These are some of the more memorable great mail responses I received during the early years of this site. These are the earliest, most encouraging letters that I received. Bear in mind that a lot of the information may be outdated, as these letters date back as far as 1997 and 1996!
This response surprised me very much, because it came from Terence in Toronto. It was my very first international response. I received it when this page was still very new and word had not spread very much, so I thought "Wow... a response from Canada!" What surprised me even more than where it came from is what his first sentence says: "WOW! I thought that only people in Toronto did weird stuff like that to their cars." It surprised me because at the time I didn't even know there existed anything like this outside of Southern California.
Of course, now I know that riceboys exist all over the globe and I regularly receive responses from every continent (well, maybe not Antarctica, and I don't think I've gotten one from Africa yet).
"WOW! I thought that only people in Toronto did weird stuff like that to their cars. In all honesty though, some of those guys here are pretty good with that. Not as good as they brag though. I once had a friend (not to mention any names, who claimed that he souped up his CIVIC DX so much that he took on a 1995 911 and won. Right. Then, he had the nerve to tell me that he could take on my race-modified MX-6 LS and win. Well, I guess I'll just have to prove him wrong. GO figure. It was funny to see that I'm not the only one who notices the things people will do to make their cars look faster. Like all those pre-95 Integra's that had a V-tech badge on them. Right, silver GS-R's didn't even come out until 1996 (well, that's what year they came out here.) Or (I love this one) all those AUTOMATIC prelude SR-V's, or those 4 door BMW M3's. Although, I have to admit that those Supra wings look nice. Well, maybe not on the old accords, or those old integra's, but they're not too bad. Actually, I know a lot of people who actually make their cars go a LOT faster. I have a friend with a Talon TSI, and he put a five inch cannon on the back, and modified his power flow and headers, and the thing smokes. You can also work wonders with a Passat VR6. Fog lights here are pretty popular too. Especially the PIAA 1000's. the 1200's just came out, and ROAD BOY's are becoming popular too (only because their cheaper.) I honestly thought that after-market addons were a thing found only in Toronto and Vancouver. That's interesting. Most times I visited the states, I would see about 2 or 3 imports. Aren't american people supposed to stick to Ford's and Chrysler's and stuff? :) If you're coming to Toronto this summer, you can check out Import Super Drags. It's this race day at a race track called Shannonville that we're sponsoring, along with all those after-market shops. In fact, you could bring up your car and take a few laps. We decided to make a race day because people were getting a little too cocky up here, so we're going to see what they're really made of. Well, gotta go, don't want to give that DX too much of a head start."
I guess Prelude SR-V is in Canada what Prelude VTEC is in the US. Terrence has offered to send me some photos of Canadian Rice to be put up here.
Here is another response from Toronto, this time, by a friend of Terrence's:
It's kinda funny how California is so far away, yet we have the exact same trends here in Toronto. That "typical rice-boy" car looks exactly like my friends. Me and Terence, a earlier visitor of your page are hoping to start our own extension of Rice-Boys on our youth groups page...
You know, I was always wondering if someone else had as boring a life as I do to make a Rice-Boy page :) But at the same time, I'm glad that other people share my sentiments about at least one thing.
This next response came from an Asian-American female, in San Diego. She specifically requested that I print her message in its entirety. She really wants her voice to be heard, so here you go!
By the way, I am no longer taking responses to this woman's letter, it was from a long time ago!!
Oh joy that the World Wide Web is quickly becoming indispensable to our existence for I've forever had the urge to vent my annoyances on an international scale about those so-called Rice Boys, of which there are tons and tons and tons here in southern California and, so I am told, throughout North America, unfortunately. Vroom vrrrooom! Now, I offer a uniquely Asian female viewpoint on this ever growing subculture of eraser-headed losers, so listen up! After reading this you will no longer wonder why so many of us jump ship and go for white guys.
I speak on behalf of all attractive, intelligent, goal-oriented Asian women out there when I say I have way, way, way better things to do than sit in the passenger seat alongside a wanna-be-hard Rice Boy and his 30-plus entourage of like-minded friends on a Friday or Saturday night. Just who do you think you are zipping around in those slammed Japanese sportsters and trying, though failing miserably, to look and be cool, all the meanwhile disturbing the peace and quiet in the process? Do you honestly think your machismo front is fooling the public? No, seriously? Do you? Well, think again!
The truth is, the lengths you Rice Boys go to slam your base-model Civics, Sentras, Integras, and Eclipses, then conceitedly showcase them to the public, are so ridiculous that I, and numerous others as fellow Asians, feel positively embarrassed for you! Just what do those tacky white racing stripes, oversized spoilers, booming sound systems, and pitch black windows, among the many, many, many other annoying, pointless additions, do to enhance your value as a person? Your expensive toy will prove utterly useless just a few years from now when suddenly you are forced to say hello to the real world and finally abandon your meaningless little hobby. Wake up, people!
What fun it will be to watch you get left in the dust as other, more respectable Asians successfully brave the ugly world as adults, leaving you to wish you were involved in somewhat less idiotic activities as youths. Yeah, that's right. You will at some point be forced to get real lives and part with your pathetic Rice Boy existence, but by then it will likely be too late to redeem what could have been. I suppose those of us with real aspirations should be grateful for this only further opens the doors of opportunity for us. For shame though, isn't it, that those long hours you spent carefully perfecting speedracer-mobile will be all for naught! Well, don't come crying to us once reality gives you a cold slap in the face. All well have to offer to little loser you is a smug "I told you so."
Now bring on dem white boys!
People seem to agree with some of what she was saying but disagree with some of the other stuff. This guy asked me to put this up to defend himself as an asian american male:
I understand your feelings of annoyance to those so-called "Rice Boys", however, it sounds as though you have lost all faith on all Asian males. As an Asian male, I have to tell you that we are not all "Rice Boys". For one thing, not all of us have the money to spend on our cars. Even if we did have the money to spend on our cars; it is just like girls spending tons of money on their make-up or clothes. Same SHIT!! I would also like to comment on your last few words. It sounds very enthusiastic.
I hope you don't like white-washed orientals; I mean you have to have some culture in yourself. White boys are not all that good and dandy themselves. They drive their share of beasts of cars such as Mustangs; Cammaros; and Corvettes. They are just as annoying or even more. And when they rev their engines, it doesn't even sound good. Please give Asian males another chance.
But i don't even agree completely with what this guy is saying either-- I happen to like the sound of a small block V-8 revving...
Here is another response to that response:
Most of Asian guys are not like that you know, and you can't catagolize Koreans, Japnese, and Chinese etc. as an Asian...you can catagolize Korea, Japan, and China as "asia" but people, no, you just can't...She wants to get with white guys cause of that?!! Good god?!! Maybe she needs to move over here to east coast...NYC!!!
Here is a response from a guy who has never seen a rice-boy in his life:
I thought your web page was quite amusing. I thought the responses were particularly hilarious. I do not know about Southern California or Toronto, but I have never heard or seen anyone mutilate their cars like that. So you have expanded my knowledge of the world at large. I live in Chicago and I have never seen anything like that. Realistically speaking, if you did that here in the city of Big Shoulders you would be laughed out of existence. Besides, the stickers will peel off in the 115 degree summer humidity and those grotesque spoilers will freeze and fall off in the -80 degree winter. The salt will ruin the paint job, and the five million pot holes will ruin the rims. Your car will look dirty most of the time. Gee, what do people in Toronto do during the winter? I guess they store their rice rockets and drive normal cars like everyone else.
People from Chicago are either enlightened, or haven't yet fallen into the horrid depths of the Rice-Boy syndrome...
It must have been the latter because I later received a responce from another person in Chicago that seemed to report the rice-boy presence there.
He had this to add in response to the San Diegan female:
The thing that Asian males value here are our non-existent basketball skills. I agree with the many points of the disgruntled Asian female that posted, but I do hope she realizes that not all Asian men are like this. Of course, it is still her right to seek and date white men (or black or latino or whatever).
The Asian female felt the need to respond to those who responded to her comment, and here is her response. By the way, this will be the last response I will take on this topic (I don't want this page turning into a message board...)
P.S. I am proud to say the only "extra" I had installed on my 90 Acura
Integra was my air conditioning.
I never at any point said I was attracted to white guys. I was merely
pointing out that there are FAR MORE Asian women than Asian men who
choose non-Asian mates, and the Rice Boy subculture has a lot to do with
this. Just because I feel this way does not mean I am white-washed.
Nor does it mean that I go for white guys. Nor does it mean that the
Asian men I go for are white-washed. What it DOES mean... is the Rice
Boy subculture is lame. It's that simple. And by the way, my boyfriend
IS Asian and the most pro-Asian dude you could ever meet.
This response is from a guy named Yi who left no e-mail address, but had some technical disagreements... sort of. Not really pertaining to rice-boys but I've been getting similar responses so I thought I would publicize this one.
Before we get into it, I'd like to remind everyone again that these responses are old and may contain outdated information. What may have been true in 1996 may not be true today. The Automotive market is changing all the time. Please don't send me anything telling me my facts are wrong before checking your dates!
Here is some bad news...........The rice-boys problem has
came to Washington D.C!!!. You see them every where. Driving their
so called
"sports" cars around. But they don't even race......these cars are
not even
fast.. All of the things you said happens here too, (super wings,
fake
stickers, headlight covers, and fake exhaust tips) I am not making
fun of
them. I am a asian male too, I also drive a honda civic EX ( I only
has some
fog lights on it, and I don't turn them on during the day) But
there is some
points of yours I don't agree with. I was never a big fan of
American made
cars, they suck in gas like as if they had a hole in the gas tank.
I know, my
brother has a Camaro Z28. I like my Civic much more, its less
costly to drive
and has less problems.. well.......thats all......I am sorry for the
mis-spellings and other mistakes......Keep up the good work!!! GET
THEM
RICE-BOYS!!!!!
Mostly I'm responding to the comments about American cars. First I want to make it clear that I have nothing against Japanese cars, but I think there have to be some stereotypes about American cars that need to be cleared up.
American cars no longer "suck gas as if they had a hole in the gas tank". Everyone seems to use the Camaro as an example, but I would like to point out that the manual V6 Camaro is rated at just about 30 highway miles per gallon. So, that's not as much as a Civic you say? A Civic (actually no American market Hondas, short of the NSX) also does not produce the 200 horsepower, nor the torque that comes with 6 cylinders and 3.8 liters of displacement (that come with the *BASE* engine of the Camaro). I think it's also worth mentioning that the V6 Camaro can be had for about $17,000 (or less??). And I highly doubt that the Civic gets significantly better milage than a Ford Escort. Basically what I am saying is that Japanese cars are not the only ones capable of getting good milage.
As long as we are talking about the Z28, yes it does use more gas than your civic or other Japanese cars... but any civic that has been fixed up so much that it makes the 285 horsepower of the Z28 doesn't get any better milage than a Z28. Nor the torque of a 5.7 liter V8. Nor is it any more reliable (probably less reliable) than the Chevy small block. If you want to talk about gas milage, you also have to consider the weight of the car as well as how much power each car makes. You can't say a Geo Metro is a better car than a Toyota Supra just because it gets 50 MPG...
And as far as the reliability issue goes, I'm undecided on this one. I'm not so sure that American cars are as unreliable as they used to be or people say they were or are. But even so, maybe a Honda does break down less often, but I think that this is made up for by the fact that it just more to fix an import car than it costs to fix an American car. And certainly a 285 horse, turbocharged Honda will require more maintanance than a stock one... Also, Japanese cars are not necessarily always more reliable than American cars. For example, the Mitsubishi Eclipse got worse reliability reports than just about every car (yes, even Mustangs and Camaros) from J.D. Powers and Associates.
Basically, the point I'm making to people who keep bagging on American cars is this: A Civic that can beat a Camaro Z28: (a) gets no better gas milage than the Z28, (b) still produces less low end torque than a V8, and (c) is most likely less reliable than the supposedly unreliable American V8. And on top of that, a civic with all those modifications costs more than just about any Camaro Z28...
Like I said before, I have nothing against Japanese cars. If honda came out with a 285 horsepower Civic that still had better gas milage and torque than a Camaro, I wouldn't even be responding to this question. I'm not saying that you can't like your Civic. There is nothing wrong with the Civic, it's a great car built for a certain purpose, and the Camaro is a great car built for a certain, different purpose. What's wrong is comparing a Civic's milage is better than a Camaro's milage. The cars aren't in the same class... one has an engine twice the size of the other (or in the case of the Z28, almost FIVE TIMES the size). It's just not right to compare the gas milage, just as it wouldn't be right to compare their POWER and say the Civic is worse than the Camaro because the Camaro gets 285 horsepower and is a hell of a lot faster. We've got apples and oranges here...
I own a 1994 rx-7 and these 110 hp burner econoboxes make me want to throw up. They want to compare exhaust tips and sticker packages, and I just want to ignore them. I have an Akimoto bazooka tube coming out the end of my car, but it is built to handle and puts out 300 hp. These guys don't understand that they have taken cars that are only designed to provide miles per gallon, and destroy them by ripping out the interior, stripping out all the weight and turning their no-torque peg-leg motors that had 100 hp into worthless large paperweights with no resale value that now have 110 hp. If they want to go fast, buy something with a little balls. If they want to support the rising sun, then buy a supercharged mr-2, or an NSX, or a z-car, or and RX-7. And if all they want to do is go fast, do like everyone else and buy a mustang, put on a Vortech puffer, and be done with it. 15 second quarter mile ET's are nothing to be proud of
Well put.
Back to the Responses Page.
Last Modified 12/1/99, but all of these responses are from before 06/23/1997.
Disclaimer: The responses published here may have been edited for length and/or content. The return addresses of those who respond are kept secret unless I am otherwise instructed. Furthermore, due to the age of the text on this page, some information may be outdated.