"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
Jon Stewart skewered Jon Huntsman for his Tourette-like Mandarin outbursts on the campaign trail. Stewart’s critique starts at around the five minute mark, and he concludes his monologue with incomprehensible “Chinese”:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Indecision 2012 – New Hampshire Primary Results | ||||
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It is great that Jon Huntsman speaks some Chinese and, much more importantly, has a very deep understanding of China. While some have knocked him for bad tones we should all respect him for making the effort and for all he has already accomplished.
But the Mandarin outbursts are kind of weird and, as Politico notes in Jon Huntsman’s Mandarin Moments, increasingly a political liability.
Given the state of the American electorate, if Gov. Huntsman wants to win votes with a foreign language he should probably brush up on his Klingon.
Follow me on Twitter @niubi or Sina Weibo @billbishop.
I kind of got at what Stewart was saying in Chinese, and although it was pretty low quality Chinese and Huntsman’s is better, I think the idea is that anyone can learn and practice saying a line or two and blurt that out in an interview. Not to dig too much into the slate article, but most newsfolks have bought into/created this “Chinese speaking Huntsman” when really they have no clue, and could probably just as easily be led to believe that Jon Stewart also knows Mandarin.