Asians Died... Perfect Chance to Make Fun of Their Silly Asian Names!

[harumi]

KTVU Reports Asiana Air Pilots Were “Sum Ting Wong” and “Ho Lee Fuk”Bay Area news station KTVU just reported that the pilots of Asiana's disastrous flight 214 were the crack team of "Sum Ting Wong," "Wi Tu Lo," "Ho Lee Fuk," and "Bang Ding Ow

Comments

[bananainpyjamas]

The fact that this happened on the SF station is what kills me, the city is 33% Asian. Even if this didn't ever cross the desk of an Asian person (which says something about the diversity of the station's staff), ANYONE there should have realized the names are obviously fake.

Also, the NTSB is saying that an intern "acted outside the scope of their authority" in confirming the names. Which basically means some twenty-year-old dudebro thought this would make for a funny prank.

[that_which]

I wonder how well-connected their parents were to get them this internship? Because whoever their sponsor was has got to be in a world of internal hurt right now.

[littlelauren86]

I was thinking the same thing. It had to be some not-too-bright dudebro who didn't deserve that internship in the first place. It's the shame because there are so many hard working students out there who could have had that position.

[shoujokakumei]

It's not racist! Asian people just have funny names! And they're good at math and can't drive! -_-

I'll be over here seething with rage at the entire world.

OT

[rhysande]

Sorry for getting a little OT here, but when did "Asians can't drive" become a stereotype? I'm seeing it all over the place lately.

Re: OT

[shoujokakumei]

I'm not sure. I've been hearing it my whole life, ever since my bus driver in elementary school was Korean and somebody's parents pitched a fit about how she must be a bad driver because it's in her genetics.

Re: OT

[rhysande]

Wow. Just wow. Genetics. I don't even know where to start.

[lovedforaday]

that was a clusterfuck. the names were obviously fake, did the station think to check with another ntsb source, or were they in too much of a rush to be first with names? ridiculous.

[ntensity]

I remember hearing the station saying they hadn't noticed the offensively wrong names because they never read them aloud, only saw them written. I cannot comprehend how anyone can read those names and not instantly see something wrong. Way to show your blatant racism. Wow...

[stainedfeathers]

In all fairness I hadn't noticed either when I scanned the article.I was seeing three part names First-middle-last, not words meaning a thing. I saw "Ho" and went "how can Ho or Lee be funny?" (completely forgetting it can be derogatory to females since my brain threw an accent on it with a longer o and Lee being my brothers middle name) and went "Ok I can see how "fuk" can be but... oh, wait, now I see it." If it hadn't been pointed out, I'd have just seen "name I'm not familiar with" and gone on. Some people are just rather thick sometimes (like me) and don't notice the obvious.

[ntensity]

You've never heard "Sum Ting Wong" before? These aren't new "jokes" - I've heard this shit before, sorry, no excuses. It was obvious and they are tired ass offensive "jokes" that should have been caught sooner.
Sorry if I'm being harsh, I'm heated over the Zimmerman verdict. I don't mean to be rude to you in any way.

[stainedfeathers]

Actually I haven't heard that one ever. I couldn't figure that first one out, only the second one. I just got it now. I'm angry over the Zimmerman verdict too, but be fair here, not everyone has heard all the racist offensive jokes or epithets out there and people are fallible, we can sometimes miss the obvious. I don't hang around with people who make offensive jokes, so I'm rather limited in which ones I've heard before. I've never heard the "Sum Ting Wong" before and it took me quite a few repeats through that (and a couple attempts not to add any accents to it since I'm more familiar with Japanese) for me to get it. I'm not saying these news casters weren't idiots- They were. They should have checked and double checked and make sure the names were correct and this should have been caught. All I'm saying is that it is an error someone can make even when they're not being racist.

[a_leprechaun]

Ho Lee Fuk. Really. Really.

[moonshaz]

That one should have been a dead giveaway, right there.

I will confess that I didn't catch the fakeness of the names on the first read though myself, but I raised an eyebrow when I came to "Fuk," at which point I reread the whole list and then did an internal facepalm/headdesk.

I had never heard the "Sum Ting Wong" one before, or any of the others, and I'm afraid the whole thing might have flown right by me if it hadn't been for "Fuk" setting off a mini-alarm in my head. BUT someone who is doing fact checking at a TV station ought to be paying MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH closer attention than some bozo like me skimming through an LJ post.

[gambitia]

In fairness, Fuk is a Chinese name, although probably a pretty rare one (I swore I'd heard it as a legit name before, but googling gives me a single instance of a Chinese author). It also isn't pronounced like "fuck", which threw me for a while because I'm oblivious and was attempting to pronounce it with a rounded 'u' and just could not figure it out.

But again...I am tired and gullible internet woman. These are supposedly journalists.

[ljs_lj]

Back in the 1990s my dad worked with a guy whose name was pronounced "fook". I have no idea how it was spelled but it could have been 'Fuk'. He had come to the states when he was in elementary school and I can't imagine what crap he must have gotten if it really was spelled 'Fuk'. For some reason I've always imagined it starting with "ph" instead of 'f'. I want to say he was Vietnamese, but I could be very very wrong - he might have been Chinese. (I met him once or twice when I was about 12.)