Dictionary

black gangster en · NOUN

Etymology

Borrowed from Chinese 黑幫 /黑帮 (hēibāng, “gangsters, gang”). The first character, 黑, translates as "black" on its own.

Meanings

1. (derogatory, historical) A propaganda term used by Mao Zedong against opponents.
   • It was not always clear who was a counterrevolutionary or a black gangster for that matter. Former landlords, capitalists, and rich peasants were more readily spotted, but even here there was some difficulty […] 1970, Jan S. Prybyla, The Political Economy of Communist China, page 539:
   • […] and branded more than one-third of the people in the Agriculture Ministry as "rightists" or "black gangsters." 1968, Survey of China Mainland Press: Supplement, page 14:
   • The radicals held that Liu's men were 'black gangsters' in league with the ousted Party committees. 2016, Philip Short, Mao: The Man Who Made China, page 534:
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see black, gangster. (i.e. one with black skin)

Forms

Relateds

black gang