A recent campaign, led by the anti-racism organization Asian Raisins, calls for banning the birthday song "Hanky panky Shanghai" from schools nurseries and the wider society. The song is considered racist and offensive to people of Asian appearance.
'Hanky panky Shanghai' is a still-used birthday song with bland lyrics. Although some think it is a Chinese translation of 'Happy birthday to you' because of the matching melody, this is not the case. While singing the song, the eyes are imitated as "slit eyes.
Amy Cheung, president of Asian Raisins, stressed that Chinese or Japanese people are not are familiar with this song. "When you bring up the song to an American or Brit, they associate 'hanky panky' with something sexual, and Shanghai is a Chinese city," she explains. According to Cheung, learning this song, which starts as early as nurseries and continues in elementary schools continues, racism against people of East and Southeast Asian appearance is is normalized at a young age. "The song shows how normal this racism is." The campaign, supported by thousands of people, has launched a petition launched to stop the teaching and singing of the song and make people raise awareness of its offensive nature.
Gjalt
Jellesma, chairman of the national umbrella organization BOinK for
child care, expresses his strong disapproval about the occurrence of the song at
daycare centers. "I absolutely cannot imagine that this is still
still happening, especially the accompanying gestures. It would be extremely
disappointing if those are still being used. Fortunately, there are plenty of
alternatives available." According to Jellesma in conversation with BN de Stem.
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