Just after Sikhs in Punjab, India expressed their loyalty to Britain on 1857, the British Concession authorities in Shanghai decided to hire Sikhs as junior police officers in the Concession, so a large number of Sikhs entered Shanghai, and more people followed them into Shanghai. In order to respect their beliefs, some prisoner's homes also agreed to use the conference room right of the prisoner's home as a "Sikh temple", because there is no idol worship in Sikh religion, which does not prevent the temple from being converted into an auditorium.
Sikhs mostly work as traffic policemen and doormen in Shanghai, with red cloth wrapped around their heads. Shanghainese call them "three red heads"
According to 1948 "A Brief Introduction to Shanghai Population" compiled by Shanghai Cultural Committee, there were 1842 Indians in Shanghai Concession in 1930, mostly Sikhs, living in Kunshan Road, Emei Road and Wusong Road in Hongkou. As for why it is called Sam with red head, there are many arguments.
The first statement can be found in Hu Yan published by 1922. In the book, the Indian policeman was called "red-headed black charcoal" because his head was covered with red cloth and his face looked like black charcoal, which was later misinterpreted as "red-headed three". However, in Shanghai dialect, "A San" and "Heitan" seem to have some differences in expression.
The second view is that Indian prisoners entered the prisoner room later than western prisoners and China prisoners, so their status was lower than the former two, so they were called "Ah San". As for the "red head", it means that the fingers are wrapped in red cloth.
To be honest, this statement is a bit reluctant. Admittedly, Indian prisoners entered the prisoner's room later than the first two, but their status was similar to that of China prisoners, even more in salary. During the recruitment period, the minimum wage for Chinese arrest is 10 yuan per month, while the minimum wage for Chinese arrest can be 15 yuan per month. In addition, in the impression of the general public, India, as a country, belongs to Asia, but its race is always biased towards Europe intentionally or unintentionally. Indians themselves think so, but westerners in Shanghai Industrial and Information Bureau don't think so. They also regard India as an Asian.
"Red-headed Ah San" came from the British colony, and strictly speaking, its status was lower than that of Shanghainese living in the concession. But they were loyal to the British and danced around with batons all day, which made Shanghainese miserable, especially those vendors and rickshaw drivers, who often ate Red-headed Ah San's "foreign ham" and "five cigars", just kicking and slapping. The existence of the red-headed Asan was cancelled with the end of the concession.
In the face of such rude behavior, Captain McEwan, who is in charge of house arrest, does not intend to take responsibility. He claimed that SEAL No.90 denied kicking Mr. Wickham, and neither of them admitted using violence, but only transferred him to house arrest as needed. Two policemen were sent to Fuzhou Road to stop all vehicles from driving from west to east. The cause of the incident was that Mr. Wickham insisted on driving eastward. By his own admission, he arrested an Indian, which in itself violated the regulations. If he is abused, he can only say that he asked for it.
The board of directors decided to inform Captain McEwan that the directors' opinion was that Yin was arrested only to stop Mr. Wickham from driving from west to east on this road. If he wants to lodge any complaint about Yin's two arrests, he should do so immediately and expose them in the arrest room.
Obviously, the rude behavior of printing arresting people, even foreigners, will be favored by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It is not surprising that many people in Shanghai who pull rickshaws and carts for a living are treated more rudely by India. As long as there is a slight mistake, the license plate is pried, the car is detained or the money is fined. In this way, Indian police patrols naturally attract people's resentment against them. However, when these Indian captors saw the British boss who was in charge of them, the first sentence was: "I said" (pronounced like "A San" in Shanghai) was also very respectful, just like a mouse seeing a cat. ? "I said" became their common language, and China people who were dissatisfied with them used "I said" to imitate them and called them sarcastically, meaning contempt.
At that time, there were often monkey tricks on the streets of Shanghai. Shanghainese call it "the art of collecting monkeys". When the trick of gathering monkeys was played, there were often onlookers shouting, "Ah San! The eagle is coming! " People in Shanghai think that monkeys are afraid of eagles, because pranksters scare monkeys. In fact, this "A San", that is, "A San with red head", and the "eagle" is not an eagle in the sky, but an old English, that is, "A San with red head" is a pawn of the old English, and Shanghainese are afraid of "A San with red head".