The original text, wanfu 萬福, also referred to as ”Nyuren bai 女人拜 [woman’s bow]“ is one of the common etiquettes where Han 汉 (the major ethnic group in China) women used to greet others in ancient China.
Wanfu etiquette was officialized by Wu Zetian 武則天, the only woman emperor in Chinese history. To make a wanfu, a woman should keep her posture upright, with hands clasping together in front of her chest, and then slightly bow, bending knees and shaking wrists. The woman is likely to speak ”Wanfu 万福 [all the best]” while making the bow, and that was how the etiquette got its name. Though the common greeting etiquette of Chinese Han women kept changing throughout the times, they were generally referred to as ”wanfu”, until the success of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, shortly after which wanfu was abolished together with other old-style etiquettes by the provisional government of Republic of China.
