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A Chinese ¡°Thumbs up¡±?
In the movie, The King of Masks (Ę׃), which takes place in the Sichuan province, I saw a gesture several times that I would like to learn more about. The main character, ÍõĘ׃ often puts his left hand on the bicep (top muscle) of his right upper arm, and, holding the right hand closed with his thumb up, he cheerfully raises his thumb upward. I can¡¯t quite get what he¡¯s saying when he does this, but in one instance, he¡¯s telling his friend that they are even, having exchanged favors, and his statement sounds like, ¡°p¨¢o ge r¨¦n, li¨£ng ji¨¡ y¨« qi¡± (¡°y¨« qian¡±?). The English for this is given as ¡°we¡¯re even now¡±, but I think that ÍõŽŸ¸µis also referring to something he has said about them being ¡°brothers¡± -- not actual family brothers, but brothers in the sense of being very close friends.
Later, soldiers are trying to buy the secrets of ÍõŽŸ¸µ¡¯s trade from him¡ªsecrets which, by tradition, he cannot reveal to anyone except his own son. It is a very stressful conversation, but several times, when they seem about to reconcile peacefully, he and one of the soldiers smile and make this same gesture to each other several times.
It looks like a gesture we use in America, raising a closed hand with a thumb up¡ªwe call the action, ¡°giving a thumbs up.¡± It should really be called ¡°thumb up¡±, because it¡¯s almost always only one thumb, but we always call it ¡°thumbs up¡±, and on rare occasions, we actually do it with both hands, raising two thumbs up. This is a more enthusiastic form, kind of like the doubling used so often in spoken Chinese, but we use it very rarely, so two thumbs up is a very emphatic form of the gesture. We almost always make it a one-handed gesture, raising the thumb of one hand while the other hand has no role in the gesture at all.
Our "thumbs up" dates back to ancient Rome. In the arena, when a gladiator had defeated his enemy, he would look up to Caesar for instructions about whether to spare the loser¡¯s life. If Caesar felt the loser had fought well, he would give a ¡°thumbs up¡±, and the defeated gladiator would be spared. Otherwise, Caesar would give a thumbs down, and the winner would ¡°finish off¡±, or kill his opponent. Today, we just use thumbs up and thumbs down to show that we like something or that we don¡¯t like it.
Please tell me about this Chinese "thumbs up." I am interested if the action has any more specific or different meaning in Chinese culture.
Thank you!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: Chinese, Mandarin; English
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Re:A Chinese ¡°Thumbs up¡±?
Chinese "thumbs up" means very good.
you can praise somebody using this gesture,for his job,his idea,his achievement.....
you can praise a delicious meal,a beautiful view....
If you see YAO MING do a good Block shot,you may use this gesture.He'll understand.
:)
Falcon
Beijing,CHINA
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Language pair: Chinese, Mandarin; English
This is a reply to message # 84058
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