Why do the Chinese call Indians A3?

中国人为什么称印度人“阿三”？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Jackie Barnett

The term "A3" is deemed as an offensive slur in Chinese culture. Originating in East China during the Republic China period, this word was initially used in Shanghai and its surrounding areas. The term was predominantly aimed at Indians who were employed in the British Concession in old Shanghai City.

In Chinese culture, adding the prefix "A" before a monosyllable is a common practice in Shanghai. This regional linguistic feature resulted in the transformation of "SIR" to "A SIR" or "阿Sir" in Shanghai dialect. Interestingly, the pronunciation of "SIR" is quite similar to the word for "THREE" (三) in Chinese, which often carries negative connotations in Shanghai due to its association with bad luck.

在中国文化中，“阿三”是一种较为无礼的侮辱性词汇。这个词起源于民国时期的华东地区，最初是在上海及其周边地区使用，主要针对在老上海英租界工作的印度人。

在中国文化中，在单音节前加上前缀“阿”是上海地区常见的做法。这种地域性的语言特征导致了“SIR”在上海话中转化为“A SIR”或“阿SIR”。有趣的是，“SIR”的发音与中文中的“三”非常接近，在上海，“三”通常带有负面含义，表示倒霉。

As a result, "A3" or "阿三" became a popular derogatory term among the lower classes in Shanghai to express their disdain towards the Indian individuals hired by the British Concession to exert authority over the Chinese population. This historical context sheds light on the nuances of cultural perceptions and prejudices that have shaped intercultural interactions in China.

For further insight into the Chinese perception of Indians as "A3," I recommend reading the article "What's Behind the Chinese Perception of Indians as A3?" to gain a deeper understanding of the historical, social, and linguistic factors that have contributed to the usage of this derogatory term in Chinese society.

因此，“阿三”成了上海下层阶级中流行的贬义词，人们用这个词表示对英租界里的印度人狐假虎威的做派的蔑视。这一历史背景揭示了塑造中国跨文化互动的文化观念和偏见的细微差别。

如果想要进一步了解中国人对印度“阿三”的看法，我建议你们可以读读《中国人称印度人阿三的背后原因是什么？》一文，方便你们更深入地了解导致中国社会使用这个贬义词的历史背景、社会环境和语言因素。

HsiaoYang Tang

A3 is depending on the context. Sometimes it represents awful, and sometimes it represents awesome. It’s kinda like “shit” in US English. With the rise of India, it is turning into a good word.

“阿三”的意思取决于上下文。有时它表示很糟糕，有时它又表示很棒。有点像美式英语中的“shit”的用法。随着印度的崛起，“阿三”开始变成一个好词了。

Anonymous

The pronunciation of “A” part is from a part of China which put “A” in front of lots of names as a way of talking, they would call mom as “A” “Ma”, sister as “A” “JIE (sister”) .

“A” is more of a sound, it doesn’t have any meaning.

“3” actually means “SIR”.

These days, the people who wanted to propaganda things between different group of people are reading too much into it. It has no bad meaning at all related to the names if you are willing to trace back to the root.

“阿”的发音来自中国的某个地区，他们会在很多名字的前面加个“阿”字，是当地特有的说话方式，比如他们会称妈妈为“阿妈”，称姐姐为“阿姐”。

"阿"就是一个发音，没有任何意义。

“三”实际上是“SIR”的意思。

现在，那些想要给不同群体洗脑的人对这个词过于解读了。如果你追根溯源，它个词没有什么不好的含义。

Trevor Cheng

I live in hong kong and hk people call indian as “Ah星”. I have heard that some indians just tell others to call them “Ah星” because their names are “Signh”, which is pronounced 星in cantonese. Therefore, I believed that calling “A3” in the mainland came from the same way.

我生活在香港，香港人称印度人为“阿星”。我听有些印度人自己也跟别人说可以叫他们“阿星”，因为他们的名字里有“Signh”，在粤语中就读作“星”。因此，我认为大陆地区叫“阿三”也是出于同样的原因。

Taosimo

We know that “A”means top, best ..

Because Chinese people think Indians are great, and India is one of the best countries in the world.

“3” means that its current GDP ranks third.

That's what Chinese people mean by calling them A3.

我们知道"阿"的意思是最好的…

因为中国人认为印度人很棒，印度是世界上最棒的国家之一。

“三”表示印度现在的GDP排名全球第三。

这就是中国人叫他们阿三的意思。

Yu Frank

In fact HK people call Indians 阿差

Mainland Chinese call Indians 阿三。

This is because British hired lots of Indians to help them to rule the colony, and hence Chinese people living in the colony hated these Indians and used the word to express their hatred.

The same thing happens for Koreans. Japanese colonists hired some Koreans to rule the colony, and hence Chinese use the word 棒子 to represent Koreans.

事实上，中国香港人称印度人为“阿差”

中国大陆人称印度人为“阿三”。

这是因为英国人雇佣了很多印度人来帮助他们统治殖民地，因此生活在殖民地的中国人讨厌这些印度人，用这个词来表达他们的憎恶。

韩国人也是如此。日本殖民者雇佣了一些韩国人来统治殖民地，所以中国人就用“棒子”来指代韩国人。

Dear Peter

Why do Chinese call Indian A3 which Chinese is “阿三”. That’s a good question.

Because Chinese think US will definitely be the No.1 among the national strength ranking in this world. China will be the No.2. And we think India will be No.3.

India is an ancient and great country with more potential than China which nobody can despise. As well India is also a strong and venerable neighbor of China.

为什么中国人称印度人为“阿三”。这是个好问题。

因为中国人认为美国肯定是世界第一，中国排第二，印度排第三。

印度是一个古老而伟大的国家，比中国更有潜力，没有人能轻视印度。此外，印度也是中国强大而可敬的邻国。

In Chinese A pronounce like (阿)/a:/ and usually as a prefix before name. If a Chinese given name is 福(pronounce like Fu which means happiness in Chinese). We call him 阿福(pronounce like /a:fu:/) just like somebody call Thomas but his parents call him Tom. It’s a hypocorism with A as a prefix in Chinese.

So we call Indian A3 with love and respect and absolutely without any disgrace.

“阿”这个发音，通常是放在名字前的一个前缀。如果一个中国人的名字是福(发音类似Fu，在汉语中意味着幸福)，那么我们会叫他阿福(发音像/a:fu:/)。这就好像有人名字叫托马斯，但他的父母会叫他汤姆。在汉语中，“阿”就是一个前缀。

所以我们是带着爱和尊重称呼印度人“阿三”的，绝对没有任何不好的意思。

Zhang Zongyun

I am shocked to see different versions of explanations of this slang, and my version is still different. I guess I'll share my version.

There is a very insulting term in Chinese that originated from the Three Kingdoms Period in China, 2000 years ago, when Zhang Fei used it on a man named Lü Bu. He was a very cruel warlord in the early stages of three kingdoms, and he was given the name of “三姓家奴，” or a Three Surnamed House Slave, because he served two people and recognized them as their step-fathers. Plus his original father, he had in all “served” three fathers, and technically three surnames.

看到这个俚语的千奇百怪的解释，我很震惊，我的解释跟别人不一样。我也想分享一下我知道的版本。

汉语中有一个非常侮辱人的词，源于2000年前的三国时期，当时张飞用这个词来形容一个名叫吕布的人。吕布在三国早期是一个非常残暴的军阀，被人称为“三姓家奴”，因为他认了两个主子，并把他们认作义父，再加上他自己的生父，他总共“认”了三个父亲，严格来说，他有了三个姓氏。

India, on the other hand, has technically also “served” in three different nations, as it was colonized by three major factions in history; Muslims, Mongolians, and the British.

Now, Chinese people somehow applied this insulting thing onto Indians, and made it a bit more comedic, therefore calling them “Ah” San(3). Don't feel stressed or insulted if you hear this coming out of a Chinese; chances are, he's not really insulting you, but just using a universal nickname the Chinese created for Indians.

严格算起来，印度也“听命于”三个不同的国家，因为印度在历史上被三股势力殖民过：MSL，蒙古人和英国人。

现在，中国人把这个侮辱性的词用在了印度人身上了，为了听起来更有喜感，又称他们为“阿三”。如果你听到中国人这么说，千万别感到焦虑或冒犯；极有可能，中国人并不是真的在侮辱你，他们只是用了中国人为印度人创造的一个通用昵称而已。

Oh yeah, Chinese people are pretty good at nicknaming groups and races, such as calling (South) Koreans “高丽棒子,” or just “棒子” (Bang Zi), or calling Japanese people “小日本”（this one is kind of insulting. Can't help it, it originated from WWII. History lovers, figure out why the Chinese hate Japanese so much).

是的，中国人很擅长给群体和种族起绰号，比如他们管韩国人叫做“高丽棒子”，或者直接叫“棒子”，管日本人叫“小日本”(这个确实有点侮辱人)。没办法，这个名字起源于二战。历史爱好者们，你们可以仔细想想中国人为什么这么讨厌日本人吧。

ing Fan

In fact, now A3 means unbelieveable Indian, means we can not estimate what Indian can do. means too good to believe.

for example, one motorcycle with 12 Indian people, out of our image

and one train with thousands of Indian people.

Indian invent something good

Indian good at playing computer game

we will say it is A3

A3 is a friendly name,Also is some kidding name.

事实上，“阿三”的意思是印度人非常不可思议，意味着我们无法揣测印度人的实力，这个词的意思是好得令人难以置信。

例如，印度人可以用一辆摩托车载12个人，超出了我们的想象。

还有，一列火车可以搭乘数千名印度人。

印度人发明了一些好东西

印度人擅长玩电脑游戏

我们称呼他们阿三

阿三是一个友好的名字，也有开玩笑的意思在里面。

Bunny Wang

阿三 (A3) is an abusive word.

The word was first used in East China (Shanghai and nearby) during the Republic China period.

At that time, a lot of Indians were hired to work in the British Concession in old Shanghai City. People need to call them SIR, of course.

Shanghai people like to add a word A(阿) in front of a monosyllable, which changed SIR to A SIR (阿Sir).

“阿三”是个骂人的词。

这个词最早出现在民国时期的华东地区(上海及附近地区)。

当时，许多印度人进入老上海的英租界工作。当然，上海人需要称呼他们为SIR。

上海人喜欢在单音节前加一个“阿”，所以把SIR读成了“阿SIR”。

In Chinese, the pronunciation of SIR is very similar to THREE (三), and a lot of insulting words in Shanghai end with THREE (三). Three is a number with bad luck in Shanghai!

Therefore, A3 (阿三) became a popular local abusive word especially among lower class to express their hate to those Indians who were hired by British Concession to rule Chinese people.

在汉语中，“SIR”的发音与“THREE”(三)非常相似，上海地区有很多侮蔑性的词汇都以“三”结尾。在上海，“三”是一个不吉利的数字！

因此，“阿三”成了当地流行的骂人的词，特别是下层阶级用这个词来表达他们对受雇于英租界、统治中国人的印度人的仇恨。

Adam Sherinian

Originally Answered: Are Indian people called "acha" in Cantonese because they say the word 'achchha' frequently? Why are they called "Molocha" since policemen should be called "chai" and not "cha"?

I think that is right. The term is more of a derogatory term to mock Indians for saying ‘Achchha’ than to call them tea. And also because the formal term for India is long and unpronounceable in Cantonese.

印度人在粤语中被称为“acha”，是因为印度人常说“achchha”这个词吗？

我认同这个说法。这个词主要就是带贬义的词，用来嘲笑印度人整天说“Achchha”，而不是说他们是茶。还有一个原因是印度的正式名称太长了，用粤语无法正确发音。

Chris Tsai

The term "A3" is not a widely recognized or commonly used term to refer to Indians in China. It's important to approach cultural and ethnic terms with sensitivity and respect. Different cultures have different ways of referring to people from other countries, and it's important to understand the context and meaning behind such terms. If you have further questions about cultural perceptions or interactions between China and India, I'd be happy to help provide more information.

在中国，“阿三”一词并不是被广泛认可或常用来指代印度人的词。我们要带着分寸和尊重的态度来对待其他文化和种族，这一点很重要。不同的文化对其他国家的人有着不同的称呼，理解这些称呼背后的语境和含义十分重要。如果你对中印之间的文化理解或互动有进一步的问题，我很乐意提供更多的信息。

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