erm Mandarin refers to the spoken language. One speaks Mandarin but writes Chinese. While the Cantonese dialect is more prevalent in older American Chinatowns, Mandarin is increasingly spoken in newer Chinatowns. China has one written language using characters understood by anyone who is literate, but many spoken regional dialects such as Shanghainese and Fukienese, which are unintelligible to people from other regions. See CHINA; HONG KONG; MACAU; TAIPENG REBELLION; TAIWAN.
MANONG (mah-nong)/MANANG (mah-nang):
Manong is a term of respect that precedes the first name of older Filipino men; manang for older Filipina women.
Armed and unarmed fighting sports or skills, mainly of East Asian origin. Unarmed martial arts emphasize striking with the feet and hands or grappling. Influenced substantially by Taoism and Buddhism. Kung fu, judo, karate, kendo and archery influenced American popular culture, including the “Star Wars” films and “The Hunger Games.” Derivatives of the unarmed forms of combat can be seen in parkour, the French sport of scaling urban settings seen in the films “District B13″ and the “Mission Impossible” series. Caution, like other Asian iconography, martial-arts imagery can be abused in contexts such as editorial cartoons. See ASIA, use and abuse of images from; BUDDHISM; STEREOTYPES; TAOISM.
Caution. Not a synonym for people of color. Use specifics whenever possible, particularly as demographic forecasts call for non-Hispanic whites in the United States to be outnumbered by 2042. See MODEL MINORITY, myth of.
MODEL MINORITY, myth of:
The phrase “model minority” dates to at least the 1960s. In the 1980s, articles praising Asian Americans implicitly criticized blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans for failing to measure up. Factually inaccurate in the sense of collapsing the experience of many ethnic groups of many countries into one “group” experience. Newsweek used the phrase in quotation marks for a 1982 article celebrating Asian American academic achievement. Some regard it, at best, as a backhanded compliment and, at worst, as code for “lacking leadership potential.” See ASIAN AMERICAN; FOREIGN-NESS; STEREOTYPES; YELLOW PERIL; YELLOW SKIN.
Famed for Genghis Khan and his martial empire of the 13th century. His military success was based in part on his army’s ferocity and its breed of warhorse that could survive on sparse grazing land in winter, allowing them to advance in all seasons. A bleak climate known for fossil discoveries, such as dinosaur eggs. Independent from China in 1921. Between China and Russia. About the size of Alaska. Population: 3.2 million (2012 estimate). Proportion of population younger than 15: about one-quarter. Capital: Ulaanbaatar. Languages: Khalkha Mongol (official, 90 percent) and others (1999 estimate). Ethnic groups: Mongol (mostly Khalka, 95 percent) and Kazakh (5 percent). Literacy: 98 percent. (Source: World Factbook.) See also ASIA, CENTRAL.
Extremely complex naming rules involving patronymics, matronymics and clan names. Beware second reference.
MOSQUE “AT” GROUND ZERO:
The quotations marks are necessary. Plans in 2010 for an Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan quickly became an ugly religious and ethnic battle. Conservatives saw the plan as an Arab affront to Americans killed during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and a memorial to terrorism (the attackers were Arab). It mattered little that the planned center wasn’t a mosque. It was intended to be a 15-story multi-use building with a small area for worship, akin to a chapel in a Catholic hospital. It was to be two blocks from the site of the attack, “ground zero.” Whatever the viewpoint, the building would not be on top of or “at” the World Trade Center site. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to building the center was cost: $100 million or more. See ISLAM; ISLAMIC; ISLAMIST; JIHAD; SEPTEMBER 11, 2001; SRI LANKA; SUICIDE BOMBING.
India’s largest city and commercial center, formerly known as Bombay. Although the rare journalism organization may continue to use “Bombay,” the name change is official in India. It doesn’t