# Chinese writing on cars? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 28, 2000, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-writing-on-cars/31050 "2000-08-28T16:22:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-writing-on-cars/31050/1 "2000-08-28T16:22:04Z")
Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of cars driving around (usually the ones that look like they shouldn’t have a spoiler, but do anyway) that have Chinese pictograms (or whatever they’re called) painted on them. Is this some sort of secret club that I don’t know about? Do the words mean anything? Or are these just idiots who thought Chinese writing looked pretty cool? ---
**Author:** ![Yarster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7c8e57/32.png) [@Yarster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yarster)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-writing-on-cars/31050/2 "2000-08-28T17:05:20Z")
Here in San Diego, you see this a lot in the primarily Asian and Filipino neighborhoods. My WAG is that they may be chinese proverbs that probably say something to the effect of ‘this vehicle is fast like the divine wind’ or ‘this man has a big penis’ or something to that effect. They are especially common around here on customized Honda Civics and Toyota Supras, which actually lead me to believe they were Japanese writing, although now that you mention it, it does look more Chinese in nature. I think they caught on because (around here at least): 1. You have a lot of people who are mixed-breed Asian but associate with one specific group (‘Filipino Pride’) 2. You have a lot of people in car clubs that race their little Japanese cars around town Thus, the writing both connotes racial pride and because others in your car club use that particular proverb, saying, or whatever, it advertises to the rest of the world (and Asian racing community) that you belong to that specific car club… ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-writing-on-cars/31050/3 "2000-08-28T17:12:14Z")
There are very, very few Asians around here. Everyone I’ve seen driving the emblazoned cars were white Southerners. Perhaps the trend you mention simply caught on different ethnicites who thought the symbols looked cool. Heck, I guess they do look pretty cool. I wouldn’t put them on my car, though. ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-writing-on-cars/31050/4 "2000-08-28T20:20:49Z")
I’ve seen these things stuck onto cars around here too. The same kind of cars that had the “fear this” and “bad boyz bad toyz” stickers. I have only seen these on round-eye owned cars. I often wonder if they say something like “this gwailo was screwed out of 15 dollars for this sticker” or something along those lines. It’s just another “I’m gonna put a sticker on my car!” fads. I’ve seen tatoos similar to the stickers as well. I bet some of the more obnoxious customers in the tatoo shop get a character just a _ **tiny** _ bit different than what they asked for. ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-writing-on-cars/31050/5 "2000-08-28T20:24:44Z")
I’ve seen these things stuck onto cars around here too. The same kind of cars that had the “fear this” and “bad boyz bad toyz” stickers. I have only seen these on round-eye owned cars. I often wonder if they say something like “this gwailo was screwed out of 15 dollars for this sticker” or something along those lines. It’s just another “I’m gonna put a sticker on my car!” fads. I’ve seen tatoos similar to the stickers as well. I bet some of the more obnoxious customers in the tatoo shop get a character just a _ **tiny** _ bit different than what they asked for. -your favorite neighborhood gwailo. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-writing-on-cars/31050/6 "2000-08-28T20:29:46Z")
You can find detailed descriptions of this phenomenon at the Rice Boy Page and at Beaterz.com. ---
**Author:** ![absoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@absoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absoul)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-writing-on-cars/31050/7 "2000-08-28T20:55:00Z")
What is the best performance upgrade that you can to to your sporty machine??? What is it you may ask??? Stickers. Yes, that’s right. Large yellow ones are the best. A red “type R” on anything says… I’m fast----- ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2000, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-writing-on-cars/31050/8 "2000-08-28T21:00:36Z")
The pages are [http://www.riceboypage.com](http://www.riceboypage.com) and [http://www.beaterz.com](http://www.beaterz.com) . ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-writing-on-cars/31050/9 "2000-08-29T00:23:30Z")
ENugent: The most likely reason that your links are broken is that you forgot to put the http:// in front of the URLs… The software doesn’t like that.