"O. K." sign

[Peter A. McGraw]

Thank you, DInIs!!!


--On Thu, Nov 2, 2000 1:33 PM -0500 "Dennis R. Preston"
<preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU> wrote:

> I'm not at home so I can't give any gesture references, but I have just
> descended one floor and consulted a large number of Chinese native
> speaker-gesturers. The results are as follows:
>
> All Taiwanese repsondents said the sign means "OK." They also believe it
> is borrowed from AmerEng.
>
> All mainland Chinese repsondents said it meant nothing. When I then
> pressed them for similar gestures which might have obscene (or sexual)
> meanings, they all still said "no." When I specifically asked them if it
> meant the same thing as "giving the finger" (which they all knew), they
> emphatially said "no" (and they copvered quite a few areas of mainland
> China).

****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu