Rice burner
Template:Short description Template:Redirect-distinguish Template:Redirect Template:Redirect
Rice burner is a pejorative term originally applied to Japanese motorcycles and which later expanded to include Japanese cars or any East Asian-made vehicles.<ref name="The Motor Cycle"/><ref name=Lead/><ref name="Breitenstein 2004"/><ref name="Mustang Monthly 2002"/> Variations include rice rocket, referring most often to Japanese superbikes, rice machine, rice grinder or simply ricer.<ref name=Lead/><ref name="Matebese 2009"/><ref name="Palladino 2009"/>
Riced out is an adjective denigrating a badly customized sports car, "usually with oversized or ill-matched exterior appointments".<ref name="Palmisano 2010"/> Rice boy is a US derogatory term for the driver or builder of an import-car hot rod.<ref name="Breitenstein 2004"/> The terms may disparage cars or car enthusiasts as imposters or wanna-bes, using cheap modifications to imitate the appearance of high performance.
The term is often defined as offensive or racist stereotyping.<ref name="Green 2005"/><ref name="Herbst 1997"/> In some cases, users of the term assert that it is not offensive or racist,<ref name="Pierson 1998"/><ref name="Watson 2002"/> or else treat the term as a humorous, mild insult rather than a racial slur.<ref name="Ubinas 1999"/><ref name="NYT 2004"/><ref name="Heald 2003"/>
Early usage 1917 to 1930s
Examples of "rice burner" used literally, meaning one who burns rice or rice fields, as in stubble burning, date to 1917.<ref name="OED"/> In 1935 it appeared in a US newspaper caption with a racial connotation, disparaging East Asian people.<ref name="OED"/>
Korean War early 1950s
Canadian troops in the Korean War initially referred to the Korean labor and support unit providing their food, water, ammunition and other supplies as "G Company" which was code for the racist slur gook.<ref name="Watson 2002"/><ref name="OED"/> They quickly became known instead as "rice burners," due to the Canadians' admiration for their Korean support unit's demonstrated strength and stamina in carrying Template:Convert loads over rough terrain, sometimes in snow and ice.<ref name="Watson 2002"/> While dehumanizing the Koreans as machines that ran on rice was a form of contempt, it was condescendingly approved by the men serving at the time as an improvement over the word it replaced.<ref name="Watson 2002"/> Comparably, Alaskan slang for a sled dog is "fish burner," as in a beast of burden that runs on fish.<ref name="Blevins 2001"/><ref name="Gumbel 2003"/>
UK 1960s
"Rice-burner" appeared in the British motorcycling magazine The Motor Cycle in 1966 as a generally disparaging term for Japanese motorcycles.<ref name="The Motor Cycle"/>
US 1970s
By the 1970s, rice burner was a US English slang term for the Vietnamese people during and after the Vietnam War.<ref name="OED"/> It was used in the US by "Detroit loyalists" to disparage more economical Japanese competitors of the US car industry during the 1970s energy crisis.<ref name="Krebs 2001"/>
UK 1980s
"The Rice Burner" was a turbocharged Kawasaki Z1000-engined drag-bike, built and raced by North Coventry Kawasaki, a retail motorcycle business in Coventry, England, specializing in turbocharged conversion kits for street and competition machines procured from Jack O'Malley, of Orient Express, New York.<ref name="MCN"/>
Poser stereotype
T-Mobile's 2005 "Poser Mobile" parody advertisements created a stereotypical caricature "rice burner" or "boy racer" car as perceived by critics of the import scene, along with such cars' drivers, whose appearance and behavior is comically aspirational and "phony", contrasted with people whose clothing, speech, and cars are more "authentic".<ref name="Tanz 2011"/><ref name="Solman 2005"/> The video, online and point-of-purchase display ad campaign, created by the Publicis agency's Seattle office, was about the "Poser Mobile Posse", including "Big Spenda Lopez", "The Fee Jones", "25 cent Chang" who are weak imitations of both real hip hop performers and a "real" mobile phone provider.<ref name="Light 2005"/>
See also
- Ah Beng (Singapore/Malaysia)
- Antonym: sleeper
- Boy racer (UK term)
- Car tuning
- Hoon
- Import scene
- Street racing
Notes
References
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation