[thaumasiotes]

> The funny part is that I know Asian Americans who say it without knowing where it came from.

I know many Asian Chinese; they tend to really like saying "long time no see" because they find the saying so intuitive.

[bobthepanda]

I mean, long time no see is a word for word translation for a Chinese greeting (in Cantonese, hou noi mou gin)

[thaumasiotes]

In Mandarin, 好久不见 háo jiǔ bú jiàn. It's not really word-for-word; the Mandarin version breaks down as very-longtime-no-see.