Well, that was charming. Gary Locke officially left his Beijing-based post as US Ambassador to China Friday and his departure was marked by an official Chinese commentary calling him a "banana."
Oh no, there's no ambiguity about it. They didn't refer to Locke, the first Chinese-American ever to serve as ambassador, as being similar to a yellow fruit that grows on trees and can be turned into lovely pies or split open and have ice cream scooped upon it for a summer treat. The commentary calls Locke a "yellow-skinned white-hearted banana person" (a literal translation of"黄皮白心的香蕉人").
Wow.
"Banana" is heady wording for a commentary, given the racially-charged connations of the term that many Asian-Americans find offensive. With that sort of rhetoric being tossed around, we're almost surprised they didn't conclude with a reference to US President Barack Obama using some similarly unflattering ethnic slur.
The nasty op-ed concludes what could have gone down as a historical posting. Locke was embraced by Chinese Netizens for getting his own coffee and for visiting the relatives of his that still live in southern China. Of course, as a representative of US interests in China, we didn't expect him to be loved by everyone, but geez, 'banana' is a bit much.
The commentary says towards the end, "Mr. Ambassador, what would your ancestors say about you? They'd kick you out."
Ambassador Locke, from the Beijinger, have a safe trip home, and thanks for hanging in there with us for the last couple of years.
Photo: China Daily via Weibo
I think you are being kind. The article I read about this called him a rotten black banana, and blamed him for the smog in Beijing, for not speaking Chinese, for a blind man leading the blind, and basically for being a traitor to his homeland. They even criticized him as a hypocrite for pretending to live modestly even though he lives in expensive embassy house quarters and his car is bullet proof.
The whole article sounds like it was written by someone at The Onion. It sounds more like a joke.
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