Chinese number gestures

number gestures are a method of using one hand to signify the natural numbers one through ten. This method may have been developed to bridge the many dialects in spoken Chinese-- for example, the numbers 4 and 10 are hard to distinguish in some dialects. Some suggest that it was also used by business people during bargaining when they wish for more privacy in a public place.

Methods

While the five digits on one hand can easily express the numbers one through five, six through ten have special signs that can be used in commerce or day-to-day communication. The gestures are rough representations of the they represent. The system varies in practice, especially for the representation of "7" to "10". Two of the systems are listed below:

* Six
**The little finger and thumb are extended, other fingers closed, sometimes with the palm facing the signer.
* Seven
**The fingertips are all touching, pointed upwards; or just the fingertips of the thumb and first two fingers ; another method is similar to the eight described immediately below, except that the little finger is also extended.
**The index finger points down with the thumb extended, mimicking the shape of a "7".
* Eight
**The thumb and index finger make an "L", other fingers closed, with the palm facing the observer.
**The thumb, index finger, and middle finger are extended.
* Nine
**The index finger makes a hook, other fingers closed, sometimes with the palm facing the signer.
* Ten
**The fist is closed with the palm facing the signer; or the middle finger crosses an extended index finger, facing the observer.
**The index fingers of both hands are crossed in an "X" with the palms facing in opposite directions.

Use of the signs corresponds to the use of numbers in the Chinese language. For instance, the sign for five just as easily means fifty. A two followed by a six, using a single hand only, could mean 260 or 2600 etc. besides twenty-six. These signs also commonly refer to days of the week, starting from Monday, as well as months of the year, whose names in Chinese are enumerations.

In different regions signs for numbers varie significantly. As shown above, one may interpret a sign as "7" while the others as "8". The "index finger-hook" symbol for 9, also described as such in Lonely Planet, actually means "death".

The numbers zero through five are more trivial. For completeness:

* Zero
**The fist is closed.
* One
**The index finger is extended.
* Two
**The index and middle fingers are extended.
* Three
**With the index finger and thumb closed, the last three fingers are extended.
**The thumb holds the little finger in palm with the middle three fingers extended.
* Four
**The thumb is held in palm with the four fingers extended.
* Five
** All five digits are extended.

Counting with fingers is often different from expressing a specific number with a finger gesture. When counting, the palm can be either facing its owner or the audience, depending on the purpose. Before counting, all fingers are closed; counting starts by extending the thumb as ''the first'', then the first finger as ''the second'', till all fingers are extended as ''the fifth''; then counting can be continued by folding fingers with the same sequence, from thumb through the little finger, for counting from ''the sixth'' through ''the tenth''. Repeating the same method for counting larger numbers. One can also starts counting with all fingers extended. Some believe that for formal scenario such as giving speech or presentation, counting with the palm facing the audience and starting with all fingers extended is more polite, since the gesture of folding of fingers representing bowing.

When playing the ''drinking finger game'', slightly different sets of finger gestures of numbers is used. One of them is:

* Zero
**The fist is closed.
* One
**The thumb is extended with all other fingers folded toward the palm.
* Two
**The thumb and index finger make an "L", other fingers closed.
* Three
**With the last two fingers closed and the rest fingers extended, or
**With the index finger and thumb closed, the last three fingers are extended.
* Four
**The thumb is held in palm with the four fingers extended.
* Five
** All five digits are extended.

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