What are common gestures associated with politeness in Chinese communication

Common gestures associated with politeness in Chinese communication include:

• Slight bowing or nodding of the head to show respect and greeting.
• Offering a handshake is common but usually gentle and accompanied by slight nodding.
• Using both hands to give or receive an object, such as a gift or business card, as a sign of respect.
• Avoiding pointing at people, which is considered rude; instead, gesturing with an open hand.
• Covering the mouth or smiling gently when giggling or laughing to display modesty.
• Using subtle head tilting or lowering the eyes as a form of humility and politeness.
• Maintaining a calm demeanor and soft gestures to convey friendliness without causing loss of face. These gestures are deeply influenced by the cultural emphasis on saving face, respect for social hierarchy, and harmony in communication. ^{4, 10, 14}

Thus, polite nonverbal communication in Chinese culture prioritizes showing respect, humility, and careful social consideration through restrained, respectful gestures.

References

• The Comparison in Polite Language between Western Culture and Chinese Culture

• A Study of Speech Acts in Chinese Series “都挺好 (All is well)”

• Politeness in Business Communication: Investigating English Modal Sequences in Chinese Learners’ Letter Writing

• Politeness, performance, and pointing: gesture in Chinese reality television

• The Implied Pragmatic Negation in Chinese Communication

• GazeLink: A multi-language low-cost mobile eye-gesture communication system with large language models for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

• An Impoliteness Study on the Use of Swear Words among Chinese College Students in the TikTok Comment Section

• Realization of speech acts of request in modern Russian in comparison with Chinese

• A Contrastive Study on Image Repair Strategies in Chinese and American Corporate Apologies

• A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Greetings from the Perspective of Politeness Principle

• The Translation of Address Terms in Showing Politeness from Chinese into English

• POLITENESS IN COMPLIMENT RESPONSES OF MALAYSIA CHINESE UNDERGRADUATES

• On the Politeness Strategies in Chinese Internet Relay Chat Communication

• Acting the Intangible: Hints of Politeness in Non-Verbal Form

• Cultural and Social Interpretation of Chinese Addressing Strategies.

• Politeness Principle in Cross-Culture Communication

• Relational Ritual Politeness and Self-display in Historical Chinese Letters

• Culture Change and Affectionate Communication in China and the United States: Evidence From Google Digitized Books 1960–2008

• FACE AND POLITENESS PHENOMENA IN THE CHANGING CHINA

• The Outline of Chinese Traditional Concept of Etiquette and Its Modern Effects