Chun Ling Soo: Let's Be Honest

Chung Ling Soo

One of the most famous performers of the early 20th century was Chung Ling Soo. The son of a Scottish missionary and Cantonese mother, he was orphaned at the age of 13 and raised by a Chinese magician called Arr Hee, who taught him the wonders and secrets of magic. His death in 1918 at the Wood Green Empire Theater in London made headlines around the world, cementing both his name in magic history, as well as the now legendary infamy of the trick that killed him; the bullet catch.

Of course, other than the fact that a performer billed as Chun Ling Soo was shot at the Wood Green Empire and died the next day, everything I’ve just written was a complete fabrication. Soo was in actuality a character created by William Ellsworth Robinson, a white New Yorker who was, before donning the mask of Soo, purported to be a highly competent magician but not a great performer.

William Ellsworth Robinson

The character of “Chun Ling Soo” was created by Robinson in 1900 when he heard that the Folies Bergère in Paris were looking for a Chinese performer. At the time there was a famous magician actually from China called Chee Ling Qua, who worked under the stage name of Ching Ling Foo. Robinson decided to rip off his act, put on some grease paint, and try his luck. It was a success and, by the time he brought the show to London, he was well into the swing of things. Having ripped off Foo’s act and name, Robinson then merrily went around prostituting the man’s culture as well. He would give interviews in gibberish, always using an interpreter, and even presented his partner Olive "Dot" Path as his ‘Chinese’ wife Suee Seen. Spoiler alert: Dot wasn’t Chinese.

This wasn’t even the first time that Robinson had dipped his toe in the racial appropriation pool. In 1887 he was performing using the name "Achmed Ben Ali", passing himself off as a middle-eastern conjurer. Again, he had ripped off another magician’s act, this time a German called Max Auzinger, who was also using brown face and calling himself "Ben Ali Bey".

Meanwhile Foo, if not forgotten, never reached the kind of famous heights Robinson managed. Bluntly speaking, the Robinsons’ pantomime Orientalism was more in keeping with the sensibilities of the time than Foo’s racial authenticity. Foo did all he could to show that Roninson was a fraud, but in truth no one cared. It was theater. It’s also important to note that Robinson wasn’t the only one who was happy to exploit racial exoticism for their own benefit. I’ve already mentioned Auzinger, and adopting a persona was hardly rare with the entertainment at the time. Though beginning to wane in popularity, Minstrel Shows were a huge mainstay of American and European entertainment. Of course almost a hundred years later you could still see the Black and White Minstrel Show on the BBC, right up until 1978. As for yellowface, that was another accepted part of entertainment and continued to be for decades. Now it’s hard for any right minded person to watch the classic Breakfast at Tiffiny’s without wincing at the outright racist portrayal of Mr Yunioshi, a Japanese caricature played by Micky Rooney. But time and context matter. For example, Foo’s own daughter, Chee Toy, was billed as being the ‘only Chinese singer of coon songs’. There is a plain and simple lesson here: It’s show business, not show activism, and these people were, to put it bluntly, trying to make a buck not change the world.

Ching Ling Foo

All of this is to say that the most popular entertainers of the day tend to reflect and cash in on society's preconceptions. I don’t believe - in general - that magic or magicians were any more or less racist than the culture at the time. However, much like questionable Dr Seuss stories or Disney animation, there is a history there that needs to be recognised. Note that I say recognised, not covered up. As a magician I feel no shame that some of the big names of the past cashed in on views right minded people would now hold to be racist; it was a long time ago and, after all, it wasn’t me who did it. But if a person is going to say they ‘love’ something, no matter what it is,one must also acknowledging its flaws and, far more importantly, learn from them. Which brings me full circle back to William Ellsworth Robinson. In the end you’ve got a man who profited by ripping off another person's culture and hard work; exploiting not just the racial and racist preconceptions of his audience and the times, but also the hard work of another magician. Though Robinson himself was famously attacked when mistaken for a coolie, in reality he never had to endure the discrimination and difficulties faced by people of the race he was profiting off of. As an aside, after the attack Robinson had papers publish his true identity as he didn’t want to get beaten up again. It seems that, though he was happy to profit from being perceived as foreign, he wasn’t prepared to put up with the daily risks run by non-whites. The public, however, thought the stories were a hoax. 

This was a time of huge racism and racial hatred aimed at the Chinese. America, for example, had brought in the Chinese Exclusion Act which barred Chinese laborers from entering the United States. In essence an entire ethnic group was no longer allowed to enter the country. Racism and hatred towards the Chinese was rife yet, as is so often the case when that happens, the exoticism of the culture was valued. But this is something we continue to see today. Minorities who have to struggle against racism and hatred find their own cultures exploited by people who don’t have the face the difficulties associated with being from that world whilst, simultaneously, benefitting from it. The term ‘blackfishing’ first came to public attention through a thread from Wanna Thompson:

Can we start a thread and post all of the white girls cosplaying as black women on Instagram? Let’s air them out because this is ALARMING.

— Wanna (@WannasWorld) November 7, 2018

Later, in an article for Paper Magazine, Thompson said that Instagram had become “a breeding ground” for white women wanting to capitalise off “impersonating racially ambiguous/Black women for monetary and social gain”. Does that remind you of anyone?

Sadly it seems the days of yellow/brown/black face aren’t even close to being behind us, and certainly ripping off the magic of other magicians remains a tried and tested method of getting ahead in the game. Which is why this little tip toe through history isn’t designed to make you think ‘how on earth was that considered acceptable!?’ and more ‘was then all that different to now?’

But hey, I guess that’s show business, right?

For a far more informed and in depth understanding of Robinson, racism, and cultural attitudes of the time I recommend Race Magic and the Yellow Peril by Meilin Chinn whose work has hugely informed this short piece.

TFT