kowtow

Kowtow is a gesture of deep reverence or submission historically performed in parts of East Asia, especially China. It involves kneeling and touching the forehead to the ground, sometimes with the hands placed on the floor or on the knees. The term Kowtow comes from the Chinese 叩头 (kòu tóu), literally "knock the head," and the English form entered during early contacts with China.

Historically, kowtow was part of formal etiquette at the imperial court and in tributary diplomacy. In some periods foreign envoys and subjects performed the act as a pledge of allegiance to the emperor; in others only a ceremonial bow or a sequence of prostrations was used. The exact form varied by dynasty, occasion, and rank. The sequence became infamous in discussions of Western diplomacy in the 18th and 19th centuries, such as during the Macartney Embassy, when the British envoy declined to perform the full act.

In modern usage, kowtow is often used figuratively in English to describe extreme deference or subservience to authority or to a powerful entity. The term still appears in historical writing and cultural analysis, but the ritual is no longer practiced as a state procedure in China or most East Asian contexts. The concept remains a reference point in discussions of ritual authority, diplomacy, and cultural encounters.