When I was in my twenties, I knew a few adepts of Zen Buddhism who would mention the famous koan: “the sound of one hand clapping.” When I asked what it meant, they would usually give me a disdainful look, as if I were too unenlightened to understand. In my view clapping requires two hands—duh!—but maybe I’m wrong because in China now you can “clap” with one finger. An app enables you to clap by tapping your mobile phone.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that many Chinese citizens tapped their mobile phones to “clap” for snippets of wisdom expressed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in his three-and-a-half-hour speech to the 19th Communist Party Congress. One person tapped out 1,489 claps in 19 seconds (he used five fingers), putting him in the 99th percentile of the tap-clappers.
A Chinese observer said that “they must have known it’s so over-the-top silly.” It’s unclear if “they” meant the tappers or Chinese authorities, and in any case I’m not sure it’s silly. Chinese authorities like to keep a close tab on their citizens—maybe even their responses to Xi Jinping’s speeches. Evan Osnos, who lived in China for many years, reports, “In Beijing the government uses facial-recognition machines in public rest rooms to stop people from stealing toilet paper.”
In Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province, Uighurs are required to have government spy apps on their mobile phones. James A. Millward, a scholar who teaches at Georgetown University, says Uighurs are subject to extreme surveillance. “At multiple checkpoints, police officers scan your ID card, your irises and the contents of your phone.” If a Uighur ridiculed virtual clapping he would be in big trouble.
Is there an inverse correlation between clapping and freedom? I think there is. The more people applaud their leaders, the more likely they are doing so out of fear, not enthusiasm. Russia expert Masha Gessen writes that in Soviet politics “applause was a central issue—sometimes, it seemed, the central issue.” In Stalin’s heyday, she says, “applause became largely panic-driven; contemporary accounts showed that people feared that the first person to stop clapping would be the first to be hauled off to jail. Failure to applaud could certainly be considered treason.” Party members did not stop clapping until Stalin signaled them to do so. They also shouted “Long live Comrade Stalin” while they clapped.
Acclaiming a despot by clapping and shouting (or both) is an old story. According to historian Peter Heather, most major Roman imperial ceremonies “involved 245 shouts of approval from the assembled senators” when the emperor entered. Did they clap as well?
Clapping for a ruler goes back at least to the Hebrew Bible. Speaking of Joash, the Book of Kings says, “They proclaimed him king, and anointed him; they clapped their hands and shouted, ‘Long live the king.’ ” Were they clapping out of approval or out of fear?
In the Bible clapping is also an expression of religious joy. Psalm 47 begins: “Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy.” The same sentiment is expressed in Psalm 98: “Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy.” There is a similar passage in Isaiah about the trees of the field clapping their hands.
In Job clapping has yet another meaning. Elihu criticizes Job: “He adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.” Raymond P. Scheindlin, a leading scholar of the Hebrew Bible, translates this passage “slaps his hands among us,” and he adds in a footnote that this “is a gesture of mourning [on Job’s part]. Elihu is criticizing Job for wailing and lamenting his own suffering.” Is slapping one’s hands—how does one do this?—different from clapping?
In Ezekiel the Lord chastises those who have clapped enthusiastically for false gods. He says to the Moabites: “Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within you against the land of Israel, therefore I have stretched out my hand against you.” In another passage God says to the Israelites: “Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas for all the vile abominations of the house of Israel!” God wants the Israelites to clap and stamp their feet as an expression of remorse for their “vile abominations.”
Reading about clapping and stamping one’s feet, I think of flamenco dancers. Their clapping and stamping are rhythmic music—often in conjunction with guitarists and drummers who also clap. The dancer’s expression as he or she claps and stamps is somber and intense—even arrogant. Flamenco dancers are proud—showing off their mastery of a difficult art.
Clapping, then, can express a wide variety of emotions. A writer on a Reddit anthropology page notes: “Clapping is the loudest sound we can make with our bodies without using our mouths, so perhaps it isn’t surprising that it’s used in many different ways.” Can’t we make louder sounds wearing boots and stamping? His main point, though, is right: To understand clapping you need a context. You need information about who is doing the clapping and where it is taking place.
Humans are not the only clappers. “Great apes like gorillas, chimps and orangutans sometimes clap their hands to draw attention,” says a Smithsonian website. The Smithsonian further says that clapping to signify applause goes back to the Greeks or Romans, but I’m certain that clapping was around long before it meant applause or joy or derision or mourning. I can imagine humans sitting around a fire chanting, singing, and clapping—and maybe even dancing. Roma often sit around a fire and dance, sing, and clap. Anyone who has seen a performance of gypsy musicians knows how exhilarating it can be.
Which brings us back to virtual clapping as a way of expressing approval—real or fake—for a dictator’s blather. Electronic huzzahs, one hopes, will never become popular in this country. No one, I think, was amused when President Trump suggested at a political rally that Democratic lawmakers who did not clap during his first State of the Union address were “treasonous.” The next day a White House spokesman said the president’s remark was “tongue-in-cheek.”
Democracy and culture thrive when people do not feel obligated to clap at a political or cultural event. I attend many dance performances—classical and modern. I refuse to applaud if I think the choreography is wretched or the dancers are not up to snuff. (I won’t boo.) I’ve gotten many glares from people who think not applauding is rude. It probably is rude not to applaud when someone gives a banal speech at a friend’s wedding, graduation, or retirement, but why should I feel obligated to applaud when I dislike a performance by professionals?
Ritual applause is the stock-in-trade of dictatorships, especially Communist ones. Modern technology enables Chinese authorities to keep track of Chinese citizens’ virtual clapping. Who can say authorities won’t pay a visit to those who never “clap” their approval when Xi speaks? Uighur expert James Millward asks: “Will the big-data police state engulf the rest of China?” There is a good chance it will.
