The finger heart, () also called the Korean finger heart, is a gesture that was popularized in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

in the 1990s, in which the index finger and thumb come together like a snap to form a tiny heart. The gesture was popularized by

K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...

idols, who would often use the gesture to express their love and gratitude to their fans. It is represented in

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

with the codepoint as "Hand with Index Finger and Thumb Crossed".

Popular usage

In the 1990s, the finger heart gesture was called the "Timid V" (소심한 브이) in South Korea. This term was used by South Korean baby boomers and Generation X, but as they ended, the MZ generation began to call it the finger heart in the 2000s. By the 2010s, it had become widely accepted in South Korea, and spread to the rest of the world as a part of the

Korean Wave The Korean Wave, or ''hallyu'' (; ), is a cultural phenomenon in which the global popularity of South Korean popular culture has dramatically risen since the 1990s. Worldwide interest in Korean culture has been led primarily by the spread of K-p ...

. Before the appearance of finger hearts, it was common to make small hearts with two hands or to make large hearts by raising and curving both arms above the head. Heart gestures using both hands and arms also have been performed worldwide, but finger hearts are also called Korean Finger Hearts because of its association with the rise of South Korean pop culture. In

, it is a popular symbol among Korean celebrities (namely actors and singers) and their fans, and popularly performed using the thumb and index finger. Although various instances of finger hearts may be found from before 2010 (namely in K-pop musician

G-Dragon Kwon Ji-yong (; born August 18, 1988), best known as G-Dragon (), is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur, known as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of K-pop". Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, G-Drag ...

's childhood photo), finger hearts are considered to have been first popularized by actress

Kim Hye-soo Kim Hye-soo (; born September 5, 1970) is a South Korean actress. Kim was one of the most popular teen stars in the 1980s and 1990s. She is known for her headstrong independence and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. Kim began ...

then in the

community by

Infinite Infinite may refer to: Mathematics *Infinite set, a set that is not a finite set *Infinity, an abstract concept describing something without any limit Music Performers *Infinite (group), a South Korean boy band *Infinite (rapper), Canadian ra ...

Nam Woohyun Nam Woo-hyun (; born February 8, 1991), known mononymously as Woohyun, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and actor. He is a vocalist of South Korean boy group Infinite. Nam began his solo career in 2016 with released EP '' Write..'', w ...

in 2011. The thumb and index finger gesture has become popular across Asia due to the popularity of

and

Korean dramas Korean drama (), also known as K-drama or Koreanovela, refers to Korean-language television shows made in South Korea. These shows began to be produced around the early 1960s, but were mostly consumed domestically until the rise of the Korean Wa ...

. Notable South Korean celebrities – including

and

PSY Park Jae-sang (; born December 31, 1977), better known by his stage name Psy ( ; ), is a South Korean rapper and singer-songwriter, known domestically for his humorous music videos and stage performances and internationally for his hit singl ...

– as well as groups including

Exo Exo (; stylized in all caps) is a South Korean-Chinese boy band based in Seoul formed by SM Entertainment in 2011 and debuted in 2012. The group consists of nine members: Xiumin, Suho, Lay Zhang, Lay, Baekhyun, Chen (singer), Chen, Chanyeol, ...

and

BTS BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010. The band consists of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, who co-write or co-produce much of their material. Originally a hip hop group, they ...

, have popularized the gesture to a wider international audience. During the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang ( , ; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seo ...

The North Face The North Face is an American outdoor recreation products company. The North Face produces outdoor clothing, footwear, and related equipment. Founded in 1968 to supply climbers, the company's logo draws inspiration from Half Dome, a distinct ...

provided gloves with highlighted thumb and index finger sleeves to highlight this symbol. In 2021 the finger heart was added to

14.0 and Emoji 14.0 with the codepoint as "Hand with Index Finger and Thumb Crossed".

References

Hand gestures Heart symbols {{SouthKorea-stub

Popular usage

See also

References