Chinaman’s chance, he hasn’t a/not a

No chance whatever. The term dates   from   the   latter   half   of   the   nineteenth   century,   when   Chinese immigrants  came  to  California  to  help  build  railroads. Their  presence  was sharply  opposed  because  they  would  work  for  far  less  than  white  workers.

“We  are  ruined  by  cheap  labor,” wrote  Bret  Harte  in  his  poem “Plain  Lan- guage from Truthful James.” According to some authorities, the term applied

to those Chinese who tried to supplement their earnings by working claims and  streams  abandoned  by  gold  prospectors, a  virtually  hopeless  undertak- ing. Others, poet John Ciardi among them, believe it derives from the way they were regarded as virtually subhuman and had no legal recourse if, for example,  they   were   robbed,  attacked,  or   otherwise   abused.  It   largely replaced the older not a dog’s chance, at least in America, but is now consid- ered offensive. Also see FAT CHANCE; SNOWBALL’S CHANCE.