Details
Creator Semon, Larry, 1889-1928.
Contributor North American Company, printer.
Title The Dancing Chinaman. An amusing cut-out. [graphic] / Lawrence Semon.
Publisher Philadelphia : North American Company
Date 1909
Physical Description 1 print : chromolithograph ; sheet 24 x 38 cm (9.5 x 14.74 in.)
Description Racist caricature of a Chinese man printed as a paper toy marionette. Depicts the man wearing a queue hairstyle, attired in a green tunic with yellow trim, red pants with green trim, yellow socks, and black cloth slip-on shoes, and with long fingernails. He smiles broadly and holds two fingers up on each hand. Printed in segments of head, torso, and separate arms and legs with instructions on how to cut the pieces out and attach them with strings to sticks to make a puppet. In the right, shows a diagram with the constructed toy and two white hands holding the sticks to make him dance.
Notes Title from item.
Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1909, by the North American Company.
Published in the September 12, 1909 Sunday supplement of the North American newspaper.
Text printed on recto: Directions: Paste this sheet upon a sheet of heavy cardboard: let it dry thoroughly, and cut out pieces around heavy black lines. Join parts together by knotting a piece of string on either side, as in diagram. (A to A, B to B, C to C, D to D and E to E.) Then take two sticks about eight inches long (two pencils will do), cut two pieces of black thread about twenty-four inches long: fasten them at either side of figure’s head (1 and 2) and at each end of one stick, as in diagram. Cut two pieces of black thread about six inches long, make them fast at bottom of arm and knee (Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6), as in diagram. Cut then at either end of other stick, as in diagram. Hold stick No. 1 in left hand and No. 2 in right hand, let feet of figure touch floor and tilt stick No. 2 up and down in a seesaw manner. With a little practice you will be able to work your marionette in first-class order.
RVCDC
Biographical / historical note Larry Semon (1889-1928) worked as a cartoonist for Philadelphia and New York newspapers before becoming an actor, director, producer, and screenwriter during the silent film era.
Subject Chinese.
Chinese -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Dance.
Men -- Chinese.
Puppets.
Toys.
Racism in popular culture.
Queue (Hairstyle)
AAPI.
Genre Anti-Chinese works.
Chromolithographs -- 1900-1910.
Ephemera -- 1900-1910.
Paper toys -- 1900-1910.
Racist caricatures.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| *GC- Paper toys - Dancing [P.2024.71.1
Accession number P.2024.71.1