1st Edition
The Language of Asian Gestures Embodied Words Through the Lens of Film
The Language of Asian Gestures explores Asian gestures as a non-verbal language within the context of films and dramas.
This book provides a cross-cultural Asian perspective on a range of important common gestures and their meanings, covering a range of Asian regions including Korea, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, and Pakistan. While most studies focus on text-based communication, gestures find themselves overshadowed by text and speech. Asian gestures, too, often reside in the shadow of Eurocentric viewpoints. This book will shift this dynamic and amplify the voices that have typically been marginalised within 20th-century Eurocentric discussions.
The book will be informative for students and researchers interested in Asian languages, cultures, film studies, and pragmatics. It bridges the gap between words and gestures, unveiling a world of concealed meanings and enriching our understanding of diverse forms of expression.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Preface
Part I. Gestures – Moving Words or Words in Action?
Gestures – A Bird's Eye View
Prosody as Gesture
Understanding Facial Expressions
Cultural Gestures
Diversity in Asian Language and Culture
Asian Gestures
Multimodal Modulation Hypothesis (MMH)
Hierarchy Through Gesture
Diversity in Asian Gestures
Bowing
Gesturing Properly
Verbal – Gestural Languages: Division of Labour
Border-Crossing Gestures
Part II. Gesture in Asia – Mapped Though Film
Head
Smile
Kiss
Open Mouth, Sticking Out Tongue, and Lip Pointing
Nodding
Head to Hand
Scratching the Head
Ear Pulling and Ear Holding
Rolling Both Hands Behind Ears
Eye Gaze
Lowering the Head
Closing Eyes and Blinking
Winking
Raised Eyebrows
Voice
Whistling
Slurping
Laughter
Hissing
Silence
Soft Speaking
Upper body
Shoulders
Arms
Crossed Arms
Bowing
Handshake
Hand Over Mouth
Beckoning
Fist
Waving
Pointing
Touching the Heart
Hands Held Together in Lap
Wrist Twisting
Cutting Through
Pouring for Someone
One or Two Hands
Drinking Gestures
Food Gestures
Giving and Receiving Items and Gifts
Left or Right Hand
Touch
No Touching of the Head
Patting and Hitting
Chin Grabbing/Shaking
Brushing and Washing
Lower body
Crossing Legs and Kneeling
Covering Bare Legs When Sitting
Feet
Exposing the Feet
Touching Someone Else's Feet
Touching Things or Gesturing Using Feet
Part III. Future Gestures in an Asian Context
The Evolution of Gestures
Smartphone Gestures
Gestures in a Digital Age
Emoji and Acronym Ambiguity: Interpreting Generational Disparities in Digital Communication
Decoding Gestures: The Complexities in an Increasingly Mobile World
‘Translingual, Transcultural, and Transmedial’: Individual Differences
Transnational Gestures
Fandom Gestures: Transcending Borders and Cultures
Sharing Memes and Emojis: An Act of Solidarity
Gesture Diversity
Gesture Conflicts
Future Gestures: Less Hierarchical?
Online Gestures Matter
AI Gestures in Films
Future of Human Language
Filmography
Interviewees
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Jieun Kiaer holds the YBMK KF Professorship in Korean Linguistics at the University of Oxford. As a linguist, pragmatist, and specialist in Asian studies, she has published extensively in the fields of theoretical and applied linguistics as well as translation studies. Her research goes beyond the traditionally Western and text-focused approaches to language, embracing non-European and multi-modal perspectives to offer a more nuanced understanding of human communication.
Loli Kim is a postdoctoral researcher on the Leverhulme project "Sea, Song and Survival: The Language and Folklore of the Haenyeo Women" at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford. As a multimodalist, semiotician, and specialist in Asian studies, semantics, and film, she publishes across fields of multimodality, semiotics, translation, semantics, pragmatics, and film and media studies—all drawn together by cross-cultural perspectives that seek to contextualise Asian discourses in their own cultures and to develop the methodological tools needed for doing so.
