Chinese whispers

This expression has come to mean a cumulative error derived from mishearing or misreporting. The OED dates this meaning from 1964 as it appeared in the Guardian newspaper, but the game of Chinese whispers itself is a lot older, from the late 19th century, where six or more people whisper a short story to one another to see how it becomes distorted in the final narration. The name of the game derives from a mild racist perception that anything Chinese is incomprehensible.