Have you ever realised the significance of the role that gestures have and continue to play throughout our lives?
The word by definition means, “a movement of part of the body, to express an idea or meaning”. As infants, when we still didn’t grasp the capacity of verbal language, we relied on the use of non-verbal gestures to communicate and react to our surroundings.
And as we get older, perhaps becoming more disfluent in speech, once again, we must rely on representational gestures to communicate.
In fact, there is a theory that the human language was developed from gestures that were a primitive form of communication, as opposed to the vocal signals that might have been adapted by non-human primates.
As already established, culture consists of all the shared products of human society, and language plays an essential role in it. Without the usage of language, culture would not be possible as ideas, customs and social behaviour would not have the ability to be passed down centuries of human civilisation.
On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture, and it reflects culture.
Despite our failure to realise it, we communicate by much more than words when the conversation takes place. By using facial expressions, gestures, and other body movements, we send messages to those around us. Different cultures have different ways of making nonverbal communication and different people have different gestures to convey their expressions.
However, nonverbal communication, like traffic, is not random; it has a purpose and there are common rules to guide its flow.
Learning the different common rules of body language in different cultures is very useful for us to understand each other better.
China, specifically, is considered, like many other Asian countries, to possess a more low-contact culture than that of the United States, for example, making their nonverbal communication different from, and sometimes in conflict with American mannerisms involving the practice of gestures.
Nevertheless, there is evidence in all regions of China of Westernisation and changing cultural and societal ideas of normality, the area of nonverbal communication being no exception.
Although, we can classify many of these cultural norms in China as the result of differences in lifestyle, we must acknowledge that differences do and need to exist, regionally as well as individually in such a large and vast country.
Chinese and other East Asian cultures are known to place the most emotional importance on the eyes when expressing and recognising emotions. According to one study, “Western Europeans fixate more on the mouth region, and East Asians fixate more on the eye region when recognising facial expressions”.
In Chinese culture, information and gestural signs are communicated through the eyes rather than through suggestive smiles or frowns which Western cultures typically use to communicate.
However, it is also demonstrable that uninterrupted and extended eye contact is avoided in China. This is because, it has been said that Chinese and East Asian people seem to perceive the faces of others as angrier and more unapproachable when making eye contact. This shows a clear contrast toward the cultural perceptions from the West.
There are a few particular gestures that hold a different meaning in China than in other cultures. For example, placing the forefinger to the lips and creating a “shah” or “shh” sound resembles hissing and represents disapproval in China, more severe than its meaning of silence in the United States and other Western cultures.
Additionally, to entice somebody to approach you in China, the gesture is known to be a hand extended toward the person with the palm facing downward. This is often confusing for Americans, as it appears as if the person is waving goodbye. The American gesture is an upward-facing hand with the index finger moving back and forth. This has previously been considered offensive in China as they avoid pointing with a finger.
Although attitudes toward the non-acceptance of physical contact are gradually declining in China and other Asian countries, touching fondly and public displays of affection remain very different compared to Western cultures. A study concluded that, “Asian couples were far less likely to walk with arms around one another than Latino couples.”
Normally, close contact is avoided in public, and touching is kept at a minimum in China, especially in business and professional situations.
However, gestures like handshakes have become an internationally accepted form of greeting and are typically used during introductions and business meetings.
The study of body language should be in harmony to language learning because it acts as a way to promote the understanding of the culture. Moreover, the instruction of body languages should be interpreted within a given context to eliminate a situation that would be otherwise misleading.
Thanks to modern transportation and communication methods, the world is getting smaller and smaller, as is suggested by the “shrinking world theory”.
This has led people from different cultural backgrounds to have a better chance of communicating with one another. However, the cultural shocks also become more extreme and inevitable in the process.
So, to communicate effectively in a foreign nation, one must not only learn the native language, but also the different gestures, etiquette, and body motions to accompany a particular language.
