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March 17, 2008
Offensive New Asian Restaurant
A new Asian fusion restaurant called 'Chinese Laundry' recently opened in Rhode Island, and one of its posters is catching the wrath of the Asian American community. There are multiple things offensive about it. The poster objectifies the naked body of an Asian woman, with the text, "see what you are missing", over her nipples.
Additionally, the Chinese characters on her side are awkward translations that a native speaker wouldn't use. Finally, who thought of that genius restaurant name in the first place? People over at reappropriate have written about this restaurant, and have also initiated a letter writing campaign.
Posted by Alvin at March 17, 2008 6:46 PM
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1) Wasn't there a clothing-line called "Chinese Laundry?"
2) How do we know the naked woman is Asian? After all, who gets Chinese characters tattooed on them more often, white girls, or Asian girls? (or black girls, for that matter)
3) It's a restaurant, so there had to be some thoughts about Thomas Keller's "French Laundry" in California.
4) You can be sure that this food is gonna look trendy, but wholly uninspired and cliche. Stuff like "foie gras dim sum:" wonton skin filled with crappy foie out of a can, tied at the top with a piece of butane-torched scallion. Cliche-d and yuck.
Make no mistake, I'm annoyed by this restaurant's lame marketing efforts. Just some thoughts.
waaaaaaaack.
i'm gonna venture to guess that the owner of this restaurant is a white male, yeah?
there actually have been plenty of chinese laundries in rhode island over the past 100 years, but somehow i don't think this is a tribute.
why do people continue to insist on being idiots?
[How do we know the naked woman is Asian?] Reappropriate has additional updates on this story which confirm the model was an Asian female.
just looking at this picture makes me feel sorta sick to my tummy. and french laundry absolutely does not have the same connotations and historical context as chinese laundry.
If this disturbs you as much as it disturbs me, sign the NAPAWF petition demanding an apology:
http://www.petitiononline.com/providen/