Dead gestures are gestures which have existed in ancient times and which are not used or understandable today. Like verbal language, the gesture has birth and death. Every gesture is born based on a specific cultural background. For example, China is a country with many nationalities. Among them, the 'Hanna' nationality, with over 90% population, is the biggest one. In the past centuries, 'Hanna' was conquered by other nationalities. In that peroid, the living custom of Chinese people was influenced by the ruling class. For example, in Qing Danasty, Chinese people had special, in modern eyes, strange ways of expressing meaning which were influenced of the "Mang" nationality (the ruling class at that time). When men of similar social status sent greetings to each other, they used the following gesture, , but when noble women met or sent greetings to each other, they use gestures like this one ; . The following picture shows how to meet the emperor

This gesture, called 'koutou', is complicated and has strict regulations. It consists of three steps:

i) right sleeve brushing the left arm from top to the fingers,

ii) left sleeve brushing the right arm from top to the fingers,

iii) bend down, one knee on the floor, right hand on the back and left hand hitting the floor.

People had to complete series of actions to say "yes" and listen the imperial edict, no mistakes were permitted, otherwise people would be punished. When women met the emperor, they should show pleasant feelings on their faces in order to please the emperor. The gestures mentioned above were very popular during the "Qing Dynasty" among the officials and nobles, but not very popular among the common people. In present, all of them have died, because the kingdom was overthrowed and the ruling class was changed. These gestures disappeared quickly. We can only see them in movies, but the descendants of "Mang" in Beijing are proud and glad to talk about their great history .

In 1970s (the culture revolution), China was under the leadership of Mao, people used series of gestures and emotions to show their loyalty to him and their confidence in the revolution. Please, see the following two pictures

"I am loyal to Chairman Mao!"

"I am a true revolutionary!"

Contemporary gestures are gestures which are currently used gestures in one social community. Since china is a very large country there are significant linguistic and cultural differences between the distant regions. Most typical is the distinction between north and south China. However, most studies have been concentrated on analyzing differences in verbal communication, habits and traditions but not on differences and similarities between gestures. Thus we will distinguish between two main regional types of gestures: gestures from the north and gestures from the south.

When you meet your professor you should lower your head and bend slightly to show respect. The same posture is used when a young man is greeting an old man.

Shaking hands is not used between people of radically different status, as the previous two cases, but between socially equal people, friends or businessman.

This gesture is used in informal situations, when you reach an agreement with somebody else. In China, it is not only a gesture, but also a good wish. Each of you hopes the agreement will be long.

If you put your right hand on the position of the heart means it "sincere promise" but since a promise is a promise only if it is sincere (Searle, What is a speech act?, in (ed.) Davis, S.,Pragmatics. A Reader. Oxford University Press, N.Y/Oxford, 1991, pp. 254-265.) The ancient Chinese thought that the calculating functions and the memory of human beings are based in the heart, thus this gesture is a typical iconic metaphor.

This gesture represents a feeling of self-satisfaction. It is usually used by women when they feel satisfied and don't want other people to know it. Typical for the Chinese culture as a whole is that Chinese women express their feelings in a more introvert or discreet manner.

In China, when you don't know how to express your gratitude to somebody, may be gesture 1 will be helpful, you don't need to say a single word, but everyone knows that you are expressing your thankfulness. But when you gesticulate like 2 especially on festivals, all the people you gesticulate to will be very happy, because you wish them good fortune.

This gesture symbolizes confrontation with difficult problems and attempts to solve them, in other way, it means hesitation.

When people show gestures like this one, that means that they look down upon somebody. And when you use one of your fingers to scrape your face looking at somebody, in fact, the corresponding verbal expression may be said to be "Shame on you!"

Chinese people have particular gestures for counting. They can be different in different parts of China. The gestures for 1,2,3 and 5 are similar to the corresponding European gestures. The rest are as follows:

South Chinese Gesture for 4.

North Chinese gesture for 4.

Gesture for 6.

South Chinese gesture for 7.

North Chinese gesture for 7.

Gesture for 8.

Gesture for 9.

Gesture for 10.

The description above include only general and typical gestures in China. One shouldn't forget that, China is a large country with long history. We can not cover all of the gestures in this short paper but if somebody is interested of contributing to this page she/he is very welcome to contact us. We will be glad if you can learn something about China or get an inspiration to experience it.