It carried a sense of superiority against what the gangs saw as the unfashionable, unworldly country bumpkin locals who couldn't speak "proper" Mandarin. The term is heard many times in the Edward Yang film A Brighter Summer Day, which takes the immigrant village culture of that era as its backdrop.
楊德昌導演以這個時代為背景，探討外省眷村文化的電影《牯嶺街少年殺人事件》裡，便曾多次出現這個用語。5 年級生的阿和是平面設計師，他還記得自己唸書的年代，「台客」一詞代表著「眷村掛」對本省小孩的挑釁與仇視。