Punch, Vol. 107 (17 November 1894), pp. 234-235.

From Amy Matthewson’s Cartooning China: Punch, Power, & Politics in the Victorian Era. London and new York: Routledge, 2022, pp. 114-116.

John Tenniel’s “A Touching Appeal” depicts an overgrown childlike Chinese man named Younghy-Bung-Boo-Hoo who starts a fight but then loses to a much smaller Japanese man . The Japanese figure stands strong an ready for action; both hands are clenched into fists and he leans threateningly towards the defeated Younghy-Bung-Boo-Hoo who sits on the ground, his nose red as a result from the fight. Edwin Milliken’s accompanying “poem” explains the cartoon. The “proud” Younghy-Bung-Boo-Hoo was “jealous of Jappy,” who, although small, was a “plucky chappie/[and] Made big Younghy feel unhappy.” The animosity resulted in a physical confrontation where Younghy “the big boy pale and yellow,” was quickly defeated and “began to bleat and bellow.” Being “fearful for his life,” he cried out, “Though you welly lilly body, Jap, you strikee biggy blow! Welly much hurtee – me no play!!” His Japanese opponent shows no mercy “And he cried ‘Fight on, man, do!’” and tells his Chinese rival, “Yah! In fighting I’m your mate. /You cave in a bit too late, /I will whop you – if you’ll wait.” The poem ends with Younghy-Bung-Boo-Hoo whinging that the foreigners, who are standing watch in the background, do nothing to help.

This cartoon and accompanying “poem” was published in November 1894, during the First Sino-Japanese war, a conflict between China and Japan over supremacy in Korea. It was a short but decisive war and the consequences were paramount in shifting the balance of world power. Western powers were astounded by China’s rapid defeat and theorised that this was the result of China’s extensive corruption, stubborn resistance to Western technology, and the nation’s backwardness Japan emerged as a new imperial player on the international arena and “A Touching Appeal” reflected this shift in power. The message in the cartoon declared that China may be great in size but it is not great in strength. Japan, on the other hand, is represented in relatable terms; not only is it an island nation like Britain, but also the Japanese are characterised as people with plucky spirits, a trait easily identifable as it is found in the emblematic John Bull, who embodies pugnacity, independence, and courage.

Milliken’s “poem” is equally significant as it is within this textual representation that China and Japan are categorised and understood within the British popular imagination. Younghy speaks in broken pidgin English and his rival, the Japanese man, communicates in standard, grammatically correct English. For the Chinese, the use of “pidgin,” a derivative of the English word for “business,” was taken seriously as it was considered a valuable tool needed in order to engage in the lucrative trade sector. Europeans and Americans, however, viewed pidgin English as something laughable and it was associated with non-Caucasians with low social status. This perception combined with the difficulty the Chinese have in pronouncing some consonants resulted in pidgin being frequently employed for comedic effect and this had a “profound impact on popular perception.” The Japanese were also subjected to ridicule in their use of Yokohama Pidgin. For example, Hoffman Atkinson poked fun of its use in his humorous pamphlet, Exercises in the Yokohama Dialect published in Yokohama and then reviewed by C.G. Leland in London’s New Quarterly Magazine in 1879. “A Touching Appeal” is notable in focusing linguistic humour solely on the Chinese figure and this is significant.

In a review in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (2023), pp. 1-2, T.H. Barrett observes that “the subtext for these verses is clearly Edward Lear’s 1877 poem “The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò”, but in that work Lear’s humour is gentle — it is, after all, in some measure a self-portrait –whereas here the treatment is vicious and insulting throughout.”