China bug

English

Noun

China bug (plural China bugs)

  1. (US, ethnic slur, historical) A fresh off the boat Chinese-American immigrant.
    • 1977, Joe Fong, quotee, Unemployment and Crime: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, First and Second Sessions on Unemployment and Crime, page 820:
      The ABCs called us FOBs—Fresh Off the Boat—or China Bugs. Even the American-born Chinese referred to us as ‘Chinese’—as though they were not.

Usage notes
  • Used by American-born Chinese Americans.

References
  • Lorraine Dong, Marlon K. Hom (1980) “Chinatown Chinese: The San Francisco Dialect”, in Amerasia‎
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.