QA话题：为什么中国人鞠躬而不是握手?

Yugan Talovich
Shaking hands comes from Europe, the days of knights (isn’t English strange? the days of knights, not the days of nights). Knights disdained the left hand, calling it sinister, which means both left and evil. A weapon was held in the right hand. If we let each other clasp our right hands, our weapon hands, we were showing trust.
 
握手起源于欧洲的骑士时代(不感觉英语很奇怪吗?骑士时代（the days of knights），而不是黑夜的日子（the days of nights）)。骑士们鄙视左手，称其为sinister，意为左边和邪恶。右手拿着武器。如果我们握着彼此的右手，握着拿武器的手，我们就是在表示信任。
 
When Chinese bow, usually the hands are not dangling by your sides. When I was in college and graduate school (NTNU), when the teacher entered, we all stood up and bowed, with our hands at our sides; this was repeated when the teacher left.
 
中国人鞠躬时，双手通常不会垂在身体两侧。当我在大学和研究生院的时候（挪威科技大学），当老师进来的时候，我们都站起来，双手放在身体两侧，向他鞠躬。老师走后又重复了一遍。
 
But usually you’re doing something with your hands. Here is a picture of 作揖 the yi, which has proved its value in the days of COVID:
 
但通常你是在用手做一些事情。这里有一张作揖（the yi）的图片，在新冠肺炎疫情中证明了作揖价值:



Martial artists are familiar with this style, which is also very common:
 
武术家对这种作风很熟悉，也很常见:
 


How much you bow depends on the situation and the person you are greeting.
 
你鞠躬的程度取决于场合和你打招呼的人。
 
Cherry Chow (周淳鈺)
And just to add on, when wrapping the hands, I as a female wrap my left fist in my right hand, for men, it’s the opposite, right fist in left hand. This is reversed for funerals and wakes.
 
回复Yugan Talovich
再补充一点，当我包住手的时候，作为一个女性，我用右手包着我的左手，而对于男性，则相反，左手包着右手。这在葬礼和守丧时是相反的。
 
William Stanley
I always get this wrong because I’m right-handed so doing it the female way feels more ergonomic even though I’m male ^^;
 
回复Cherry Chow (周淳鈺)
我总是做错这个，因为我是右撇子，所以用女性的方式做感觉更符合人体工程学，尽管我是男性^^;
 
Pras Sethiyo
Any chance this practice resurface in china?
 
回复Cherry Chow (周淳鈺)
这种做法有可能在中国重新出现吗?
 
Yugan Talovich
It’s still common, especially around New Years.
 
回复Pras Sethiyo
这仍然很常见，尤其是在新年前后。
 
Cherry Chow (周淳鈺)
Exactly, whenever you hear someone say Gong Xi Fa Cai, you’d see people do this.
 
回复Yugan Talovich
没错，每当你听到有人说“恭喜发财”时，你就会看到人们这样做。
 
Pras Sethiyo
I know that, even here in indonesia, ethnic chinese descendants do that gesture to each other on Chinese new year (and after burning incense in temple). I mean more of about practice in daily lives like in wuxia/historical drama, I thought it's cool.
 
回复Yugan Talovich
我知道，即使在印尼这里，华裔后裔在中国新年时也会互相做这个手势(在庙里烧香之后)。我的意思是更多的是日常生活中的练习，比如武侠/历史剧，我觉得这很酷。
 
Yugan Talovich
It’s come back, thanks to COVID.
 
回复Pras Sethiyo
多亏了新冠肺炎，它（作揖）又重新流行了。
 
John Lavery
Sinister is Latin for left. The English word sinister is drawn from the concept of the left hand being bad. The left hand path is an occult term for black magic
 
回复Yugan Talovich
Sinister在拉丁语中是左的意思。英语单词sinister来自于左手不好的概念。左手路径是一个神秘的术语，代表黑魔法
 
Lee Yu Ting
Wait, I thought handshakes originated from Ancient Greece?
 
回复Yugan Talovich
等等，我以为握手起源于古希腊?
 
Abdullahi Abdi
The oldest evidence of shaking hands is in middle east not in europe.
 
回复Yugan Talovich
握手最古老的证据是在中东，而不是在欧洲。
 
William Hartanto

Found this funny chart online when I was trying to figure out the difference between bowing and kowtow
 
回复Yugan Talovich
在我试图弄清楚鞠躬和磕头的区别时，在网上发现了这张有趣的图表（译注：图片是奥巴马鞠躬指南）
 
Vikram Aditya
The Japanese bow by keeping their hands to the sides .
 
回复Yugan Talovich
日本人的鞠躬方式是把手放在两侧。
 
Martin Pantovic
I had to bow to my laptop just to try it out.
 
回复Yugan Talovich
为了试一试，我不得不向我的笔记本低头。
 
Jesse Garcia
Hmm.. you managed to say a whole lot but not address the question.
 
回复Yugan Talovich
嗯. .你说了很多，但没有回答问题。
 
Joseph Wang
I think you are confusing Chinese and Japanese cultures. Chinese rarely bow, and I can’t think of any business or social situation recently where I’ve bowed to a human being. (I do the full kowtow to Buddha.)
 
我认为你混淆了中国和日本文化。中国人很少鞠躬，最近我还没在任何商业或社交场合向人鞠躬过。(我对佛陀完全叩头。)
 
The only situations where I can think of Chinese bowing is:
 
我能想到中国鞠躬的唯一情形是:
 
1.If you are begging for an apology and you want forgiveness
2.At funerals
3.Some sort of elder/younger situation. Teachers/kids. You’d bow to your parents-in-law if you meet them for the first time.
 
1.如果你在乞求一个道歉，你想要原谅
2.在葬礼上
3.一些年长/年轻的情形。老师/孩子。如果你第一次见到你的岳父母，你会向他们鞠躬。
 
The thing about most business situations is that you aren’t in a subordinate/superior situation, and even though Japanese do this all the time, it’s weird in Chinese society for two people to bow to each other.
 
在大多数商业环境中，你并不是处于一个下级/上级的地位，尽管日本人经常这样做，但在中国社会两个人互相鞠躬是很奇怪的。
 
Part of the difference in China and Japan might be because China went through two revolutions. It would be considered really rude and weird for a factory owner to expect workers to bow to them without bowing back.
 
中国和日本的部分差异可能是因为中国经历了两次革命。如果工厂老板希望工人向他们鞠躬却不回敬他们，那会被认为是非常粗鲁和奇怪的。
 
Wuming Liu
The first that youneed know bow is Japanese tradition.,not Chinese tradition. And this tradition as a courtesy is source from ancient of China.And in China we called that “make a bow with hands folded in front” which Chinese means is ZuoYi.
 
首先你要知道鞠躬是日本的传统。不是中国的传统。而这一传统作为一种礼貌，源于中国古代。在中国，被我们称之为“双手交叉在前面做一个弓”，中文意思是作揖。
 
After the Xinhai Geming ，the Revolution of 1911,more and more people abandon the ZuoYi,and they start use shake hands instead of the ZuoYi.And Japanese bow is from ZuoYi.
 
辛亥革命后，越来越多的人放弃了作揖，开始用握手代替作揖。而日本的鞠躬则来自作揖。
 
This is my first article in English on the quora,maybe there are many grammar errors,I hope that comment area can give me some advice,and help me improve my level of the English. Thanks!
 
这是我在quora上的第一篇英语文章，可能有很多语法错误，我希望评论区能给我一些建议，帮助我提高我的英语水平。谢谢！
 
China - World Leader.
The Japanese do the same.
 
日本人也这样做。
 
It is a sign of respect and is especially important to the older Japanese who have values from long before Japan became what it is today. China is the same when it comes to respect and being polite.
 
这是一种尊重的象征，对日本老年人尤其重要，因为在日本成为今天的样子之前他们就有了这种观念。在尊重和礼貌方面，中国也是如此。
 
China - World Leader.
Wrong. It’s the Japanese who bow.
 
错了。鞠躬的是日本人。
 
Will Wang
One assumption is to reduce the spread of diseases. Ancient Chinese mastered quite advanced agricultural skills and thus people started to gather in small villages near rivers\\\\\\\\lakes, which increased the chance of spreading diseases, and people found by not touching other people and keeping distance could reduce the chance of getting sick, so taking bow became popular.
 
一种假设是减少疾病的传播。古代中国人掌握了相当先进的农业技术，因此人们开始聚集在靠近河/湖的小村庄，这增加了传播疾病的机会，人们发现不接触他人和保持距离可以减少患病的机会，所以鞠躬变得流行。
 
Jeremy Hayes
They don’t. They do avoid physical contact usually but bowing in greeting is a Japanese custom and not a Chinese one.
 
他们没有。他们通常避免身体接触，但鞠躬致意是日本的习俗，而不是中国的习俗。
 
Fengyan Han
Bow and handshaking coexist in modern China. Bow is used when showing respect while handshaking is more about friendship or collaboration.
 
鞠躬和握手在现代中国并存。鞠躬表示尊敬，而握手更多的是表示友谊或合作。
 
Felix Magnus
Chinese don’t bow. Where did you get that notion?
 
中国人不鞠躬。你怎么会有这种想法?
 
Elizabeth Henderson
Bowing is still done by the Japanese, but modern Chinese people don’t bow; they shake hands.
 
鞠躬仍然是日本人做的，但现代中国人不鞠躬了; 他们握手。
 
Bill
For the same reason that you shake hands, and do not bow. It is just part of their culture.
 
就像你握手，不鞠躬一样。这只是他们文化的一部分。