China bug

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English[edit]

Noun[edit]

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[edit]

  • Used by American-born Chinese Americans.

References[edit]

  • Lorraine Dong, Marlon K. Hom (1980) “Chinatown Chinese: The San Francisco Dialect”, in Amerasia‎[1]
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