Chinese copy

noun

Slang: Usually Offensive.

1. an exact copy, including all errors.

Chinese copy

noun

1. an exact copy of an original

Sensitive Note

This term is usually perceived as insulting to or by the Chinese. It may refer to the stereotype that Asian workers copy Western products and produce a cheaper version or to the notion that people whose native language is markedly different from English are incapable of recognizing errors in English writing. By the late 1800s, Chinese was being used in American military slang as an adjective meaning “inferior, clumsy, abnormal, etc.” See also Chinese.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Chinese copy¹

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

L. Bruce Jones, of Idaho, refuses to add a Chinese copy to his collection spanning roughly 450 pens from Switzerland, Italy and elsewhere—including limited-edition Montblancs that run up to $20,000 each.

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Ryan, 27 and unemployed, was armed with a Chinese copy of a Kalashnikov AK-47 and a variety of other guns.

Read more on Seattle Times

The village was replicated in China’s Guangdong Province in 2012, and the Chinese copy has become a favorite attraction there.

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Controversially, the Chinese copy was made without notifying, let alone asking permission of, anyone in Hallstatt.

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“If I sell a vase for €800 and a Chinese copy costs €30, there’s no competition,” said Gino Seguso, the son of the late Archimede Seguso, one of the island’s best-known glass maestros.

Read more on New York Times