Nowadays, people usually shake hands when they meet each other. Do the Chinese always greet others like this? In fact, handshaking was introduced to our country around 100 years ago.
There were several kinds of greeting in ancient China. Among them the fist and palm salute(拱手礼) was a quite common one, with a history of about 3, 000 years. It was first used by people in the West Zhou Dynasty. In ancient times, if people met a stranger, their hands were always ready for holding something used for fighting. Holding out both hands showed that people could feel relaxed.
When people meet, men usually use their left hand to hold the right one. It’s believed that people considered the left as the important side for men in Chinese history. While for women, the important side is the right. So when they give the fist and palm salute, they should put their right hand on the top. When someone presents the fist and palm salute to you, you are supposed to do it back as well.
In many wuxia or kung fu TV series and movies, people greet each other with the hold fist salute, or Baoquan in Chinese. The gesture (手势) is that the right hand is made a fist, while the left band is to cover the right fist. It’s similar to the fist and palm salute, but they are different. Baoquan is widely used among kung fu masters and students.
So, don’t make a mistake.
1.Handshaking first started in China and then was spread to other places.A.is; is | B.was; was | C.was; is |
A.out of; after | B.for; at | C.out of; at |