AA Attitude toward F.O.B.s | Asian American Poll

ATTITUDE TOWARD F.O.B.S
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:18:17 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

Assuming you are an Asian American, what's your definition of an F.O.B. ("Fresh-off-the-boat" immigrant)?
Anyone not born in the U.S. | 31%
Anyone who speaks with a noticeable accent | 30%
Anyone who acts or dresses old-country | 39%

Assuming you are an Asian American, what's your attitude toward F.O.B.s?
I am fully open to friendships/relationships with them. | 44%
I am friendly but would not want to get too close. | 41%
I generally avoid them on a social level. | 15%

Assuming you are an Asian American, what do you find most annoying about F.O.B.s?
They play into offensive stereotypes. | 15%
They are obsessed with flashy materialism. | 39%
They maintain Asian customs and values. | 0%
They are no more annoying than other AA. | 46%

This poll is closed to new input.
Comments posted during the past year remain available for browsing.

CONTACT US | ADVERTISING INFO

© 1996-2013 Asian Media Group Inc
No part of the contents of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission.

WHAT YOU SAY

[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]

well, AAgirl, you made several wrong statements there. Vietnamese parents do not force their sons and daughters to marry people who they do not love. for instance, my parents and many other parents i know don't care who their sons/daughter marry as long as the groom/bride is a decent person. therefore, don't lable the culture this and that just base on your personal experience. It would be clearer for you to just blame it on your parents and how they are rather than blame it on the whole culture. it just makes vietnamese look bad.
Hello, if you haven't notice, AAgilr, American is also a patriachal society . The wife follows the husband after she marries. It's just that in the vietnamese society, family tends to live together that's why you see the wife lives with her husband's family. otherwise, the marriage couple would be on their own, and the wife goes with her husband.

let's get this straight. If a person is not a fob, then he/she is a whitewash. if not, then he/she is a fob. There's no way in between because i find most people who live in US for along time lose their sense of identity: they stop speaking their language for one, and they forget their culture. MOreover, by calling someone a fob, what does that prove to yourself? well, you are not a fob, yeah. but you are not white either, so you must be whitewashed.

I think Asians in America base their standards of behaviors and conducts on the white society and its culture rather than their own culture. for instance, the word "fob" was first used by Whites who dislike asians during the influx of immigrants in the early 20th century. Now, many asians use it, and most of the trends and stereotypes in US are started by whites anyway. If you notice, daredevil, stuntment, and anything that's eccentric are considered to be "cool" in the US. I wonder if it would still be "cool" if the asians were to be the eccentric ones.
viet horizon_blue21@yahoo.com Tuesday, July 23, 2002 at 14:42:31 (PDT)

Fobs are cool! Most of them are down to earth. Although I'm Americanized, I see that Fobs have stereotypes about Asian Americans. Most of them think that AA's are stuck up.

I don't care. I still talk to them regardless of stupid stereotypes.

Once you get to know them, you'll find that they are quite cultured, smart, very down to earth, sweet, sharing and most of all, EXTREMELY funny.
FOBs are Cool... Sunday, July 21, 2002 at 16:45:42 (PDT)

Steven

Yes, I do agreed with what you said. I myself, was born in Vietnam, but came to America when I was 9 years old. I cannot tell people that I'm totally traditional vietnamese, nor am I totally americanize, I do get annoyed when people label me certain things like "bananas" or "fob" or whatever. I feel that I do like some american culture and some vietnamese culture

For example I disagree with the vietnamese traditional culture about how when you are married, you are suppose to live with your husband's family, or how you should married a certain person just to make your parents happy instead of marrying them cause you love them.

But this doesn't mean that I'm white washed or whatever. There are thing that american people does that I do not like, just as vietnamese.

I do love the other part of the vietnamese culture, how when I use to live in vietnam, how people doesn't betrayed you as much, and how friendship is more true, the friendship I mostly experience in america is usually superficial, everyone talks to eachother, and when they get sick of you, they stop talking to you, and thus you hang out or talk to someone else.

I'm just saying how this is more likely in the U.S than in vietnam, but not everyone in U.S. are like that, I do have friends here.

I love vietnamese food, but I like to dress more americanize, and I like to have vietnamese friend, cause I usually have more in common with them than caucasion people.

I think that this makes me both, I'm not all or none on the culture thingies, I just hate it when people label me as one thing.
AAgirl Saturday, July 20, 2002 at 17:51:49 (PDT)

1. my bf is a true ABC.
2. thanks empyrean, maybe i can't judge all ABC's based on a couple of bad ones. i guess i am generalizing from the dozens that i know here in boston. but i am not speaking for them as a whole universal group. just here in boston.
3. maybe, and hopefully ABC's attitudes are different in other cities, but 90% of them here are the same.
4. i am talking about the ones i am connected with.

"stop the bs": get used to it, or ignore it. "Get real girl. " -- i think i am real, last time i pinched myself i felt real, i smell real i look real, so i think i am real. haha
Moonshineprincess Friday, July 19, 2002 at 17:48:35 (PDT)

Steven:

Thanks and hats off to you for sticking up for all jook-sings (ABCs, CBCs, etc.) We get a bad rap all the time.

For those of you who hate ABCs, maybe you've met a bad one in the past. And yes, there are snobby ones out there. But we're not all like that. On the flip side, you know how many times you hear FOBs degrade and humiliate ABCs because they don't know how to speak Chinese? Is it our fault some of us don't speak Chinese with the same fluency as FOBs? Is it our fault we don't know as much about the culture as folks back home? No and no. This is the result of being educated in a language and culture foreign to our ancestors. However, most of us sooner or later do try to catch up and learn as much as we can about our traditions. Like Steven said, you're Chinese because you just are.
cheerios Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 21:24:11 (PDT)

Steven:

I see your point. However...

ABCs are in no place to have any disdain for FOBs.

FOBs are not representations of the flaws of the Communist China. You also cannot say that they are the least caring of issues such as human/labor/religious right...
Just the opposite...they care so much that many of them give up prestige/social status in China to come here to the US where they have to start all over.

ABCs...I like to think of them as rather uncaring of issues back in China.
Actually...ignorant would be a better word.
Larri Kong Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 21:09:55 (PDT)

NEWEST COMMENTS | EARLIER COMMENTS