Why East Asians make V—signs in photos

导读：东亚人喜欢在拍照时露出V的手势。有人说这一手势与美国花样滑冰运动员、体育卡通人物和柯尼卡相机广告有深厚的渊源。

If you spend a few minutes watching groups of travelers posing in front of a popular tourist place， you will see young Asians smiling and making the V-for-Victory sign（or peace sign）. The gesture is as much a part of Asian picture taking as saying cheese is to English speakers. But why？

To non-Asians， the gesture seems a popular part of culture in Beijing， Osaka or Taipei， but， in fact， its earliest origins date back no further than the late 1960s， and the gesture didnt really find widespread acceptance until the late 1980s.

Some say it began with Janet Lynn. The American figure skater was favored to take home gold in the 1972 Olympics in Japan. But the 18-year-olds dream came crashing down when she fell during her performance. The gold medal was gone. She knew it， and Japan knew it. Instead of being mad， sad or doing other things to save face， the girl simply smiled and made a V-sign. Lynns behavior earned her lots of Japanese fans. A cultural gesture was born.

Another story was that in 1968， the baseball cartoon Kyojin no Hoshi sho talked about a main character struggling with father problems and the pressure of competition. In the end， he got his dads support when the elder threw him a“V” before a big game. That made this sign very popular.

Though Lynn and Kyojin no Hoshi sho had some influence on the widespread use of the V-sign， Japanese think the biggest role is Jun Inoue， a popular singer who did an advertisement for Konica cameras. During filming he made a V-sign and his fans all began to follow him to make that gesture. It made the V-sign extremely popular in Japan.

When Japanese pop culture began to spread around East Asia in the 1980s， the fashionable V-sign found itself exported to mainland China， Hong Kong， Taiwan and South Korea.

These days， the habit can be seen everywhere. However， most young Asians who make the gesture in photos do so without thinking and dont know why they do it. “I dont know why，” says 14-year-old Imma Liu of Hong Kong， but she says she feels “happy” when she does it. Perhaps thats all that matters.

Vocabulary

figure skater n. 花樣滑冰运动员

（What poses do you like to do in pictures？）

Jessie改编