Talk:Chinese number gestures

I guess these gestures aren't the same all around China. :-) &mdash; Instantnood July 8, 2005 17:39 (UTC)

Move to Wikitravel
I believe that this is more relevant to travel than an encyclopedia due to (1) the purpose for the target viewer and (2) the inability to reference accurate material. Davilla 22:02, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

Because of licensing it is not possible to move the entire page. I will be moving my contributions about Taiwan as soon as I can figure out the proper place for them, and will then mark this page for deletion. Davilla 01:10, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Silly people. EVERYTHING is relevent for an encyclopedia of ALL human knowledge. Just say not everyone agrees. Nesnad 17:20, 30 August 2005 (UTC)


 * KeepPizzaMargherita 02:16, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

The gesture for three
A common gesture for "three" is the last three fingers (middle, ring, and pinky) extended, thumb and index finger folded. I don't know if this is more common than the other. It is at least prevalent in Shanghai. I've added it to the article. --Sumple 03:28, 19 January 2006 (UTC)


 * that's what my mainland chinese friends say as well. there needs to be an added/corrected picture for number "3"


 * The book for my chinese class agrees with you,published by the Peoples Education Press so (hopefully) they know what they are talking about.

I'm a native, and I agree as well. It's interchangeably used with the sign for a-okay. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.120.26.162 (talk) 06:22, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

Pinky/RingFinger 'Independance'
Several times this mentions gestures being 'difficult' because the last two digits are 'not independant'

Is there anything more definite about this? I think that this phenomenon differs from person to person, and even from hand to hand; I can bend my left-hand pinky independantly of the left-hand ring finger, but find it impossible to bend my right-hand pinky without also bending the right-hand ring finger. Interestingly, I can bend either ring-finger on its own.

Anyway, the relevence is that I didn't think that those comments should be as definitive as they are - I might come back and put in a few 'sometimes' and 'maybe's in there... -yamahito

I should have been aware of that. My bad. Done. Davilla 13:36, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Photos
Some photos would really help this article. LDHan 12:18, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Seconded. 112.119.219.72 (talk) 20:13, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Other countries?
I have no references to offer, but my understanding is as follows.


 * The Japanese count the fingers that are closed, as opposed to extended, starting with the thumb (which is similar to what is described here as "four") and ending with a closed fist, meaning "five".
 * Brits start by extending the little finger (normally on the palm of the other hand).
 * Europeans start by extending the thumb, then index, and so on.
 * Americans start with the index, middle, ring, little finger and then add the thumb for "five".

It would be nice to have an international "Number gestures" article.

PizzaMargherita 20:17, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm European and I don't do that... Rbarreira 11:03, 23 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Good, even more material. What's your background and what do you do? PizzaMargherita 15:46, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Ambiguous
The article saith "While the five digits on one hand can easily express the numbers one through five". Obviously. In many different ways. But what happens in China? Perhaps the way described at the end of the article? Who knows?

The article also saith "and potentially even letters of the alphabet since the names for all are enumerated in the Chinese language". Which alphabet?
 * Removed. I have absolutely no idea what that is supposed to mean. WP 09:23, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

the 1st 10 gesture (closed fist gesture)
The closed fist gesture is actually zero, it's just used as 10 in some cases. Just ask anyone to show you the two-hand combined gesture for 20, 30, 40, 50, etc. --Voidvector (talk) 23:13, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * As for zero, we use the thumb and index finger to make a circle. --Yejianfei (talk) 17:14, 14 October 2018 (UTC)

In Taiwan
Some numbers we do differently in Taiwan. This is how we do:


 * 6 is usually done as the way described in the article, but sometimes also done like a thumbs up.
 * 7 is extending thumb and index. Just like the 8 in the article but no one here sees it as an 8.
 * 8 is done by extending thumb, index and middle.
 * 9 is to close only the little finger and extend the rest. It is Difficult to do for some people, in that case it's done with two hands, with 9 fingers (Including a thumb, which is also considered a finger in Chinese) extended, or some people may use one hand to press down the little finger of the other hand.
 * 10 is done by both hands most of the time, either by doing two 5s or with a cross of indexes. (not so much like an x but rather more like a +, because it's referring to the Chinese character "十" which means "ten")

Usually they are all done with the palm facing the observer and extended fingers pointing up. But when in a narrow space, by a lazy person who don't want to raise his hand so much, or prefer not to be seen by others, it's also done with palm facing the signer in front of his chest.

Yel D&#39;ohan (talk) 09:28, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Not accurate for Hong Kong
This article is not accurate for Hong Kong. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.85.87.100 (talk) 01:50, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Eight (Mnemonic)
When I was in China, decades ago, my mentor noted that the sign for '8' looks like a pistol. He said that it is easy to remember (in then-recent Chinese history) by thinking of the Eighth Route Army (bālù-jūn - 八路军), which was an army controlled by the Communists during the struggle against the Japanese 1937-1945. Bill Jefferys (talk) 02:01, 28 January 2012 (UTC)


 * That might be the reason why the Taiwanese user (right above this section) mentioned they don't use the same gesture for eight, even if the Eighth Route Army was technically part of ROC army. Ahyangyi (talk) 07:33, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

Alternative gesture for 10?
I am currently in Japan as an international student, and one of my classmates is a Chinese girl from Beijing. She taught me the 10 sign as crossed index and middle fingers (like the symbol for R in the signed alphabet we all learn in America, or like "I'm lying" gesture). Is this a common variant that should be added? 118.1.188.217 (talk) 15:59, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

Counting to 100
There is also a way to count to 109 using two hands.

For example if you want to count to 85, use the 八 finger symbol of the left hand and ✋ (5) on the right hand.

✊ ✋ for instance would be 105. 50.101.171.99 (talk) 00:57, 21 March 2023 (UTC)