GESTURES Every culture has its own gestures. Indians constantly move their heads while talking. [ + ]
GESTURES
Every culture has its own gestures. Indians constantly move their heads while talking. Similarly, Japanese use their heads to indicate that they have understood the subject. As for Italians, they have a whole array of hand gestures that form a sort of language of their own. Shanghainese, on the other hand, don’t have all that many gestures, probably because of the embedded notion of yin and yang within Chinese culture and, consequently, their conception of healthiness. No one should be too happy or too sad. Equilibrium shall always prevail.
Nonetheless, when there is a crowd of Shanghainese watching a group of people playing mah-jong or carrom or any other table game, they will cross their arms, and some will smoke a cigarette without even touching it, as they do when they ride a bike, take a break at work or have a meal in a restaurant. What’s more, they will often do this while adopting the “crouching-on-heels position”. Since the very beginning of time, it has been shown that this is the best posture for the human body; however, in the West, most of us can’t really do this anymore, or at least not if we have to put our heels on the ground. But the Chinese can, and do, all the time, and hold this position for a very long time – while working, eating, waiting for public transport, going to the toilet, or simply talking to each other in the park or in the street.