Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Mister Wong Launches Social Bookmarking for iPhone

Re: Mister Wong Launches Social Bookmarking for iPhone

Alexandros — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 13:08:05 -0000

Interesting...

Re: Mister Wong Launches Social Bookmarking for iPhone

Otis Gospodnetic — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:04:03 -0000

I think the "It seems to me that the site plays on the stereotype of Asians as bookish, smiling, subservient and jabbering in infantile, incomprehensible "ching chong" type language." is completely crazy. I saw the name, I saw the icon/logo, and did not even think of the above. That's product of somebody's bored imagination, of a mind that *wants* to find a problem and tries hard to find one. Where does "ching chong" come from? I don't see it in the logo. Did somebody from M-W say that? Crazy, crazy. But you are right, this may not be the right medium for this.

So my original question from my earlier comment remains - what's so special about Herr Wong?

Re: Mister Wong Launches Social Bookmarking for iPhone

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:59:22 -0000

Here's how I understand this issue so far: It seems to me that the site plays on the stereotype of Asians as bookish, smiling, subservient and jabbering in infantile, incomprehensible "ching chong" type language.

Part of this stereotype seems to refer to the idea that Asians can be trusted to keep track of your stuff - like your bookmarks! Related to that is this good quote from the Wikipedia entry for "model minority" - US focused here and just part of the story, but part of it for sure it seems to me.

"While superficially complimentary to Asian Americans, the real purpose and effect of this portrayal is to celebrate the status quo in race relations. First, by over-emphasizing Asian American success, it de-emphasizes the problems Asian Americans continue to face from racial discrimination in all areas of public and private life. Second, by misrepresenting Asian American success as proof that the US provides equal opportunities for those who conform and work hard, it excuses US society from careful scrutiny on issues of race in general, and on the persistence of racism against Asian Americans in particular."

That's the last I'll say about it here though, as it's really not my issue to take on and like I said - I didn't think much of it myself until talking to someone else and reading that post at 8Asians, which, btw I don't think is over the top at all.

Re: Mister Wong Launches Social Bookmarking for iPhone

Otis Gospodnetic — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:41:47 -0000

Marshall:
What's the stereotype there? They picked a Chinese name + an icon with a Chinese man, all normal, no?
What if the service was called Tom and they had a blonde kid with blue eyes? Stereotypical? ;)

Anyhow, as I've said before, I tried Herr Wong and didn't see what was special/better about it. Some people mention Groups as the social aspect of M-W, but Simpy has had groups for years, so this is not news in social bookmarking world. Here are some public groups I belong to. There are a few more private ones I'm a member of, but you won't see those, of course. Some of the public groups I'm a member of are open for anyone to join, others are invitation-only....

M-W seems to be going for the Euro crowd with its M-W sites in different TLDs, but Simpy is available in about 10 languages (more than any other social bookmarking service? Possible!), mostly Indo-European languages, but also in (Simplified) Chinese and Korean - see the full list of localizations.

Kristen: which aspect of M-W do you like the most and which piece of M-W functionality have you not seen in other social bookmarking services? Thanks.

Re: Mister Wong Launches Social Bookmarking for iPhone

Pete — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:38:41 -0000

You could argue that it's culturally insensitive, yeah, but the post you linked to goes over the top. Just in general, using a racial stereotype as a mascot is inadvisable, imho.

Re: Mister Wong Launches Social Bookmarking for iPhone

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:02:12 -0000

Has the company responded at all to criticisms about racial stereotypes? I barely thought about it until I read this post http://snipurl.com/1oo0u at a site called 8Asians