To Western sensibilities, some Asian cultures, particularly Chinese, can seem very impolite. They talk loudly and sharply, and come across as bossy and impatient. This actually stems from
simple culture clashing. It's not to say rude Asian people don't exist, but the kind of behavior we associate as rudeness comes from factors related to culture and language.
For one thing, the way Asian people talk is mainly an unfortunate result of applying the tone and meter of their own languages to languages where that kind of speaking is the way rude people talk.
For another thing, it's a matter of differing cultural notions of what is rude and what isn't.
Chinese Etiquette
can be as foreign as the language, and might even be confused for being an
Etiquette Nazi.
While usually
Played for Laughs in fiction, this can even be
Played for Drama, especially among children of Asian immigrants,
who get the confusion of growing up among these clashing cultures.
Might even cause
Stop Being Stereotypical. Can also overlap with
Asian Store Owner as well as with
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy.
French Jerk is a common Occidental equivalent.
Contrast
Japanese Politeness (although Japanese people are not always portrayed as polite),
Inscrutable Oriental.
Examples:
Comedy
Film
Live-Action TV
- Played with on Las Vegas, with Polly the Korean manicurist. She's rude as anything, not because she's unusually bossy or callous, but because she doesn't hesitate to prattle on and on about her sex life in mixed company.
Video Games
- Kanae Tsuji, a Japanese doctor from Trauma Center: New Blood, is based on this type of character in American dramas.
Web Comics
- Tales of a Gay Asian: Mr Bak-mei reminisces being saved by Americans, only to hurl racial slurs when he sees they are black. Not only the old angry Asian man, but Sengchou the blonde transsexual, despite her whitewashed appearance is weirded out by tanning and doesn't give eye contact to whites. However, compared to Bak-mei it is mostly ego related, not racial.
Western Animation
- A minor The Simpsons character Cookie Kwan, #1 on the West Side (although she also works on the East Side... but stay out of the West Side!). She's been a minor recurring character ever since this appearance.
- Another example has Homer about to beat up the chefs in a sushi restaurant when they shout a greeting at him in Japanese. He's mollified when Akira tells him they just thanked him for coming, and shouts back (in English), "YOU'RE WELCOME!!!"
- In Family Guy, Stewie recalls a Mall Santa who was Asian and like this.
- Mr. Washee Washee, the Griffins' dry cleaner who Peter fights with.
- In American Dad Francine's adoptive parents are like this to Stan (in a rare reversal of Stan being the victim of the flaming Jerkassery instead of giving it), but they are the ones that step up and rescue Stan from a burning building.
- Kahn and his family from King of the Hill, who are Laotian.
- Except in Kahn's case it's not simply a clash of cultures; he really is a Jerkass who openly insults his neighbors by calling them hillbillies. Although in later seasons he mellows out significantly and even becomes friends with Hank.
- Jackie Chan Adventures: Uncle is usually this, even to his family, but there are occasions when he is extremely polite.
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: Di Lung, Chinese inventor of Mecha Courage, better known for the following one-liner: "Watch where you're going, you fool!"
- Amy Wong in Futurama, and her parents even more so.
Real Life
- Alexandra Wallace posted a video complaining about Asians being rude in a library. The girl's "ching chong ting tong" line, make her come across as the rude one.
- In Real Life, there's Edsel Ford Fong, a waiter at San Francisco's Sam Wo restaurant who was famous for his rudeness.
