Asian photo poses

Asian people have somewhat of a love affair with the camera. Back when I was young and to this day,  if you think of a Japanese tourist you would envision someone with a big ass SLR camera, snapping at a hundred shots an hour. If you're ever sightseeing alone and need someone to take a picture of you, it is also wise to ask an asian looking person (preferably with a big ass camera). Almost every time I've asked an asian person to take the picture for me they've had the mind not to cut out that seventh wonder of the world behind me and not just snap my kneecaps. Now that's somehwat of a generalization (and hence probably racist!), but hey if you want to increase your chance of getting a decent picture of you without asking the person to re-take it 10 times, ask an asian person.  (Though of late i have had a gripe with seeing a lot of fellow asians with THE most expensive model SLR camera bodies and THE most expensive lenses (we're talking couple of thousand dollars here) composing and snapping photos like they have a point-and-shoot camera in their hands)

But this love affair extends to all asians, not just to the Japanese, and the people of China are no different. They do some strange things in their photos though.  What I'm about to describe applies to most other asian countries. Heck i'm pretty sure that most of these camera habits originated in Japan and Korea! But the following are definitely things that have filtered into China at least.

Notable Poses

There are many very asian poses out there, in fact, while searching for pics to add to this blog i've come across whole websites and blogs dedicated to asian camera poses. The following are the ones worthy of discussion.
NOTE: most of these pics are not taken by myself, and are in fact mosty of asian celebrities in other asian countries! just using them here for demonstrative purposes :)

This first pose more applies to the girls rather than boys. Most people know about asian's love for the 'peace sign' in many shots. Hell, I even pull it out when I'm in shots by myself and don't know what to do with my hands (I have long lanky arms and finger you see so it looks hideous just to let them hang down) But they also do a variation of the peace sign up bordering the checks, or pointed towards the face most commonly at 9 and 3 o'clock. I'm not sure if it still means 'peace' in this position. Perhaps it's there to somehow augment the face?

But I do know this next one is definitely meant to augment the face. I like to call it ''The blowfish''. This one is only done in close-up self portrait shots. Girls will blow up their cheeks with a good mouthful of air to make themselves look more ''cute''. I guess here in asia a lot of guys find girls cute if they have chubby cheeks. The problem is, of all the pictures I've seen, most girls don't do it subtlely. They take in a huge gobful of air, which makes them look more like they're about to vomit. It's akin to putting on too much makeup, or airbrushing way too much. Or fake boobs the size of watermelons. i.e. disproportionate. And it's not like when you're out and about you're going to keep that mouthful of air in your mouth everywhere you go. It looks extremely uncomfortable, and talking MIGHT be a problem. Finally, it's hard to smile and inflate your cheeks at the same time. I tried it just then, and it just looks creepy.

Another common one is the index finger pressed to one cheek, ''The cheek lifter''. I think, and i might be wrong, that pushing your cheek up from the bottom will push more cheek fat to the top and hence give you the chubby cheek effect again. Problem is i've only ever seen the single cheek pushup, not the double. I can imagine the double cheek push would look a bit strange though.

The final 'face augmenting' pose is the ''face-cup'' . This is where the hands cup around the cheeks from the bottom with or without making contact with the cheeks. I'm guessing this one is to block out any fat necks or prevents the double chin effect.This purple background one is a blowfish - face-cup combo.



 


 
Then there's ''The heart'' . and the boys are guilty of this one too. Theres a couple of variations of this one, as illustrated in the pics. The closest thing to it in the west is the ''I feel like a Whopper pose'', though I'm sure the Chinese are not trying to tell us they're craving a Whopper. I have never ever seen a western person pull this pose, EVER. It's just so strange, and a little cheesy (excuse the pun). What exactly is the person trying to convey? I love you (the cameraman). I love life, I love so I am, I'm full of heart, I'm single and looking for love, world peace? Perhaps someone out there can enlighten me and tell me exactly what the meaning is, becuase it seems to be thrown around a lot in any sort of picture situation.
Ok, i can understand the meaning if two love birds are in a photo and doing it together or forming each half of the heart (which still makes me retch though), but a lone person in a photo doing it? no idea. I can safely guess though that as part of commercial advertising it means, ''we care about our customers''. Though i'm yet to see anything appoaching TLC in any form of customer service in China to date. I'm sure it would be different though if you flash a VIP card or walk in with a high ranking Communist party official.

Indeed, Chinese girls in particular love being snapped. It's common for many young girls to have done at least one professional photo shoot, whether it be studio or outdoor, complete with a varying array of outfits and airbrushing. I know this because many of my friends and students on their social networking pages have posted the entire albums on there! For us westerners you would only go to get professional studio pictures done if you were trying to break into modelling, getting married, having a baby, or got dragged to the family photo shoot when you were 8 years old (those shots with the ghastly blue or green backgrounds). It's such an interesting phenomenon that isn't widely practiced in the west. I mean, if you went and did one of these shoots 'just for the hell of it' no doubt some of your friends would think you're a bit full of yourself. Of course, not all girls go vogue in front of the camera, but you can pick the ones that do. Approaching the end of semester I recall one girl dragging her boyfriend along with an SLR camera, ordering the poor guy around like he was some personal photographer, while she pulled out some of the most vogue like poses and positions in all manner of strange places (like the delapidated sports field).

Finally, don't be surprised if you're posing in a photo with Chinese and asked to say qie zi. In english it sounds like ''chair tzz''. It's their equivalent of Cheese, but it doesn't mean Cheese. It means Eggplant, but don't say eggplant in english. It's just that saying Chair tzz stretches out the lips into a smile in the same way Cheese does.  I actually didn't know the reason we say cheese until i found this out. haha.how ignorant of me.