

Anonymous said...

Blogger Mike said...
Nice one Chuck. You can dish at Dems pretty well!

-------------------------------
Not really. He's just got a jones for Harriet Tubman and really wants her face
on the twenty.

YoungHegelian said...

The dish of chicken pieces stir fried with chillies originates from Sichuan province, as does another item on the menu, fish cooked in chilli oil.

Has anyone asked Trump at a press conference if he's farting fire yet?

Jose_K said...

So, he is the Mansichuan Candidate

traditionalguy said...

Chuck is for the Cherokees. That explains a lot. That must be
why Chuck became a lawyer, to fight for the savages from Oklahoma who still hate us for winning the Indian Wars they started.

Chuck said...

No, I don't ever think a whole bunch about Cherokees, or Chippewas (running casinos here in Michigan). I am mostly thinking about all of the Democrats' "Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinners" and the portrait of Andrew Jackson hung in the Oval Office, courtesy of Steve Bannon.

Does Steve Bannon know what he is aspiring to, as a working- class Democrat? I suspect he does.

buwaya said...

Tocqueville wrote "Democracy in America" during the Andrew Jackson administration. It is perhaps no accident that his (very positive) view of America is colored by the particular populism of the day.

Tocquevilles future vision of "Equality of Condition" was very likely taken from that episode, of Jacksonianism.

I don't know if its been done, to contrast and compare Tocqueville vs Ortega y Gasset.

And for that matter, the POV of both on modern conditions. Ortega y Gassets thoughts on social media, I think I can predict.

traditionalguy said...

Andrew Jackson was the second Father of this country, and as such was near worshipped by the Scots Irish Americans who valued this countries freedom from the bloody British monsters. They left us alone because we killed their Armies, and they spent their time destroying the rest of their bloody Empire. Ask India , South Africa, Kenya and Rhodesia about their defeat by the King/Queen of England. And study the Boxer Wars that ultimately brought forth Mao's resolve to achieve Chinese independence.

Jackson was not a bad President to imitate. That was the President Harry S Truman used as an example. But Chuck would hate Truman too. He won too much.

Chuck said...


Jackson was not a bad President to imitate. That was the President Harry S Truman used as an example. But Chuck would hate Truman too. He won too much.

Had I been a voter in 1948 (I was not yet born), I have zero doubt but that I'd have been a Dewey voter. He was from Michigan. He was a Republican. He was an Augusta member. (His green jacket having been given to Jack Nicklaus years later.)

buwaya said...

Tocqueville was a considerable influence on Russell Kirk ( Mr. American Conservative).

So the path is pretty tight here - Jackson, or that milieu that raised Jackson, to Tocqueville, to Kirk.

And not just by that path alone of course, Tocqueville, and Jackson, being so influential in other aspects and through various other routes.

The paths of ideology are multiple, complex, and often surprising.

Bad Lieutenant said...

But if your native-born parents were Cherokee, Jacksonian Democracy said, "Get The Fuck Out. Go to Oklahoma, or someplace else. Die, and go to hell, for all we care." Andrew Jackson, founding father of the Democratic Party.
11/10/17, 2:17 PM

Complained no conservative ever. You must have had a bad batch, that's all. You'll be OK. Valium is said to help that bash, if you have any.

And your Dewey had a green jacket stuff-priceless.

traditionalguy said...

Bob Jones was a Scots Irish Atlantan. As was Billy Payne. We are not all red necks.

Molly said...

Eaglebeak

On Cherokees:

1. They're not from Oklahoma. They're from the American South. They were forced to go to Oklahoma thanks to Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears.

2. They're not savages. They're one of the Five Civilized Tribes (as they called themselves before the Europeans showed up). They were farmers when the Europeans got here.

3. They had zip to do with the Indian Wars (not including the French and Indian War of 1750s and 1760s).

4. They were the first tribe to develop their own alphabet, etc.--a guy named Sequoyah did it.

5. This will be a tough one for Chuck: They fought on the Southern side in the Civil War. They held slaves.

6. Famous Cherokees include Chief John Ross, Elias Boudinot, and Stand Watie, the last of whom was a General in the Confederate Army, leading a cavalry made up mostly of Cherokee, Muskogee, and Seminole. He was the last Confederate General in the field when the war ended.

7. When Elizabeth Warren started claiming she was a Cherokee and citing her "high cheekbones," several Cherokee genealogists tried to meet with her (I think she refused, can't quite remember) to tell her, "Honey, you're no Cherokee."

https://legalinsurrection.com/2012/09/cherokee-genealogist-to-elizabeth-warren-your-native-american-issue-has-not-been-put-to-rest/

Achilles said...

Blogger Unknown said...
"I’ve heard it said that the Japanese are weird people. Seems like the modern Chinese have them beat. Or maybe it’s similar to our country in which more than half of the country thinks he’s a fool."

This is just stupid on so many levels