Folklore Form/Genre: Chinse gesture/mannerism                                       Informant: Peter Gao

Name: Chinese pointing gesture with pinky                                Place of Discovery: Hanover, NH

Informant Data: Peter Gao is from Chongqing China, but he moved to Houston, Texas four years ago. Peter learned this gesture when he was a little kid in school. He claimed that holding one’s pinky out and slowly pushing it toward someone is a very bold and rude gesture—it makes people feel uncomfortable (as if they are being called out for something). Currently, Peter is a sophomore at Dartmouth College. He plans on majoring in Computer Science.

Contextual Data:

 Social Context: I collected this piece of folklore from Peter while visiting him in Zimmerman Hall, a part of the East Wheelock Dormitory Cluster. I asked him to elaborate on a few rude gestures he knew from China. Many of the gestures he discussed had already been mentioned by previous interviewees. He remembered one, however, that had not yet been mentioned in my collection. He showed me a particular pointing gesture he learned as a child. The gesture is making a fist while holding out your pinky and pointing toward someone. He often saw schoolteachers use it to call out schoolchildren if they were doing something bad, and they wanted to make them feel uncomfortable. He claimed that it is a very bold and “loud” gesture to make because it is a strong way to signal out an individual. He added that this may be a regional specific gesture to Chongqing.

Cultural Context: There are a variety of negative mannerisms and gestures in Chinese culture. Peter remembers this particular pointing gesture from his childhood in Chongqing. Although he claims it is most likely regional specific, he later mentioned that pointing at people in China (in any province/region in any setting) is rude. This gesture is only a stronger way to point at someone, therefore demonstrating its rudeness.

Item: The items presented here are a video of an individual discussing a rude mannerism/gesture in Chinese culture along with a photo of the gesture. People would only point at someone in this manner if they truly wanted to emphasize a point or call someone out for doing something bad. This interview was recorded on Voice Memos an iPhone. I then took a video of Peter performing the gesture on the iPhone as well. All of the above information provided is an accurate depiction of the knowledge I gained while speaking with Peter.

Transcript: 

“It could very much be a region specific thing, but this thing, here [while making the gesture], extending your pinky and slowly slowly gently pushing it toward someone’s face. That’s rude. Makes you feel uncomfortable. And basically you’re being called out for something, very likely a a bad thing”.

Informant’s Comments:

Yeah when I was a kid and I saw someone point at me like this I knew I was in trouble

Collector’s Comment:

It is rude to point at others in Chinese society. Three of my five interviews (including this one), along with two of my partner’s interviews were related to pointing at people. The fact that the above mannerism is a particularly rude pointing gesture further illustrates the significance and variations of this action in China

Key Words: 

• Pointing
• China
• Insulting
• Pinky