Nicknames for people from various provinces

[djwebb2004]

Beijing: 京油子, lit means city slickers

Tianjin: 卫嘴子, similar meaning? or referring to odd accent, and Tianjin's role in guarding the way to Peking?

Sichuan: 川耗子, refers to the large no. of Sichuan people as "rats"

Hubei: 九头鸟: means Hubei people are crafty

Are there any more? Is there one for each province?

[Yuchi]

上海 - 阿拉

Not sure why, but 阿拉 means "we" in shanghainese.

[dan ni er]

I've heard of people from Beijing being called 北京片子. also heard 天津帮子. I am not sure, however, that these terms should be used casually as some in China may take offence.

[Noodles]

You agree that you should be very careful when using these terms. Some are derived from generalized characteristics and may be considered offensive. If someone from Beijing doesn't talk in a "slicky" manner, it's inappropriate to categorize him/her as 油子 or 片子。九头鸟 is generally not a negative term though.

But they are still different from, say, "Hoosier", when used to refer to people living in Indiana.

[djwebb2004]

You agree that you should be very careful when using these terms. Some are derived from generalized characteristics and may be considered offensive. If someone from Beijing doesn't talk in a "slicky" manner, it's inappropriate to categorize him/her as 油子 or 片子。九头鸟 is generally not a negative term though.

Er, no thanks for the lecture! By the way 九头鸟 is a negative term - it implies Hubei people are crafty. 天上九头鸟，地下湖北佬. My Hubei friend was not pleased when I mentioned it!

[roddy]

Tianjin: 卫嘴子, similar meaning? or referring to odd accent, and Tianjin's role in guarding the way to Peking?

As far as I can tell from a few pages on Baidu's Zhidao.baidu.com (1, 2), the 卫 was a type of military building, and 天津卫 became a colloquial term for people from Tianjin (and Tianjin itself?). The 嘴子 is explained as 天津卫的嘴皮子好使，倍儿会说话 - as the gift of the gab, in English.

Baidu's Zhidao pages are pretty good for this kind of stuff - a lot of it is copied and pasted off the Internet, but at least it puts it all in one place with a decent search function.

[in_lab]

Any nicknames for people from HK, Taiwan, and Mainland China in general?

[djwebb2004]

Roddy, you are right about the meaning of 卫。The meaning of Tianjin itself: it apparently refers to the time an emperor crossed the river there, 天 standing for tianzi for the emperor and 津 meaning "ford" (as well as "saliva").

[YETIboy1230]

重庆崽儿....my beloved hometown.

崽儿,with a combinated connotation "youthful" and "aggressive","frank"