Australian Gastropub ‘Hotel Longtime’ Sparks Fury for Racist Theme
By Carl Samson
A gastropub in Australia called “Hotel Longtime” is currently under fire over its alleged racist theme that presumably took cues from “Full Metal Jacket”, a movie that degraded Asian women.
“Full Metal Jacket” was directed by Stanley Kubrick and involved a scene where a Vietnamese prostitute told American soldiers, “Me so horny, me love you long time.”
The pub is owned by Vietnamese-born Tin Chu and her husband, Alex Fahey, who both claim ignorance on the whole thing and that it was never their intention to offend anyone.
“It is worth remembering that I am a director of this licensee company and I am a proud Asian woman who has worked hard to build my business,” Chu told Adelaide Now. “There is nothing in our name which is in any way intended to insult or offend women. If anyone has felt that, then we humbly apologise — but again, it was never our intention.”
“Any such association is in the mind of our critics, it was not in our minds,” she added.
Fahey, who came up with the name before claiming the business site, said that he had never seen the movie:
“I’ve never even seen the film. I’d like people to understand what we’re trying to achieve. The name is not meaning to be a brothel — it’s ‘stay for a long time.’”
It’s not just “Longtime” that’s getting flak, however; the couple also called the establishment’s front bar the “Ping Pong Club Room,” which some speculate was named after ping pong sex shows in Southeast Asia.
Again, Fahey denied such associations:
“It’s meant to be like a clubroom — like a football clubroom — where you go and have a drink after playing ping pong. It’s nothing to do with the Thailand ping pong shows.”
Alice Whittington, who is Asian Australian, created a change.org petition that is now starting to win more signatures.
She took note of another observation during the pub’s opening party on March 10:
“And just in case we weren’t sure that Hotel Longtime is making light of and profiting from the stereotype of Asian women being sexualised and the expectation that they are at the service of imperialist men, their opening party poster read ‘The Madame is waiting,’ with the image of an older Asian woman — a reference to a brothel madame.”
Below is the scene that forever defined the phrase:
Featured Image via FaceBook / (Left): Hotel Longtime | YouTube / (Right): Tom O’leary
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