Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. having the characteristics of the Eurasian stereotype, esp. the supposed mincing pronunciation, thus pretentious, affected or smart, stylish; thus a mixed race individual.

1781		Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 17 Mar. n.p.: Pretty little looking-glasses, Good and cheap for chee-chee misses [Hobson-Jobson].
1851		Morn. Post (London) 2 June 2/3: A cripple, and an inmate of the Brighton Workhouse, has been declared entitled to a sum of 2,184l. 18s 6d [...] under the will of a maternal great uncle, a person of ‘chee-chee’ extraction.
1857		Manchester Courier 7 Nov. 4/5: Indian words. Cheechee, half-caste.
1869		Fraser’s Mag. LXXX 340: Both speak English with a strong Eurasian (chee chee) accent ; and both are alike vain, frivolous, idle, false, and pusillanimous.
1877		Blackwoods Edinburgh Mag. CXXI 547/2: But however justly we may talk about a ‘chee-chee’ accent, the application of such an epithet to a harmless race, whose worst fault is its insignificance, is quite indefensible.
1880		‘Sir Ali Baba’ 21 Days in India 122: Upon her lips hung the accents of the tchi-tchi tongue.
1885		L. Emanuel Jottings [...] of a Bengal ‘qui hye’ 49: These other dames of mixed blood [...] called ‘half-caste,’ ‘country-born,’ [...] or in the vernacular uncomplimentary slang, ‘Chee-chee!’.
1890		Kipling ‘The Story of the Gadbsys’ in Soldiers Three (1907) 138: The little Doones would be little Dehra Doones, with a fine Mussoorie chi-chi accent to bring home for the holidays.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Sept. Red Page/3: Indian curry (real curry, not the chee-chee abomination trading under its name in Australian restaurants) is excellent for Eastern stories of imperialistic tendency.
1904		Kipling ‘The Comprehension of Private Copper’ in Traffics and Discoveries 168: You ain’t ’alf-caste, but you talk chee-chee — pukka bazar chee-chee.
1912		P.C. Wren Dew & Mildew 407: ‘Lieutenant Harriss, mann, who is commanding this companee ? Iss itt you or me ? Lett them isstand easee while I tink.’ [...] Good God ! The man was ‘chee-chee!’ [...] a half-caste, a ‘chee-chee’ chatterer.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 72: ‘There was some that said she was chee-chee [...] She thought her gran was a Chink . . . that’s all’.
1931		B. Lubbock Bully Hayes 2: I heard him speak in a refined English voice without any trace of Cheechee sing-song.
1947		Sat. Eve. Post 8 Mar. 126: It was a nice voice, not chi-chi, natural.
1957		F. King Man on Rock 172: If any accent should be called chi-chi, that should.
1964		E. Wilson Earl Wilson’s N.Y. 160: There are several very chi-chi or ‘tone’ outdoor places.
1978		(con. 1940s) J.G. Farrell Singapore Grip 116: A Eurasian [...] You can tell them by their chi-chi accent.
1981		(con. 1966) P. Conroy Lords of Discipline 29: I’m going to [...] let y’all literati get in some chi-chi cultural chit-chat before dinner.

2. (W.I.) non-black.

1983

T. White Catch a Fire 113: The asthmatic white ‘chi-chi’ buses, the fancy, hydraulic, inter-city variety.