In this view, using the phrase "Chinese whispers" is taken as evidence of a belief that the Chinese language itself is not understandable. Historians who focus on Western use of the word Chinese as denoting "confusion" and "incomprehensibility" look to the earliest contacts between Europeans and Chinese people in the 17th century, attributing it to a supposed inability on the part of Europeans to understand China's culture and worldview. Usage of the term has been defended as being similar to other expressions such as " It's all Greek to me" and " Double Dutch". Another theory posits that the game's name stems from the supposed confused messages created when a message was passed verbally from tower to tower along the Great Wall of China.
One suggested reason is a widespread British fascination with Chinese culture in the 18th and 19th centuries during the Enlightenment. Various reasons have been suggested for naming the game after the Chinese, but there is no concrete explanation. In the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, the game is typically called "Chinese whispers" in the U.K., this is documented from 1964. It is often invoked as a metaphor for cumulative error, especially the inaccuracies as rumours or gossip spread, or, more generally, for the unreliability of typical human recollection.Įtymology U.K.
The game is often played by children as a party game or on the playground. Reasons for changes include anxiousness or impatience, erroneous corrections, and the difficult-to-understand mechanism of whispering. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly from that of the first player, usually with amusing or humorous effect. Although the objective is to pass around the message without it becoming garbled along the way, part of the enjoyment is that, regardless, this usually ends up happening. The first person then compares the original message with the final version. When the last player is reached, they announce the message they heard to the entire group. The second player repeats the message to the third player, and so on. Players form a line or circle, and the first player comes up with a message and whispers it to the ear of the second person in the line. It is also called transmission chain experiments in the context of cultural evolution research, and is primarily used to identify the type of information that is more easily passed on from one person to another. Chinese whispers / Telephone GenresĬhinese whispers (some Commonwealth English) or telephone ( American English and Canadian English) is an internationally popular children's game.
For the coordination game in game theory, see Telephone game (game theory).
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