The Heathen Chinee is a narrative poem by the American writer Bret Harte. It was originally published in the year 1870 with the name Plain Language from Truthful James. The poem has a deep historical significance. The writer was against any kind of racial discrimination. The poem was written as a satire on the prejudice that Irish laborers had against Chinese immigrants in North California at that time. However, the general public and the writers and publishers as a whole took it as a poem against Chinese immigrants and used it in protests against these immigrants.