"China man" vs Chinese man

Question

I am wondering which one, China man or Chinese man, should I use for the below sentence.

Doing business in China requires deep understanding of its culture. But this China/Chinese man, although speaks the language, knows nothing about it.

My instinct is that "China man is better in here, but not sure.

What do you think?

Of related interest: What do you call a Swiss man? – choster Mar 05 '19 at 18:51 — choster, Mar 05 '19 at 18:51

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 05 '19 at 17:07

5

'Chinaman' is usually written as one word, but is considered at best old-fashioned and at worst derogatory. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman_(term) . You should use 'Chinese man'.

answered Mar 05 '19 at 17:07

Kate Bunting

25,480

Absolutely. The only exception, funnily enough, is Frenchman. :) – Lambie Mar 05 '19 at 17:09
@Lambie -- Odd, I don't usually find Frenchmen all that funny. – Hot Licks Mar 05 '19 at 23:23
@HotLicks I didn't say they were funny. – Lambie Mar 05 '19 at 23:51
@Lambie - even then it's "Frenchman" not "Franceman" – komodosp Sep 05 '23 at 09:26

score -3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 05 '19 at 07:44

-3

It clearly has to be Chinese and not China.

China and Man are both Nouns and using them consecutively distorts the meaning of the sentence. Chinese is an adjective describing the man and hence is more suitable to use.

But this Chinese man, although speaks the language, knows nothing about it.

The sentence conveys that the man is Chinese (belongs to China) and speaks the language, however does not know anything about it.

Though there is no denial that few speakers tend to do such usage (China Man, India Man), however that's purely out of habit or local dialect. Linguistically is still stays incorrect.

answered Mar 05 '19 at 07:44

Nitika

334

2

There is nothing “linguistically incorrect” (which is not a term that has any actual meaning) about using a noun to modify another noun, and it does not “distort the meaning of the sentence” (into what?). It’s traditionally called a noun adjunct, and there are thousands of perfectly normal examples of it. With country names specifically, it tends to be limited to names and headlines (except for some countries, most commonly abbreviations like US and UK, where it’s quite common in normal speech too), so you’re right that Chinese is preferable here, but your reasoning is incorrect. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 05 '19 at 08:24
@KateBunting That really should be (half of) an answer. – Mitch Mar 05 '19 at 13:45

"China man" vs Chinese man

2 Answers2