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 to express distaste or disapproval toward a person in a relatively mild manner. It is often compared to the more obscene gesture of raising the middle finger, which is used in many cultures to signify extreme contempt. Jess describes the pinky raise as a less severe form of the middle finger, which can be used as an insult or jokingly among friends. She says the meaning is highly context dependent, and given the correct setting, it could be appropriate to direct this gesture at one’s parents, which would be highly unusual in the case of the middle finger. This gesture was very popular among youth when Jess was living in China, but since then, the middle finger has become more popular with young people and this gesture has largely been replaced.

Item: This gesture is performed by forming a loose fist with the knuckles facing toward the person at whom the gesture is directed, and raising the pinky to a vertical position.

Associated file (a video):

Collector’s Name: Sophie Byrne

Tags/Keywords:

• Hand Gesture
• China