rice burner

{{Short description|Pejorative term for a car with excessive cosmetic additions, often in 1980s Japanese style}}

{{Redirect|Rice machine|the machine for cooking rice|Rice cooker}}

File:Poser.JPG'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.]]

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. Variations include rice rocket, referring most often to Japanese superbikes, rice machine, rice grinder or simply ricer.

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

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

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. 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 {{convert|55|lb|kg|abbr=on}} loads over rough terrain, sometimes in snow and ice. 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. Comparably, Alaskan slang for a sled dog is "fish burner," as in a beast of burden that runs on fish.

UK 1960s

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

US 1970s

By the 1970s, rice burner was a US English slang term for the Vietnamese people during and after the Vietnam War. 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.

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.

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". 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.

Notes

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Dictionaries and glossaries:

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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

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

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References

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{{Citation |title= Book Review: 'Big Sid's Vincati': Building a Special Motorcycle Brought Father and Son Together |date= 2 June 2010 |first= David M. |last= Kinchen |newspaper= Huntington News.net |location= Huntington, West Virginia |url= http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/columns/100602-kinchen-columnsbookreview.html |quote= 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.' |access-date= 22 September 2012 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130221150736/http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/columns/100602-kinchen-columnsbookreview.html |archive-date= 21 February 2013 |df= dmy-all }}
{{Citation |title= Vintage year for a show |newspaper= Liverpool Echo |location= Liverpool, England |date= 21 May 2004 |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-117013263.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130518200733/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-117013263.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 18 May 2013 |format= HighBeam |quote= . 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. |access-date= 22 September 2012 }}
{{Citation |title= The Last Ride.(Movie Review) |newspaper= Daily Variety |date=2 June 2004 |last= Lowry |first= Brian |format= HighBeam |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-118686918.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130518201143/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-118686918.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 18 May 2013 |quote= 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.' |access-date= 22 September 2012 }}
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{{Citation |title= From 'rice burner' to golden oldie Early Japanese cars shunned in U.S. become collectors' items |newspaper= International Herald Tribune |date=27 July 2004 |last= Matras |first= John |format= HighBeam |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-96847205.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518205420/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-96847205.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 May 2013 |quote= 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. |access-date= 22 September 2012 }}
{{Citation |title= Schools; family; American cars (letters to the editor) |quote= Editor: This letter is directed at all those people who just had to buy a Japanese car: Laid off? Hungry? Eat your rice burner! |url= http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/201007130645?page=2 |newspaper= The Charleston Gazette |first= John Mark |last= Miller |date= 13 July 2010 |access-date= 22 September 2012 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130524172545/http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/201007130645?page=2 |archive-date= 24 May 2013 |df= dmy-all }}
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