Kowtow, which describes the act of kneeling
and touching one’s head to the ground to
show respect, used to be a custom in Chinese
culture. Now it refers to acting like you're doing
that, whether you actually bow or not.
Kowtow is derived from the Chinese word k’o-t’ou, which literally means “knock the head.” As
a verb, kowtow has the sense of “sucking up” or "flattering." Maybe you’re wondering when it
would be appropriate to kowtow. The answer? When you want to worship, show respect, gain
favor, or flatter. Students might need to kowtow to their teachers if they failed tests, but if you
kowtow to all your neighbor's requests, you might wind up mowing his lawn all summer.
DEFINITIONS AND USAGE EXAMPLES
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Pronunciation: [kou-tou]
bend the knees and bow in a servile manner
try to gain favor by cringing or flattering
to try very hard to please someone, in a way that other people find annoying
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Katniss refuses to kowtow to the Capitol—she is the Mockingjay!
He was a proud man who kowtowed to nobody.
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The little girl threw herself on the ground in a trembling kowtow before the beast.
From Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Directions: Discuss the meaning of the word with your students, with special emphasis on any variations or
nuances of the word specific to your discipline. Consider taking it a step further by using one or all of the
following ideas as you involve students with the new vocabulary. Remember to preview all
content you intend to share with students. Not all items on the lists provided below are
appropriate for all classes or age levels.
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(Math/Science) “Death by Inches: The battle over the Metric System in America.”
Click to link to the article.
Seth Stevenson writes a book review of John Bemelmans Marciano’s The Concerted
Campaign to Kill the Metric System in America. He begins with an intriguing fact: In May of
1981, party people gathered for one of the nerdiest soirees ever to grace lower Manhattan.
Billed as the “Foot Ball,” the event was an anti-metric shindig. Its revelers—including author
Tom Wolfe and Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand—had joined to protest the
encroachment of the metric system into modern American life. They threw shade on the meter
and kilogram, and toasted the simple beauty of old classics like the yard and the pound.”
In the book, protesting the metric system, author Tom Wolfe “accused elites of kowtowing to fashionable Europe,
sneering that ‘we’re still the most obedient little colonials when it comes to things intellectual.’”
An article from the Slate Book Review, 7 August 2014
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(English/General Interest)
From the Books section of Time magazine (31 May 2013):
“Exclusive: An Excerpt from the Upcoming Novel by Amy Tan”
“The Valley of Amazement is a sweeping epic about two women and their
intertwined fates and their search for identity, from the lavish parlors of
Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese
village.”
In the excerpt from the book, the narrator explains that she “was educated, too, and in difficult
subjects, such as history and science—‘and for no greater purpose than Knowledge Alone,’ my
tutor had said. Most Chinese girls learned only how to behave.
What’s more, I did not think like a Chinese person—no kowtowing to statues, no smoky
incense, and no ghosts. . . .”
Click to link to the article.
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(Science/Social Science)
From the Science section of Time magazine (20 May 2014):
“Drunk Fish Totally Impress Sober Fish, Study Finds”
“Researchers found that inebriated zebrafish convince clearheaded fish to follow
them around, as their erratic behavior is perceived is a ‘boldness trait.’”
The point of the article? “So even in schools of fish, straight edge guppies kowtow
to the “cool” crowd.”
Click to link to the article.
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(Architecture/Design)
“A Building Forms a Bridge Between a University’s Past and Future”
“I’m sure that a few preservationists are already grumbling about the
new interdisciplinary science building at Columbia University. It
certainly doesn’t fade politely into its brick surroundings. But they’d
be wrong to think that it disrespects history.
Designed by the Spanish architect JoséRafael Moneo, the new building,
at the corner of Broadway and 120th Street, draws on a range of
precedents, from the austere Modernism of Adolf Loosto the original
McKim, Mead & White master plan for Columbia’s Morningside
Heights campus. Its muscular steel-and-aluminum frame is a vivid
example of how to fit into a difficult historical context without slavishly
kowtowing to it.”
From The New York Times (8 Feb. 2011)
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(Sports)
“Time for N.F.L. Sponsors to Demand Change”
This New York Times article (14 Feb. 2014) is about “a 144-page report of an
independent investigation has made public the details of the bullying on the Miami
Dolphins.” The author states that one problem players “are facing in the league:
locker room [is] bullies who wield so much power that even some coaches kowtow
to them.
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(Marketing/Movie-Making)
Be nice to China: Hollywood risks 'artistic surrender' in effort to please
Kowtowing to China has become a reflex for US film studios in search of a piece of booming – and lucrative –
Chinese market
“In Hollywood, the screenwriter William Goldman once observed,
‘nobody knows anything’. Now, however, everybody knows at least
one thing: whatever you do, be nice to China.”
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(Fun/General Interest)
Watch this brief video of a dog who has quickly
learned the art of kowtowing to get what you want.
An authentic picture of the “full kowtow.”
A reference to the modern usage of the
term kowtow.