Chop October 11, ok lady! chop chop suey! lets gooooo to la playa and October 22, Snap to it Joss!!! Chop Chop Suey March 9, lol I don't got time to be waitin for to lil one armed self.! Hurry it up.! Chop chop Novem(maybe, maybe not an example?): Quaint racist period piece with whites ordering Asians: "Gettee Bags chop chop. You got till 8pm chop chop Aug(this seems to be a paraphrase of the movie, and not a direct quote): (Though I would not recommend using the expression, due to the fact that it can be be interpreted as racist towards April 5, whats up with my edit? If you finish it today Ill give you $20. I'm not sure if these Tweets predate your dad's usage, but it does show that it has a little currency outside him. It's not clear to me if these instances are related to each other or if it was something independently "rediscovered".
Using the power of Twitter, I found some examples of people saying "chop chop suey suey" (sometimes with more "chop" or less "suey") to mean "hurry up". The expression "chop-chop" is strongly associated in my mind with orders barked by Asian or European masters to Asian servants, and adopting affected Pidgin English inevitably raises the question, "Why are you talking like that?" That's not to say that there was anything intentionally pejorative in your father's use of the phrase-but I wouldn't use it today. The expression "chop chop suey suey," insofar as it isn't simply a nonsense phrase, thus seems to intend to combine the speed of chop-chop with the fragmentary miscellaneousness of chop suey.įor what it's worth, I advise extreme caution in using the expression "chop chop suey suey" because people of East Asian (and especially Chinese) origin might take it as demeaning, patronizing, or otherwise pejorative. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fifth edition (2010) offers the following definitions and etymological notes on chop-chop and chop suey:Ĭhop-chop adv. Indeed, bits and pieces! Under the terror of gun and knife, a new dish was born. Though still shaking in their pants from fear, the cousins managed to say, " Chop chop suey suey." "Ooh this is good!" the burly miners exclaimed. In a flash, they dumped a generous portion of the garbage in a wok, made a sauce, and served the dish piping hot. As they rummaged through the shelves, cupboards and storage places for edibles, they came to the day's garbage, which they had been too tired to throw out before retiring. What to do? There was nothing they could serve. In the dim moonlight, they saw two big, mean looking miners had barged in and were pointing a gun and knife at them. Before they could respond, the door was kicked open. In the middle of the night they were awakened by loud pounding and voices demanding food. Late one night they had locked up and gone to bed dog-tired after every scrap of food was sold. To survive such a lawless foreign land, the pragmatic and resourceful one opened eateries and laundries instead.Īmong the successful restaurateurs were two cousins Ah Ying and Ah Sing. When they found gold, they were invariably killed by claim jumpers. Many Chinese joined the 1849 California Gold Rush. Your father is not the only person now on record as having used the expression "chop chop suey suey." From " Chop Suey" in Katherine Chew, The Magical Dumplings and Other Chinese Fables (2008):
This evolved into "chop-chop" and was quickly picked up by the Englishmen who traveled the Asian seas. In Mandarin, the word is jí, and in Malay it's chepat. In an 1838 article, "Chinese English," the magazine defined "chop-chop" as "the sooner the better," but made no mention of the phase being rude or curt.Īccording to Hobson-Jobson: The Definitive Glossary of British India, the noted Anglo-Indian dictionary published in 1886, the phrase originates from the Cantonese word kap, or 急 (which means "make haste"). Two years later, it would also appear in The Penny Magazine, an illustrated English publication geared toward the working class.
The Oxford English Dictionary traces the first usage of "chop chop" in print to an 1834 article in the Canton (Ohio) Register. Several etymological dictionaries trace the origins of the word to a version of pidgin English used on ships (and later by Chinese servants and traders who regularly interacted with foreigners). Wikipedia and The Phrase Finder both talk about the etymology of chop chop, meaning "hurry up" or "quickly, quickly!" Perhaps your dad added the "suey suey" part on his own, maybe for humorous effect?
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