The term “Ah Beng” comes from the Chinese words 阿明。明 is a word commonly used in the names of Chinese males in South-East Asia region, particularly Malaysia and Singapore; It means “bright”. However, the term is also stereotypically portrayed to be anti-intellectual, superficial, materialistic and shallow.
The ages of “Ah Beng” ranges from early teens to late 20s and are usually seen as originating from a smaller or much rural areas. Their language consists of local dialect such as Hokkien and Cantonese, mixing with English and Malay at times.In short, they speak Manglish!
“Ah Beng” like to use phrases like “what lah?!”( when they are annoyed), “Ha nah!!”(as to meaning yes I know), “Oi!!”(for hey!), “Happy lah!!”(now are you happy?!), “On ah!”(meaning deal!), “Not happy ar?”(are you not happy?) etc etc…….just a few examples.
If you have already noticed, they like to end every single phrases with the Malaysian “lah” or “nah”. In other words, the only English that they are only bothered to know were DIRECT TRANSLATION from the local Hokkien dialect ! Furthermore, "Ah Bengs" are also a bunch of swearing machines. Swearing is their past time.
“Ah Beng” are also sometimes associated with extensively modified or zhng-ed cars and they are also known to be excessively flashy and show-offs. They usually like excessively gaudy patterned shirts and matching them with some tight fitting jeans and if possible, loads of accessories to compliment!! Gold jade rings and gold often counterfeit Rolexes. Also!! To grow their nails resembling a witch’s is also one of their hobbies. What for? I do not know. But I have seen quite a number of them picking their noses with their pinky fingers. Ewww!!
There are some very successful “Ah Bengs” too. Owning chains of coffee shops (or kopitiam in local dialect-Hokkien), food courts (yes they love food) , karaoke lounges (oh yes, they love to sing too), small property development companies, budget hotels and foreign labour supply companies all over Malaysia. Recently, a more dangerous kind of Techno-Ah Bengs have emerged, Ah bengs who can rig up a computerised race-horse betting system complete with a touch of telecommunications.
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