Got Rice?

The phrase "Got Rice?" is a term that was coined by Asian American youth in the 1990s shortly after the original "Got Milk?" advertising campaign for the California Milk Board in 1993. The phrase has since come to be used as a symbol for the cohesiveness of Asian American cultural identity and cultural pride, especially on the Internet. It's usually mentioned close to the Asian Pride slogan.

The humor is derived from the fact that rice is often considered a staple food of many Asian cultures and that milk is not a traditional food in Asian culture. The slogan can thus be viewed as an Asian American cultural response to American media and advertising.

T-shirt campaign

While the phrase itself presumably began as Asian American slang, the first notable usage is the t-shirt campaign first started by the Asian American magazine "Yolk". [cite news
author= Olivia Barker
title= Eastern Influences Become Icons of Popular Culture
url = http://www.modelminority.com/article8.html
publisher=USA Today
date = March 22, 2001] Soon, other Asian American organizations began promoting the phrase and selling similar t-shirt designs.The organizations and their proponents intended for the t-shirts to be a fun way of promoting Asian American cultural heritage:

"Political identi-tees don’t all have to be so in-your-face. The Japanese American National Museum (http://www.janm.org/) in L.A.’s Little Tokyo offers an array of kinder, gentler tees commemorating aspects of Japanese-American heritage both fun and serious. Among the most popular designs, a line of adult and baby tees feature the rallying cry of the lactose liberation movement, "Got Rice?" [cite news
author= S. D. Ikeda
url=http://www.imdiversity.com/Villages/Asian/arts_culture_media/archives/ikeda_asian_tshirts1_archived.asp
title= Identi-tees: Stereotypes, Abercrombie & the Chest as a Battlefield | publisher=IMDiversity.com]

Many in the Asian American community viewed the design as evidence of significant progress for the viability of Asian American culture and identity; whereas before identity may have been enforced on Asians via stereotypes from the dominant society, the "Got Rice?" shirts were an attempt by Asian Americans to define their identity and to take back those symbols used to stereotype them.

"For early Asian Americanists it was important that a distinction between Asians and Asian Americans was made; the U.S. borders were thus highly relevant in order to define Asian American identity. The t-shirts now sold by an Asian American magazine sporting the slogan "Got rice?" would not have sold well then. This t-shirt slogan is an allusion to the "Got Milk" ad campaign in which famous people tell you why you should drink milk, but in which items that are more or less inseparable from milk, such as a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich or a chocolate-chip cookie are also included. People would have tried to avoid fulfilling stereotypes at all costs, even in jokes. Nowadays there are multiple ways to read and deal with stereotyping and even to play with it. [Heike Berner. (2003) "Home Is Where the Heart Is? Identity and Belonging in Asian American Literature". Ph.D. Dissertation, Ruhr-Universität Bochum.]

The phrase, as well as the t-shirt, continues to enjoy wide popularity today among Asian American youths.

Rap song

A song entitled "Got Rice?" was also produced shortly after 1998 by a Chinese youth from Texas.The song was released on the internet, and is set to the tune of hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur's song "Changes", arguably one of his most famous and influential songs, from his album "Greatest Hits", released posthumously in 1998. (The original riff for the song is from Bruce Hornsby and the Range's "The Way It Is.")The song is thus an example of borrowing of media and self-representation from one American minority (African Americans) by another (Asian Americans). Later, there was also a popular Adobe Flash animation video accompanying the song, made by the late Mike Sambrone.

The song features the refrain "Got rice bitch, got rice" and ends with "'Cause we got the life baby... Asian Pride!"It proved to be highly popular, albeit controversial, and has been reproduced, remade several times and changed.It has been suggested that it be satirized into the song "Got Ice?", to speak against global warming.Positive reaction focused on the humor (and parodic) value of the animation, as well as the bold expressions of cultural identity and pride. It praises the educational attainment, knowledge, intelligence, looks and money of Asian people while degrading other people and also mentions countries of Asia, namely Vietnam, Japan, Mongolia, Philippines, Taiwan, Cambodia, Korea, and China with respect.

The lyrics are as follows:It's the A-Z-N, nigga FUCK the restDallas to New York, jiggaWe da bestVietnam to Japan to MongoliaPhilippines to Taiwan to CambodiaKorea- aaaaaaHometown China, who you got, huh?You got shit, nigga feel the sizeit's the A-Z-N, betta recognize,

Got rice, bitch, Got rice?Got food. got soup, got spice?Got Brains like us, Got skills like us,Got cars, got clothes, got girls like us?

What's up, you the shitand we kill you all foolsWe got money in the bank from our family jewelsCan you help it if we raid and corrupt the schools?It don't matter, fuck the lawShit, we break the rulesWe jack cars, we form gangsBaby, we got the toolsBreak it out, shoot it up, then we play some poolwe fuck you, we fuck all, but we don't think it's cool1 on 1, FUCK THATIt's 3 on 1, no duels

Got Rice bitch, Got Rice?Got anything you can show that is nice?Got cats, go booze, got thoughts like us?Fuck no, hell, you're white, you'll never be like us.

Take off your shoes when you enter pleaseOr crawl around on the floor with your fucking knees Don't mind the smell, you'll get used to itMocked walls, fried squid and that Budda shitWhat the hell is that?You think i don't see? No forks in the houseChopsticks only, Have a taste, don;t be scaredtry the Lemon tea.You don't want?Taht's alright, try to fuck on Lee

Got rice bitch? Got rice?Anything you can show that is nice?

Good luck is bad unless you run and hideCuz we got the life babyASIAN PRIDE

See also

*Asian Pride
* Nationalism
** Ethnic nationalism
** Diaspora Nationalism
*Asian American
*American-born Chinese

External links

* [http://www.starterupsteve.com/swf/Asian.html Got Rice? animation video]

References