Oct 12, 2007
Chinese Finger Wag, Counter-Finger-Wag Slap, Counter-Slap Throat Jab
I’m not going to say too much about this one. Only that I hate the Chinese finger-wag gesture, and I’m not too fond of foreign Chinese language students who adopt it when trying to add a little Chinese cultural flair to their fluency.
One of the reasons that I’m not fond of the finger wag, is that all too often it’s a marker of transition — it can be the first physical action that turns a verbal altercation into an all-out fist fight. Or slap-fight, as in this case. Pay attention to the first ten seconds of the video:
What’s that? You got a finger do you?!
Well, how do you like this! I’m gonna slap that finger!
Oh, you’re gonna kick me now, are ya?
F*ck your mother!
So to all you Chinese language students out there, trying to make every effort to appear fluent, I implore all of you to lay off the finger wagging.
It doesn’t do anybody any good.
P.S. Hands up if you’ve ever seen a man-vs-woman altercation like this before in China. Anybody?
Yeah, Chinese guys are the most rude, uncivilized, uneducated, backward, ugly, and racist bastards to ever walk the earth…
I live and work in china…
They look like jungle monkey’s…
I’ll not respond to Joe Blow in any detail for obvious reasons. I mean, “…jungle monkey’s [sic]… ?” Really?! Your bigotry is surpassed only by your lack of creativity.
Anyway, I’ve actually seen this a number of times in Shanghai. I’m no sociologist, and maybe it’s different from Beijing, but the women down here are far more willing, it seems, to engage in these kinds of public altercations. They’re also far more likely to initiate the physical fight (as was indicated in the video you presented).
Question: Is this representative of 1.) An overall change in modern Chinese culture, 2.) A change in the way Chinese women view and carry themselves, 3.) No change at all in the way Chinese folks interact, 4.) Or just straight-up a human thing, common to all cultures around the globe?
I honestly can’t decide.
rynsa
P.S.
Thanks for the info on how to obtain a Feedsky feed. Very helpful.
grey text and green links on blue background still sucks to read. Especially for us older folks. Any chance you will change the colors to make this blog more readable?
If you have a blue background, that means the page hasn’t loaded properly. It should be white. :em14:
Maybe that’s a sign that I need to change to a simpler theme that loads better.
Thanks for the heads-up though.