Samseng(三星)
★★★☆☆☆
小时候时常有听潮州人或马来人提起“samseng"这个词。几十年来始终无法理解这名词的来源和典故因为在学校里读的马来文和华文里不曾被提出。
When I was a kid, I already heard of the word 'samseng' being uttered by Malays and Chinese of various dialects. I was rather puzzled as from which language this word was originated as it was never mentioned either in Malay or Chinese textbooks.

直到最近从Astro AEC 301播放的口述历史‘三年零八个月’里有提到。
This word has been bothering me for almost half a century until recent time whence  I got the answer to it from a documentary film from  Astro AEC 301.

Samseng其实是客家话的”三星”，三粒星星。
Actually, 'samseng' was a Hakka word; 'Sam' means 'three' and 'seng' means 'stars'. So, 'samseng' means three stars.

二次世界大战期间，马共抗日军及其追随者手上有纹有(tattoo)三粒星星。所以当时日军及其僱佣军一看到任何人手上有三粒星就会说：“lu samseng!" 然后将他捉去审问和处决。

During the World War II, Malaya was occupied by the Japanese military force. At that time among the Anti Japanese forces, the Malayan Communist Party members played a leading and vital role in combating the Japanese army. Hence, the Japanese army and its military police were all out to arrest all the Communists and their sympathisers. Those chinese whose hands or arms were found to have tattoos of 'three stars' were rounded up to be beheaded instantly or tortured to horrified death.

后来，"samseng-kia"被用来形容坏蛋、搞乱分子或私会党徒。
Later on, after the war was ended, the word 'samseng' were widely used by Malaysians of all races until how the word was originated was not known to those people who were using it.