Haters and lovers of Alexandra Wallace: would you order Chinese takeout from a restaurant called 'Ching Chong Ling Long'? One of the most ridiculous and most-mocked lines from the ex-UCLA student's now-infamous anti-Asian YouTube rant is now the name of an actual Chinese food delivery service, Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout.Operating in partnership with The Palace Restaurant in Brentwood, the delivery service was started by UCLA students, and yes, the name is indeed an overt reference to Ms. Wallace's awful approximation of an Asian language: Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout: From YouTube to Take-Out.
In one of the most ridiculous (and most-mocked) lines from the original video, Ms. Wallace imitates some unnamed Asian language by pretending to talk into her phone. She presses it to her cheek and screeches "Ooh, Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong, Ooh!" This debacle turned into a symbol for the whole video, and something of a rallying cry for responders and humorists, so it's a serious attention-grabbing name for UCLA students.I'm not crazy about this. I understand taking Alexandra Wallace's phenomenally ignorant tirade and flipping it on its head -- mocking the mocking. Hell, Jimmy Wong wrote a really great song using "ching chong ling long ting tong" in the chorus. Pretty clever.
The partnership came about when Rachel Lee, owner of The Palace, heard about UCLA Munchies, a service run by four students who delivered snacks like burritos and ramen to the dorms into the wee hours of the morning. Sensing an opportunity to better serve the local community -- and expand her business -- Ms. Lee contacted the UCLA Munchies team for some consulting work. And so, Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout was born. At first, says Ms. Lee, she had some reservations about the name, but after Daniel Chen and Kedar Iyer of UCLA Munchies reassured her that it was an acceptable joke she was on board.
But naming your Chinese takeout delivery service "Ching Chong Ling Long" and just leaving it at that, with little context... what's the point? Sure, UCLA students might give it a knowing smile as they dial up the number. But what about when our collective memory of Alexandra Wallace fades (like, in three months)? Mocking the mocking runs the risk of becoming just plain mocking, and we're back to where we started with the damn ching chong.