What does ＡＡ制 stand for?

Would it be :

Average Amount?

The average amount = the total bill amount divided by the number of persons.

What does AA stands for?

It means that each participant under a group activity shall contribute an equal share against the total consumption amount. No one will be the boss.

Is it English word or something?
It is not English.

It comes from the Chinese slang "潮州音樂"
The behind meaning is "自己顧自己"

Why "潮州音樂" shall mean "自己顧自己"?

It is because the rhythm/sound of Chiu Chow music is
always " GE KU GE KU" , something like the Chinese pronunciation of "自己顧自己"

Then, how it turns out to become "AA" ?

The dialect in Guangzhou somewhere shall have the pronunciation of "自己" as "Ai Ai" .
Then 自己顧自己 is pronounced as "Ai Ai 顧 Ai Ai"

Then the Hong Kong guys in 60" or 70' started to
interpret the word "AiAi" as "AA" and from that time onwards,

ＡＡ制 shall mean 自己顧自己, which means everybody is liable to pay one's own share.









2012-03-03 18:41:32 補充：
潮州音樂 歇後語

http://www.chiculture.net/0610/html/0610p/0610p_c002.shtml

2012-03-04 11:45:25 補充：
Those were the days my friend.....

The term "AA" ( pronounced as "AiAi" which is a short term 自己顧自己) was initially spread among secondary school students , something like the "火星文" (a kind of own language commonly used among a group of users) observed nowadays.

2012-03-04 11:47:56 補充：
Later on, the term was so "powerful and useful " that the adults knew what the meaning is.

2012-03-05 15:34:36 補充：
MinglamChoi's understanding :「我相信，AA 是香港人發明的傑作，現在已經有幾億人在用...」

I don't quite believe! "AA" is in fact a colloquial term widely used in Hong Kong only. Residents outside HK territories may hardly understand what the term "AA" is.

In mathematics, there are arithmetic average, geometric average but I don't believe there is such thing called algebraic average.
Isn't "Appropriated Amount" a better abbreviation for AA ?

2012-03-01 05:12:28 補充：
我相信，AA 是香港人發明的傑作，現在已經有幾億人在用。將來會為世界接受，成為英語的一部份。雖然來源，原意都不可考。

AA制

Is AA制 an English term?
AA制, which means each person participating in a group activity pays for himself, rather than any one person paying for anyone else, particularly in a restaurant bill, interestingly has an English equivalent of "Going Dutch" or "to go Dutch" and not "AA something". We can say that it borrows AA from English.
Some people say that AA制 was originated in some areas in China (excluding Taiwan). As this term is widely used in daily life, many Chinese people mistakenly believe that it is a foreign term that came from a language in Europe or America.This is not true as usage of AA制 is only found in China and no where else.

What does AA stands for?
Generally AA is taken as "algebraic average" giving the meaning of each person paying the per person average of a bill.
Some Hong Kong people think that AA is the abbreviation of "All Apart" meaning all people have their separate bill.




2012-02-29 15:58:52 補充：
AA can also be Appropriated Amount as suggested by Minglam Choi in the opinion column.
However it is unsure how the term AA制 came to be used the first time.

2012-03-04 06:51:41 補充：
What exactly AA stands for in AA制 will remain hard to prove despite different suggestions mentioned above and in the answer below in which "潮州音樂" with its referred meaning of "自己顧自己" is somehow interestingly connected to AA制.

2012-03-04 06:56:47 補充：
In fact I have never had problem with the term AA制 since my school days. To me the two A's in AA制 come naturally to mean two people being equal will pay their equal share.

2012-03-05 16:29:42 補充：
另一說法源於德文:
ana:http://tw.group.knowledge.yahoo.com/kelvin-cheung/article/view?aid=13
http://hk.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=7006060903002
國內年青人也說AA制:
例:http://lz.book.sohu.com/serialize-id-16966.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/video/2012-01/25/c_122618969.htm

2012-03-05 16:36:49 補充：
台灣也是:
http://gamed.tw/book/doc-view-17802.html
http://xn--wgv71a.xn--8stv2u.tw/japan/35/j/
http://news.sina.com.tw/article/20110127/4152763.html

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/AA%E5%88%B6
"「AA」是「Algebraic Average」的縮寫。意思是「代數平均」。意思是按人頭平均分擔賬單"