Word.ws English Dictionary

ching chong

UK/ˈtʃɪŋ ˌtʃɒŋ/US/ˈtʃɪŋ ˌtʃɑŋ/

ching chong interjection: mimicking Chinese, Korean, Thai or other East or Southeast Asian speech.

Interjection

  1. (ethnic, offensive, slur) Mimicking Chinese, Korean, Thai or other East or Southeast Asian speech.
    • He came up with three or four kids behind him, chanting 'Ching chong! Ching chong! Don't even know how to talk! Don't even know how to fight!'2008, Alice Pung, Growing Up Asian in Australia, page 91
    • For example, comedian and talk-show host Adam Corolla and NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal have each previously made ching chong comments in reference to Asians and Asian Americans.2009, Kent A. Ono, Vincent N. Pham, Asian Americans and the media, page 104

Noun

ching chong (plural ching chongs)

  1. (ethnic, offensive, slur) A Chinese or other Asian person.
    • “Hey there, Ching Chong, bring the pistol.” In a moment Lee poked the gun butt-first through the door.1952, John Steinbeck, East of Eden, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC, page 205

Forms of ching chong

Interjection
alternative formching-chong
Noun
pluralching chongs

Origin of ching chong

Pseudo-loan from Chinese. Onomatopoeic, originally representing characteristic syllables of Chinese, such as Mandarin's qing and chong, Cantonese's cing¹ and cong¹, Hokkien's chheng and chhong, etc., as heard by English-speakers, and reinforced by perceptions of other Asian languages, especially with existing surnames of Chinese origin, such as Ching/Cheng and Chong/Chung.

Questions about ching chong

What does ching chong mean?
Ching chong means mimicking Chinese, Korean, Thai or other East or Southeast Asian speech.
What part of speech is ching chong?
Ching chong can be an interjection or a noun.
How do you pronounce ching chong?
Ching chong is pronounced /ˈtʃɪŋ ˌtʃɒŋ/ (UK).

Words near ching chong in the dictionary

  1. CHINFO
  2. chinful
  3. chinfuls
  4. ching
  5. ching bo leung
  6. ching chong
  7. ching chongs
  8. Ching Ming
  9. Ching Ming Festival
  10. Ching-chiang
  11. ching-chong

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ching chong (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “ching chong.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ching_chong. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.