See China girl on Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "China girls",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
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"expansion": "China girl (countable and uncountable, plural China girls)",
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
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},
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"name": "Film",
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"_dis": "29 1 31 19 15 4",
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{
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"ref": "1993, Scott MacDonald, Avant-Garde Film: Motion Studies, page 60:",
"text": "A final group of Hollywood’s usually invisible working class is introduced in Fisher’s comments about the use of the China Girl, the images of women dressed in multicolored clothes that are often seen on heads and tails of reels of film. The China Girl’s function is to act as a color-control standard: The skin-tone of white skin is the norm against which other colors are measured.",
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"ref": "2000, Bret Stern, How to Shoot a Feature Film for Under $10,000^(https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7274698M/How_to_Shoot_a_Feature_Film_for_Under_10_000_(And_Not_Go_to_Jail)), page 172:",
"text": "It is really amazing how easily colorists can screw up the look of your film with a few misconceptions about proper skin tones and by using the dreaded china girl. (A china girl is a pasty white specimen of a girl that a colorist uses as a reference when balancing the colors on your film.)",
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},
{
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274,
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],
"ref": "2013, Rachel Kushner, chapter 6, in Flamethrowers, page 86:",
"text": "If the curtains in a film looked tennis-ball chartreuse and not some paler shade of yellow, it made no difference to the viewer. There was no original set of curtains they needed to resemble. Flesh is different. Flesh needs to resemble flesh. It has a norm, a referent: the China girl. Curtains can be acid-bright but not faces. And if faces look wrong, we question everything.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A moving or still image of a woman or mannequin, used by film processing technicians to calibrate colour balance and exposure of skin tones in reproduction."
],
"id": "en-China_girl-en-noun-OHiJf0bK",
"links": [
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"film",
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],
[
"image",
"image"
],
[
"mannequin",
"mannequin"
],
[
"calibrate",
"calibrate"
],
[
"balance",
"balance"
],
[
"exposure",
"exposure"
],
[
"skin tone",
"skin tone"
],
[
"reproduction",
"reproduction"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(US, film) A moving or still image of a woman or mannequin, used by film processing technicians to calibrate colour balance and exposure of skin tones in reproduction."
],
"tags": [
"US",
"countable",
"uncountable"
],
"topics": [
"broadcasting",
"film",
"media",
"television"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"glosses": [
"The opioid drug fentanyl."
],
"id": "en-China_girl-en-noun-Wgoyw-5o",
"links": [
[
"street name",
"street name"
],
[
"opioid",
"opioid"
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[
"fentanyl",
"fentanyl"
]
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"qualifier": "street name",
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang, street name) The opioid drug fentanyl."
],
"tags": [
"countable",
"slang",
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Horticulture",
"orig": "en:Horticulture",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "29 1 31 19 15 4",
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{
"_dis": "28 1 34 26 7 4",
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "25 1 32 25 14 3",
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Name given to cultivars of various tree, shrub and plant species, including dogwood, holly, orchids, etc."
],
"id": "en-China_girl-en-noun-xZkDNko6",
"links": [
[
"horticulture",
"horticulture"
],
[
"cultivar",
"cultivar"
],
[
"dogwood",
"dogwood"
],
[
"holly",
"holly"
],
[
"orchid",
"orchid"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(horticulture) Name given to cultivars of various tree, shrub and plant species, including dogwood, holly, orchids, etc."
],
"tags": [
"countable",
"uncountable"
],
"topics": [
"agriculture",
"business",
"horticulture",
"lifestyle"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "29 1 31 19 15 4",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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{
"_dis": "28 1 34 26 7 4",
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],
"examples": [
{
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],
"ref": "1987, Paul Allman, chapter 4, in No Pain, No Gain, page 24:",
"text": "Her hair was black and straight, cut in a demure China girl cut that didn’t quite match her aggressive looks.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
87,
97
]
],
"ref": "2002, James Flint, 52 Ways to Magic America, page 223:",
"text": "[…] when she was on her own she had to remove her contacts and don the chestnut brown ‘China Girl’ wig that was the centrepiece of her daily disguise.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
105,
115
]
],
"ref": "2004, Joel Barraquiel Tan, “Rondo”, in Edmund White and Donald Weise, editors, Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction, page 282:",
"text": "Rondo’s also over-the-top fem. Like Richard Simmons queeny, but the Chicano version with an asymmetrical China-girl bob.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Straight, glossy, cut short, with a fringe / bangs."
],
"id": "en-China_girl-en-noun-QMPswUu8",
"links": [
[
"fringe",
"fringe"
],
[
"bangs",
"bangs"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(attributively, with reference to hair) Straight, glossy, cut short, with a fringe / bangs."
],
"raw_tags": [
"with reference to hair"
],
"tags": [
"attributive",
"countable",
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "29 1 31 19 15 4",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Any of various cocktails."
],
"id": "en-China_girl-en-noun-qcP0Fd7L",
"links": [
[
"cocktail",
"cocktail"
]
],
"tags": [
"countable",
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English ethnic slurs",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Coordinate term: Chinaman"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A young woman of Chinese (or other East Asian) descent."
],
"id": "en-China_girl-en-noun-5RKvKQfV",
"links": [
[
"ethnic",
"ethnic"
],
[
"slur",
"slur"
],
[
"descent",
"descent"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(offensive, dated, ethnic slur) A young woman of Chinese (or other East Asian) descent."
],
"tags": [
"countable",
"dated",
"ethnic",
"offensive",
"slur",
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"word": "China girl"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English uncountable nouns",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "China girls",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "~"
},
"expansion": "China girl (countable and uncountable, plural China girls)",
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
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{
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{
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117,
127
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242,
252
],
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242,
254
]
],
"ref": "1993, Scott MacDonald, Avant-Garde Film: Motion Studies, page 60:",
"text": "A final group of Hollywood’s usually invisible working class is introduced in Fisher’s comments about the use of the China Girl, the images of women dressed in multicolored clothes that are often seen on heads and tails of reels of film. The China Girl’s function is to act as a color-control standard: The skin-tone of white skin is the norm against which other colors are measured.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
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[
152,
162
],
[
167,
177
]
],
"ref": "2000, Bret Stern, How to Shoot a Feature Film for Under $10,000^(https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7274698M/How_to_Shoot_a_Feature_Film_for_Under_10_000_(And_Not_Go_to_Jail)), page 172:",
"text": "It is really amazing how easily colorists can screw up the look of your film with a few misconceptions about proper skin tones and by using the dreaded china girl. (A china girl is a pasty white specimen of a girl that a colorist uses as a reference when balancing the colors on your film.)",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
274,
284
]
],
"ref": "2013, Rachel Kushner, chapter 6, in Flamethrowers, page 86:",
"text": "If the curtains in a film looked tennis-ball chartreuse and not some paler shade of yellow, it made no difference to the viewer. There was no original set of curtains they needed to resemble. Flesh is different. Flesh needs to resemble flesh. It has a norm, a referent: the China girl. Curtains can be acid-bright but not faces. And if faces look wrong, we question everything.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A moving or still image of a woman or mannequin, used by film processing technicians to calibrate colour balance and exposure of skin tones in reproduction."
],
"links": [
[
"film",
"film#Noun"
],
[
"image",
"image"
],
[
"mannequin",
"mannequin"
],
[
"calibrate",
"calibrate"
],
[
"balance",
"balance"
],
[
"exposure",
"exposure"
],
[
"skin tone",
"skin tone"
],
[
"reproduction",
"reproduction"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(US, film) A moving or still image of a woman or mannequin, used by film processing technicians to calibrate colour balance and exposure of skin tones in reproduction."
],
"tags": [
"US",
"countable",
"uncountable"
],
"topics": [
"broadcasting",
"film",
"media",
"television"
]
},
{
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"English slang"
],
"glosses": [
"The opioid drug fentanyl."
],
"links": [
[
"street name",
"street name"
],
[
"opioid",
"opioid"
],
[
"fentanyl",
"fentanyl"
]
],
"qualifier": "street name",
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang, street name) The opioid drug fentanyl."
],
"tags": [
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},
{
"categories": [
"en:Horticulture"
],
"glosses": [
"Name given to cultivars of various tree, shrub and plant species, including dogwood, holly, orchids, etc."
],
"links": [
[
"horticulture",
"horticulture"
],
[
"cultivar",
"cultivar"
],
[
"dogwood",
"dogwood"
],
[
"holly",
"holly"
],
[
"orchid",
"orchid"
]
],
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"(horticulture) Name given to cultivars of various tree, shrub and plant species, including dogwood, holly, orchids, etc."
],
"tags": [
"countable",
"uncountable"
],
"topics": [
"agriculture",
"business",
"horticulture",
"lifestyle"
]
},
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{
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],
"ref": "1987, Paul Allman, chapter 4, in No Pain, No Gain, page 24:",
"text": "Her hair was black and straight, cut in a demure China girl cut that didn’t quite match her aggressive looks.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
87,
97
]
],
"ref": "2002, James Flint, 52 Ways to Magic America, page 223:",
"text": "[…] when she was on her own she had to remove her contacts and don the chestnut brown ‘China Girl’ wig that was the centrepiece of her daily disguise.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
105,
115
]
],
"ref": "2004, Joel Barraquiel Tan, “Rondo”, in Edmund White and Donald Weise, editors, Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction, page 282:",
"text": "Rondo’s also over-the-top fem. Like Richard Simmons queeny, but the Chicano version with an asymmetrical China-girl bob.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Straight, glossy, cut short, with a fringe / bangs."
],
"links": [
[
"fringe",
"fringe"
],
[
"bangs",
"bangs"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(attributively, with reference to hair) Straight, glossy, cut short, with a fringe / bangs."
],
"raw_tags": [
"with reference to hair"
],
"tags": [
"attributive",
"countable",
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Any of various cocktails."
],
"links": [
[
"cocktail",
"cocktail"
]
],
"tags": [
"countable",
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English dated terms",
"English ethnic slurs",
"English offensive terms"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Coordinate term: Chinaman"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A young woman of Chinese (or other East Asian) descent."
],
"links": [
[
"ethnic",
"ethnic"
],
[
"slur",
"slur"
],
[
"descent",
"descent"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(offensive, dated, ethnic slur) A young woman of Chinese (or other East Asian) descent."
],
"tags": [
"countable",
"dated",
"ethnic",
"offensive",
"slur",
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"word": "China girl"
}
Download raw JSONL data for China girl meaning in All languages combined (5.5kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-10-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (1a05e46 and e3d6d4e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.