Rice burner

"Rice grinder" redirects here. Not to be confused with Ricing (cooking).

"Rice machine" redirects here. For the machine for cooking rice, see Rice cooker.

"Riceboy" redirects here. For the webcomic, see Evan Dahm.

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.^[2][3][4][5] Variations include rice rocket, referring most often to Japanese superbikes, rice machine, rice grinder or simply ricer.^[3][6][7]

T-Mobile's 1985 Corolla Sport GT-S coupé "Poser Mobile" advertisements exploited ethnic stereotypes and stereotypes of customized East Asian cars as failed imitations of "authentic" car culture.^[1]

Riced out is an adjective denigrating a badly customized sports car, "usually with oversized or ill-matched exterior appointments".^[8] Rice boy is a US derogatory term for the driver or builder of an import-car hot rod.^[4] 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.^[9][10] In some cases, users of the term assert that it is not offensive or racist,^[11][12] or else treat the term as a humorous, mild insult rather than a racial slur.^[13][14][15]

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.^[16] In 1935 it appeared in a US newspaper caption with a racial connotation, disparaging East Asian people.^[16]

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.^[12][16] 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 55 lb (25 kg) loads over rough terrain, sometimes in snow and ice.^[12] 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.^[12] Comparably, Alaskan slang for a sled dog is "fish burner," as in a beast of burden that runs on fish.^[17][18]

UK 1960s

"Rice-burner" appeared in the British motorcycling magazine The Motor Cycle in 1966 as a generally disparaging term for Japanese motorcycles.^[2]

US 1970s

By the 1970s, rice burner was a US English slang term for the Vietnamese people during and after the Vietnam War.^[16] 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.^[19] It continued to appear in US publications through the 2002 to as a put-down for Japanese and other Asian cars.^[16]

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.^[20]

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".^[1][21] 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.^[22]

See also

• Ah Beng (Singapore/Malaysia)
• Antonym: sleeper
• Boy racer (UK term)
• Car tuning
• Hoon
• Import scene
• Street racing

Notes

1. Tanz, Jason (2011), Other People's Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, pp. 179–180, ISBN 978-1608196531
2. • Motor Cycle 17 November 1966 pp.674–675 You Say This. "Won't last. ...Many a rice burner will be clapped out within four or five years, but the Tiger 90 would last about 12 years. Paul Ayres, Woking, Surrey". Accessed 4 May 2015
   • Motor Cycle 1 December 1966 pp.740–742 You Say This. "Challenge on. I was interested to see the correspondence regarding the Triumph T90 and the Suzuki Super Six and the challenge issued...Having sold and serviced many Triumphs and Suzukis, I feel qualified to act without bias. Had Paul Ayres (17 November) the experience of both makes, such as comes the way of a dealer with 16 years in the trade, he would not refer to the finest two-fifty motorcycle yet manufactured as a rice burner. K.R. Harris, Aitchanbee Motor Cycles, Harrow Weald, Middlesex." Accessed 4 May 2015
   • Motor Cycle 22 December 1966 pp.834–835 You Say This. "Proof. We do not consider the Suzuki Super Six to be a rice-burner. Indeed, after it has drunk its petrol, it will have little appetite for anything else. A two-fifty which needs a gallon of petrol every 47 miles to travel at 60 mph must be the ultimate in low efficiency. P.J. Worsnop, P. Woollven, Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottingham". Accessed 16 June 2015
3. Dictionaries and glossaries:

   • McCutcheon, Marc (2003), Roget's super thesaurus (3rd ed.), Writer's Digest Books, p. 378, ISBN 978-1-58297-254-1
   • Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry (2007), The concise new Partridge dictionary of slang and unconventional English, Routledge, p. 538, ISBN 978-0-415-21259-5
   • McKean, Erin, ed. (2003), The Oxford Essential Dictionary of New Words, Berkeley, p. 237, ISBN 0-425-19097-8
   • Dickson, Paul (2006), Slang; The topical dictionary of Americanisms, Walker & Company, p. 41, ISBN 0-8027-1531-1
   • Madden, Donna (2007), Sweet Machines & Bike Night Scenes, Lulu.com, p. 26, ISBN 978-1-4116-9778-2
4. Breitenstein, Jeff; Paiva, Troy (2004), Ultimate Hot Rod Dictionary, MotorBooks/MBI Publishing Company, p. 170, ISBN 978-0-7603-1823-2
5. "You might be a rice rocket jockey if. (Pony Tales).", Mustang Monthly, vol. 25, no. 5, p. 14, May 2002
6. Matebese, Lerato (19 November 2009), "Driving Impression. Putting Godzilla through its paces", Business Day, Johannesburg, South Africa
7. Palladino, D. J. (9–16 April 2009), "Formula Racing", Santa Barbara Independent, vol. 23, no. 169, Santa Barbara, California, p. 119
8. Palmisano, Trey (4 March 2010), "Toyota enthusiast embraces tuner culture", The Washington Examiner, Washington, D.C., archived from the original (HighBeam) on 18 May 2013, retrieved 22 September 2012
9. Green, Jonathon (2005), Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (2nd ed.), Sterling Publishing Company, p. 1189, ISBN 978-0-304-36636-1
10. Herbst, Philip (1997), The color of words: an encyclopedic dictionary of ethnic bias in the United States, Intercultural Press, p. 199, ISBN 978-1-877864-97-1
11. Pierson, Melissa Holbrook (1998), The Perfect Vehicle: What Is It About Motorcycles, W. W. Norton & Company, p. 166, ISBN 0-393-31809-5
12. Watson, Brent Byron (2002), "Rice Burners and KATCOMs", Far Eastern tour: the Canadian infantry in Korea, 1950-1953, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, pp. 65–66, ISBN 978-0-7735-2372-2
13. Ubinas, Helen (14 March 1999), "Motorcyclists Reclaim Youth With Hog-Wild Week In Florida; [7 Hartford North Final Edition]", The Hartford Courant, Hartford, Connecticut, p. A.1
14. "Spinning 'Rice Burners' Into Gold", The New York Times, New York, N.Y., p. D.10, 26 July 2004, retrieved 9 May 2011
15. Heald, Bill (15 June 2003), "Bike Speak; The Collected Lingo Of The Road Warrior", The Hartford Courant, Hartford, Connecticut, p. 14
16. "Rice burner". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
17. Blevins, Winfred (2001), Dictionary of the American West: over 5,000 terms and expressions from Aarigaa! to Zopilote (2nd ed.), Sasquatch Books, ISBN 978-1-57061-304-3
18. Gumbel, Andrew (27 August 2003), "Wings of desire; Harley-Davidson, the world's best-known two-wheeled brand, is 100 years old, and celebrating noisily. But is it still the epitome of youthful rebellion - or just a midlife-crisis plaything for the wealthy?", The Independent, London, UK, p. 2.3, retrieved 9 May 2011
19. Krebs, Michelle (19 October 2001), "Aging With Boomers, The Accord Turns 25", The New York Times, p. F1, retrieved 9 May 2011
20. • Motorcycle News 5 May 1982, p.39 "Follow the Rice Burner. Get your own at NCK. GPz550H1 Turbo built and developed for the road by NCK Performance Dept. POA". Accessed 13 January 2020
    • Motorcycle News 3 November 1982, p.32 The Mighty Middleweight. Boost your power — and ego — with a turbo. "Not wanting to be left out of the turbo cult, a Kawasaki dealer in Coverntry is importing kits from America and offering Big K's GP550 with the blower bolted on and ready to go...". Accessed 13 January 2020
21. Solman, Gregory (31 March 2005), "Publicis' Teen Gang Mugs for T-Mobile", Adweek  – via Gale General OneFile (subscription required)
22. Light, Claire (27 June 2005), "The "T" in "T-Mobile is for WTF?", Hyphen

References

• Best, Amy L. (2006), Fast Cars, Cool Rides: The Accelerating World of Youth and Their Cars (Google Books), NYU Press, pp. 80–106, ISBN 9780814799314, retrieved 22 September 2012
• Kinchen, David M. (2 June 2010), "Book Review: 'Big Sid's Vincati': Building a Special Motorcycle Brought Father and Son Together", Huntington News.net, Huntington, West Virginia, archived from the original on 21 February 2013, retrieved 22 September 2012, He's a master tuner of Vincents, a defunct and legendary British motorcycle brand – bikes that were the fastest production machines before the era of the Hayabusa and other 'rice burner' 'crotch rockets.'
• "Vintage year for a show", Liverpool Echo, Liverpool, England, 21 May 2004, archived from the original (HighBeam) on 18 May 2013, retrieved 22 September 2012, . Classic owners from all three areas are invited and you don't have to own a rice burner to compete; there are prizes for best British and European as well as best in show and runners up.
• Lowry, Brian (2 June 2004), "The Last Ride.(Movie Review)", Daily Variety, archived from the original (HighBeam) on 18 May 2013, retrieved 22 September 2012, If nothing else, the cross-generational bonding as they attempt to unravel what happened decades ago provides fertile ground for GTO-friendly dialogue: 'Maybe along the way, you might learn something about real cars,' Ronnie grumbles at one point, referring to Matt's import as a 'rice-burner.'
• Lutey, Tom (15 May 2003), "The right track; Teens' spirits and their engines get a rush at Spokane Raceway Park", The Spokesman-Review, retrieved 22 September 2012, Moline races a 'rice burner,' the label applied to the tiny import cars mostly from Japan. His 1992, turbo-charged AMC Eagle Talon was manufactured by Mitsubishi.
• McCuistian, Richard (1 January 2009), "Motor Age Garage: Hiding in Plain Sight. Old cars still need fixing, and with the right outlook it can be downright fun", Motor Age, archived from the original on 30 May 2013, retrieved 22 September 2012
• Matras, John (27 July 2004), "From 'rice burner' to golden oldie Early Japanese cars shunned in U.S. become collectors' items", International Herald Tribune, archived from the original (HighBeam) on 18 May 2013, retrieved 22 September 2012, Looking back at the first Datsun trucks and Toyota sedans to arrive in the United States in the late 1950s, it is easy to see why purists bristled at any suggestion that these ungainly Japanese 'rice burners might be collectible some day.
• Miller, John Mark (13 July 2010), "Schools; family; American cars (letters to the editor)", The Charleston Gazette, archived from the original on 24 May 2013, retrieved 22 September 2012, Editor: This letter is directed at all those people who just had to buy a Japanese car: Laid off? Hungry? Eat your rice burner!
• Nishioka, Joyce (27 June 2001), "Rice rocket; Inside the import car phenom", AsianWeek, archived from the original on 28 September 2012
• Raab, Scott (1 June 1999), "Diary of a Fat Man", Esquire, retrieved 22 September 2012
• Reavis, Dick (May 1979), "You Are What You Ride; Why you never meet the nicest people on a Harley", Texas Monthly, p. 106

External links