[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHQSF9iL_A0]
January 2011
“He was speaking and they weren’t translating. They normally translate every couple of words. Hu Jintao was just going ching chong, ching chong cha.”
Limbaugh stirred controversy in the Asian-American community when he openly mocked the Chinese language on his radio show. In speaking about Chinese president Hu Jintao’s visit to the U.S., he explained that he was watching Hu on Fox News, unaccompanied by any translation, so he was unable to understand. Limbaugh then launched into a 20-second imitation of Hu’s speech – and was forced to deal with a backlash lasting many weeks. Asian-American politicians railed against Limbaugh for his comments. “You think you’ve arrived and all of a sudden get shot back to the reality that you’re a second-class citizen,” said California state Senator Leland Yee.
Limbaugh did not offer an apology for his comments, and instead highlighted society’s sensitivity: “”Back in the old days, Sid Caesar, for those of you old enough to remember, was called a comic genius for impersonating foreign languages that he couldn’t speak. But today the left says that was racism.”