General Information about Item:

• Genre: Gesture
• Place Collected: Dartmouth College, Hanover NH
• Date Collected: November 14, 2019
• Country of Origin: China
• Informant: Jess Zhang

Informant Data: 

Jess Zhang is a 20 year old, female, Dartmouth student in the class of 2021. She was born in Harbin, China and lived there until the age of ten. She currently lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: The gesture is used as an expression of beauty and femininity, but Jess believes any more definite meaning may have been lost. She learned the gesture from her grandmother, who performs it often, and also remembers seeing it used in television shows her grandfather was watching. Jess most often encounters this gesture when talking with family, and sometimes uses it in a joking manner when among friends. She says that the gesture was most popular when her grandparents were young, and is taken less seriously by youth today.
• Cultural Context:  The gesture was originally used in Peking Opera performances, which Jess described as a dominant form of Chinese culture involving singing accompanied by choreographed arm movements. The Orchid Flower Fingers is one of many hand gestures created in this context, but has since become recognized outside of these performances. The orchid in Chinese culture represents beauty.

Item: This gesture is performed by pressing the tip of the thumb against the tip of the middle finger to form an oval, and raising the other fingers slightly so they are curved above the middle finger in a manner that resembles the petals of an orchid. The gesture can be performed using the ring finger and thumb, but this is less common.

Associated file (a video):

Collector’s Name: Sophie Byrne

Tags/Keywords:

• Hand Gesture
• China