Wendy WilliamsBy James Bryce
THE chief suspect in the brutal murder of a family of four could be living in Gib.
Anxiang Du, 52, is being hunted by police after his former business partner was stabbed to death with his wife and two children in their UK home earlier this year.
The alleged sighting came to light following an appeal on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme last week.
“Police have had an unconfirmed sighting of him in Gibraltar,” revealed presenter Kirsty Young.
The sighting is one of 300 currently being investigated by detectives in the UK, who believe Du may have fled the country before he became a suspect.
Ding – whose business relationship with Du ended after a dispute – was killed along with her partner Jeff and children Nancy, 18, and Alice, 12, on the day of the Royal Wedding in Northampton.
He ran a Chinese herbal medicine shop in Birmingham with his victim, while living nearby in Coventry.
Crimestoppers have offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Anyone in Gibraltar with information should phone the Royal Gibraltar Police on 200 72500.
I cannot believe you referred to the suspect as a “Chinaman” in the headline on your homepage. No English speakers with even a passable education have used this demeaning terminology in more than half a century. What is happening to your editorial standards?
as in someone from China…or Englishman or Frenchman…
certainly not used in any offensive way… but changed anyway.
jon
Why change it then Jon? I would get around this problem by just calling him a man. I can see he is oriental, both from his name and his photo. Daily Mail standards eh?
Indeed, the term “Chinaman” has been considered offensive for decades. Google it if you have any doubt. Or consult an actual dictionary. Yes, we do say “Englishman” and “Frenchman” but we don’t say “Spainman” or “Japanman” do we?
should not be hard to located… in Gib… how many chinese??????
Mona, I think you have this way out of perspective. Wiki describes the term as contentious-but not derogatory. And I googled as you suggest and it seems that it is only considered derogatory if it is used in a derogatory context-as opposed to the descriptive context of Jon Clarke’s headline. I have never considered or heard anyone describe the term Chinaman as insulting. Pretty tough to be a journalist in this politically correct age without at least one reader taking offence-on behalf of others!
Hi Steve. I don’t know where you grew up and whether there was a Chinese community in your town or not. I grew up in New York where there is a big Chinese community. And nobody used the term “Chinaman.” It was considered incredibly ignorant. However, these days it’s a bit like “nigger.” If you are black and you choose to use that term to describe yourself and your friends… well that’s your decision. But if a white person uses the term, it is absolutely construed as an insult. Likewise, today if you are a young Asian, hanging out in the Asian hip-hop scene, it may be your prerogative to call yourself a “Chinaman,” with all the irony that’s intended. But it’s quite another thing for others to use the term. Here’s a note someone posted on another website: “Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.” (Obviously posted by an American.)
This is absolute rubbish, how can a guy get away with 4 murders in a single home, i lived 20 seconds away from where this murder happened and if i was in the country at the time i bet id have a better shot at finding him than the police, its ludicrous. So how about you all stop arguing about the word chinaman and start thinking of ways you can actually use your time to help the pigs figure out a way to find this chinese monster who butchered my friend and her family.
Tom,
I agree. Whether he is an innocent or guilty suspect he needs to be found asap. But I do get fed up with all this politically correct nonsense. I am sure that most people who would not dream of using the term ‘nigger’ would be surprised that the word Chinaman (Man from China) might cause offense-to an American, not a Chinaman!!! Now Chinky would be offensive, as with Paki and Pakistani – but come on, oversensitive/hypercritical or what?
im glad someone posted
a response regarding the subject of the article or blog post.
Why is the word chinaman offensive to the chinese americans and immigrants? IMO it started with the WW2 and Korean War. American newspapers would use words like Japs for the japanese and Chinaman for the Chinese(Korean War) When the chinese entered the korean war to aid the NK communists. the US propaganda war to boost US morale they would say the chinese war small skinny people that dry slean clothes and are no match for the “bigger and smarter” Americans are no match for the small chinaman. Ever since those days, generation after generation would learn there terms and passed it on and on. Im 30 and people who says the word chinaman to me, says it with a racist overtone and thinks its funny. Or folks are uneducated to know there words offend us and is not what we are called. Even Bruce Lee was called chinaman and played a “Chinaman” in his early movies.
Personally I could not handle racism like our Chinese elders once did prior the civil rights
movement. I just try my best to avoid arguing with aholes and getting into fights over a word. But a month ago 1 idiot decide to call me a chinaman to 1st offend me thinking i would be a punk and not respond. Im guessing he war trying to look cool around his 10 teen friends but when i confronted him and requested him to repeat himself he almost pissed his pants and swiftly apologised when his friends started to look nervous and some walked away. I guess i used fighting words and made sure he understood im not playing. Finally i told the idiot i would have $ucked him up but it was useless as he would likely to go in a fetal position and cover his head rather then to fight 1 on 1. Now although i was angry over the situation a few of his friends said he was being a jerk and they were suprised he would say something like that and they are not the type to go messing around like that. Its obvious the idiots friends will think twice about hanging with him and i truely believe spoke truthfully and they are probably not racist. Children only picks us racists words at home imo. Now after so many years after the 2 wars, people dont use chinaman, chinks, slanted eyes, ching chong, gook, and everything else.
Also the word oriental is off to me. Im not even sure what that means. Im chinese. chinese born american. and i would consider myself asian. But i would not associate myself as an oriental. I guess its probably another word to chinaman.
@to you im chinaman:
Well, you guessed wrong then lol. You told us about yourself in your post; the person in the story did not, so the term Oriental is accurate.
From Wiki: “In British English, the term Oriental is not considered pejorative or offensive, and refers to people from East and Southeast Asia. Asian is generally used only to mean people from South Asia. This usage reflects historic immigration into the UK, since more than 50% of the non-European population is British Asian, whereas East and Southeast Asians comprise only 5-6% of the non-European population. Of those, the majority are of Chinese descent”
I am writing British English, and am describing the person in the story and not you personally. Please comprehend these basic concepts, and learn more about British English before posting, perhaps?
Fred – Why don’t you ask some Chinese people in Britain whether they would prefer to be called Chinamen, Orientals, Asians or simply Chinese? It is a basic mark of respect to refer to people in the way that they want to be referred to. Until you do so, I would suggest that you should really chill out. Your tone is very hostile and offensive. I certainly hope you use better manners when communicating with Spaniards than you do with Chinese people or you will become persona non grata in Spain.
Even a grade school student knows that, if a member of a group asks not be called by a name with a pejorative connotation, that wish should be respected. As most people know, the term ‘Chinaman’ has been used to denigrate the Chinese. To use it if you don’t know better may be a sign of ignorance, but to use it when you do is just bad manners.
As for ‘Oriental,’ I can believe there are people in Britain and elsewhere who don’t realize that the term is Eurocentric, defining Asians in terms of their geographical relationship with Europe. But once informed of this, why wouldn’t they use the term ‘Asian’ instead?
It’s true that the people of China were living in large cities when the ancient tribes of the British Isles were living in huts and had no written language, but that people in Britain today should still be resisting civilised standards of mutual self-respect boggles the mind.
Mona, I have Chinese friends and they are not offended by this term, so please don’t be concerned for me lol. I think you’re just stirring things up again, as usual.
Would you definitively know the country of origin for the man in the picture if nothing else was revealed about him Mona? How would you describe him in that scenario then? You might use the term Asian, and I would use the term Oriental. In the UK the term Asian is mainly used for Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. These terms are specific to the country they are derived from – that is the basic fact that you misunderstood.
And Frank you need to chill too, since the term Oriental (that is used in my country) is not an offensive word and never has been. It’s certainly a much better term than Chinaman, I’m sure you would agree?
…… as long as nobody calls me white – its OK.
Fred may be right about how the term ‘Oriental’ was used in the UK in the past, but I think things have changed.
Amanda Vickery is a British historian at the University of London who was the presenter for last year’s BBC programme, ‘At Home with the Georgians.’
In a review of Margaret Hunt’s ‘Woman in 18th-Century Europe’ that appeared in the September 8 issue of The London Review of Books, Vickery places ‘Oriental’ in quotes, indicating that it’s a term that has been used by others but that she does not wish to use without qualification.
One persons opinion (and some quotation marks) doesn’t make something definitively correct, Frank. I’ll stick to my own phrases, but thanks anyway.
Btw, if you had the choice of those two phrases, would you call a Pakistani man an Asian or an Oriental? I’ve never met anyone who used the latter in this scenario btw.
My mind remains unboggled lol.
So do you guys in uk know what bbc stands for?or abc? People who are English won’t know,people who are Chinese will know.BBC-British born Chinese.abc-American born Chinese.chinese are Chinese as simple as that.no but or maybe