Alternatively, the phrase's origin may lie in the historical Western use of the word Chinese to denote "confusion" and "incomprehensibility", which historians trace to the earliest contacts between Europeans and Chinese people in the 1600s, attributing it to Europeans' inability to understand China's radically different culture and world view. In his 1989 Dictionary of Invective, British editor Hugh Rawson lists 16 phrases that use the word "Chinese" to denote "incompetence, fraud and disorganization".
Alternatively the phrase's origin may lie in the historical Western use of the word Chinese to denote "confusion" and "incomprehensibility" which historians trace to the earliest contacts between Europeans and Chinese people in the 1600s attributing it to Europeans' inability to understand China's radically different culture and world view In his 1989 Dictionary of Invective British editor Hugh Rawson lists 16 phrases that use the word "Chinese" to denote "incompetence fraud and disorganization"