![]() For the uninitiated, a 'Chinese fire drill' can be described as a form of vehicular musical chairs. It’s first recorded in the 1970s, but may have been in use longer. Published Octoat 4:04 AM HST Enter the phrase 'Chinese fire drill' into YouTube and youll find page upon page of videos of a classic car prank thats been popular since the 1960s. ![]() At some point during the drill, the crews got their instructions confused, and began drawing water from one side of the boat and simply dumping it over the other, without ever getting to the engine room.Īmerican soldiers fighting alongside the British in WWI and WWII brought the phrase back home, where it got assigned to the car game at some point. ![]() A separate bucket brigade scooped up the dumped water and got rid of it by tossing it over the port side of the ship. The weirdest thing I ever learned about the Asian culture or community is that walking in time is a very common and practiced art. This just shows their highest of experience. One bucket brigade drew water from the starboard side of the ship, brought it to the engine room and dumped it. No, thats an American Chinese fire drill. The story goes that the ship’s British officers had their largely Chinese crew practicing the procedure for putting out an engine room fire. The addition of 'Chinese' to various things (eg, Chinese whispers, a Chinese puzzle) has been used in the past in English language situations to denote something being confusing, impossible to understand/solve, being inept, being chaotic, etc - soooooo, yeah, it's basically old-timey racism. The origin of that last term isn’t well documented, but supposedly originates from an actual fire drill on an early 20th century British ship. British troops during World War I were known to refer to inept pilots as “Chinese aces,” rough landings and crashes as “Chinese landings,” and any confusing situation as a “Chinese fire drill.” Using “Chinese” as a derogatory modifier to describe something as disorganized or confusing dates back to at least the first World War and maybe even to the earliest contacts between Europeans and the Chinese. Reader Emily asks, “Why is it called a Chinese fire drill when everyone gets out of a stopped car, runs around, gets back in and continues on their trip?”
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