[lit-ideas] Re: A New and Better "gung ho"
- From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 20:55:20 -0800
Richard Henninge wrote:
Of course, if the Wikipedia's reference can confirm the current
etymology, then I may be wrong:
"The phrase was originally coined by Rewi Alley, a New Zealander who
went to China in the 1920s and whose contribution to the country was
later recognised when he became China's first honorary citizen. The
industrial workers co-operatives that were formed as part of the Gung-ho
movement stemmed from Helen Foster (Peg) Snow, wife of American
journalist Edgar Snow. Peg Snow suggested to Rewi Alley that China
needed widespread industry through the establishment of a movement
(Alley, 1987).
Carlson traveled with the 8th and with Rewi Alley. Later he used /gung
ho/ during his (unconventional) command of the 2nd Marine Raider
Battalion <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Raiders>. From there it
spread throughout the Marine Corps (hence the association between the
two) and into American society as a whole. It is now often used in the
ironic sense of /excessively enthusiastic, overzealous/.
Alley, R. (1987) Rewi Alley - An Autobiography, New World Press."
One must thank Richard for this feast of scholarship. From what I can
discover, it seems clear that Carlson didn't carry the expression into
modern English usage. Clearly he borrowed it somewhere, but where or how
is a bit mysterious.
http://www.nzchinasociety.org.nz/gungho.html
which is the website for the International Committee for the Promotion
of Chinese Industrial Co-operatives, uses the motto 'gung ho,' and has
this to say about its derivation:
'The Chinese name for "China Industrial Cooperatives" was Zhongguo
Gongye Hezhoushe. This was abbreviated as Gong He (the first characters
for the two words for "Industrial Cooperatives"), or "Gung Ho", as it
was then written. Rewi [Alley] adopted this as the logo for the
movement, and it can be translated as "working together", which was a
perfect slogan for the movement as a whole.'
Apparently, some change in the ideograms {?) involved in writing
'Zhongguo Gongye Hezhoushe,' led to the more recent 'he' replacing 'ho.'
That's what I take from this paragraph. Gung ho is older than gung he,
and is the original version, so to speak. Rewi Alley began to work with
the Chinese labor movement with Peg Snow in 1938 (according to the Gung
Ho site). That the organization calls itself Gung Ho today suggests that
this is an original name, which ignores any recent changes in the
language; thus Richard is no doubt correct about the change from ho to
he, but may have been misled about its importance for the —origin— of
'gung ho.'
I don't know what to say about how Colonel Carlson understood 'gung ho,'
but as an 'English' expression meaning 'enthusiastic to an unseemly
degree,' it would seem to owe something to him.
Robert Paul
not giving up on 2005 yet
somewhere south of Reed College
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