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]