It gives a fascinating description of the process of foot binding, but there is so much more to the story than that.
Here is a fascinating website with pictures that show Chinese women with lotus feet.
Such beautiful shoes. It makes me want to read more about the historical basis of the foot binding process. The remarkable thing is that women would continue this ritual on their own daughters to bring them up in the world, to increase sexual appeal, and improve their matching status.
And then there was this book about Chinese women entertainers, prostitutes and their madams.
Now this book was about a peasant boy growing up during the Cultural Revolution, when he was unable to read books by authors like Balzac. Quite a different story.
There's a story I need to tell here somewhere.
2 comments:
I've thought about reading Memoires of a Geisha. I liked the movie. So the book is good? I haven't gotten around to it yet.
To be honest, the asian world, for the most part, contains the only cultures I've never been much interested in. Everywhere else - any of the Americas, Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, India, Indonesia, Australia - I adore learning about their cultures, but Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc cultures just don't interest me. I'm sure one day they will. I wasn't always interested in all those other places either, something had to spark my interest. I wonder what that'll be for the asian areas...
Thanks for reading! I did really like Memoirs of a Geisha. I read it some time ago, and it was the first of these books I had read that opened my eyes up to the cultural differences between the East and the West.
I have an idea for a series of stories percolating in my mind. The original idea isn't all about China, just one of the stories takes place there.
But then more recently, I've been thinking about the contrast between Eastern and Western medicine. I have a good friend who is Chinese, and he practices traditional Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion.
And then of course watching the Olympics, there were so many stories that just piqued my interest in reading more about the culture and philosophy. We'll have to see!...
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