(Edited to add: Bumped back to the top because I now have an answer to this question. Be sure to scroll down if you haven’t checked this weekend’s posts, which include Volunteer Memphis and Hands On Memphis merging, and reasons why Romania is the greatest country EVAR!!!!!!!!!! Scroll down to the end of this post for updated info)
So last night I got bored and started surfing the web… and I came across one of those personals sites, one that claimed it was the best at helping people from all over the world meet. So I clicked their Search button, and you can probably guess which country I searched for first. But there weren’t many Romanians on the site, probably because it’s rather expensive to become a member.
So I picked another country at random… Japan. And I noticed that in about 60-70% of the Japanese women’s profiles, there was at least one picture of them doing this:
Now, I remembered back when I taught at the U of M, I had a Chinese grad assistant, and one time I took a pic of her and she made that hand sign too. So I started searching for Chinese girls on the personals site, and sure enough, most of them had at least one photo of them making that gesture. Next I tried Thai girls. Same thing. Vietnamese. Same thing. Taiwanese. Same thing.
What’s the deal with that? Why do Asians always (or at least, often) make that gesture when they have their picture taken?
Edited to add Sunday night 10/22/06, after about 11 beers at Sleep Out Louie’s, the Tap Room, and the Flying Saucer (from where I’m posting this): Regular blog reader/Asian studies major Carmel, who used to teach in Japan and was also baffled by this behavor, sends the following, from Wikipedia:
“During the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, figure
skater Janet Lynn stumbled into Japanese pop culture
when she fell during a free-skate period—but continued
to smile even as she sat on the ice. Though she placed
only 3rd in the actual competition, her cheerful
diligence and indefatigability resonated with many
Japanese viewers, making her an overnight celebrity in
Japan. Afterwards, Lynn (a peace activist) was
repeatedly seen flashing the V sign in the Japanese
media. Though the V sign was known of in Japan prior
to Lynn’s use of it there (from the post-WWII Allied
occupation of Japan), she is credited by some Japanese
for having popularized its use in amateur photographs.
Through the 1970s and 1980s in Japan, the V sign was
often accompanied by a vocalization: “piisu!” This
gairaigo exclamation, which stood for “peace”, has
since fallen into disuse, though the V sign itself
remains steadfastly popular.
The V sign is also commonly used in anime and Japanese
live-action shows. When characters show this sign, it
is often accompanied by an exclamation of “Vui!”
(pronounced “vwee!”), an exaggeration, or possible
slurring (see Engrish) of the English pronunciation
“vee”.
Perhaps due to Japanese cultural influence, the V sign
in photographs has become popular with young Koreans,
Hong Kongers, and Taiwanese as well. The sign is
ubiquitous in Taiwan and is closely associated with
the English word, “happy”. Print and television
advertisements read “happy” with hands waving while
displaying the V sign, and the average Taiwanese
person will invariably give that word as the meaning
of the sign.”