chinese

Chilling photo of a castrated Eunuch of Ancient China

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

While women in Ancient China had to endure their feet being broken and bound in order to conform to the traditional Chinese cultural ideal of feminine beauty, some men endured castration in order to rise in the ranks of power.

This is a chilling photo of what castration meant for a man of that time

Eunuch-is a castrated man. In ancient China, castration was a traditional punishment or a means of gaining employment. During the Ming Dynasty there were 70,000 eunuchs, some by self-castration. Some of these individuals had powers that were greater than those of the prime ministers. Self-castration became illegal and by 1912, less than 500 eunuchs existed and their jobs ended. Eunuchs castrated before puberty were valued for their exceptional high pitch voices.

 

According to  Green 9999 on Pinterest:

Eunuch-is a castrated man. In ancient China, castration was a traditional punishment or a means of gaining employment. During the Ming Dynasty there were 70,000 eunuchs, some by self-castration. Some of these individuals had Continue reading →

The earliest recorded version of the Cinderella story came from China just as footbinding became fashionable

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

Did you know that one of the earliest recorded versions of the Cinderella story was written down during the Tang Dynasty in China around 850 AD? It was recorded by Duan Chengshi but he says it is about a woman who lived a thousand years before.

 

 

The two most famous versions of the Cinderella story are the ones by the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault involving glass slippers, pumpkins and mice as well as a wicked stepmother and two ugly stepsisters – seared into our collective memories by the Disney animated movie. Both these versions were recorded around the 1700s and 1800s AD in Western Europe.

Always an inch smaller…

In the Tang Dynasty version, the heroine’s name is Ye Xian. The key elements are as in the Western version although the twists and turns of the story differ. The Chinese Cinderella is bullied by her wicked stepmother and two evil step-sisters and she goes to a ball in disguise, wearing a sumptuous Continue reading →

Storytellers Photography Project by Paul Cox

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

Earlier this year, photographer Paul Cox came over to take a series of photos of me for a photography project focusing on storytellers. He was travelling around the South East of England taking pictures of storytellers in their natural habitat – or rather the places where they got their inspiration. Among the storytellers he had collected were those who specialised in folk tales, myths and legends and local places. I was his only subject whose work is around personal narrative with an East Asian twist.

It was fascinating to watch him work, using a medium format camera and film – yes, film! It was one of those old fashioned looking cameras that you look down at. He also used a light meter. It all felt very charming and old fashioned!

Here is another of the shots below… These pics show me in my garden where  Continue reading →

Fascinating historical photos of women with bound feet in my upcoming talk The Allure of Bound Feet

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

I have been working on the slides for my talk The Allure of Bound Feet, which I will be giving as part of the  SEA ArtsFest 2014 Panel on Heritage in Asian Diasporic Performance.

Here is one of my slides where I will be talking about the process of footbinding and the fact that it can take up to ten years to be fully completed. The photos show girls at different ages with bound feet to illustrate the passing of time.

At the moment I have about 17 slides in total. The other slides will include woodcuts of ancient Chinese erotica – you can’t really talk about footbinding without talking about the sex appeal of the tiny foot – and also cross-gender Continue reading →

Imagine a grown woman with baby feet

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

It’s difficult for us in the modern world to imagine how small bound feet were. Whenever I say to people that some of the smallest bound feet were only 3 inches long, they register that that is small but it’s only when they see exactly how small 3 inches is, that the horror of it hits them.

In order to illustrate how tiny bound feet were for “Breaking Tradition”, my award-winning talk inspired by the stories in Bound Feet Blues, I went online to order a pair of baby shoes. I searched and searched for baby shoes that were 3 inches long but the smallest size that I could find came to just over 4 inches.

The photo above shows me holding those 4+ inch baby shoes during Continue reading →

A Chinese woman walking with Bound Feet [video]

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

As part of my inquiry what it would like to walk with bound feet for my performance of Bound Feet Blues, I found this video of an elderly Chinese woman with bound feet.

I have been watching it to get a sense of her movement so that it can help me portray the walk of a woman with bound feet in my show.

The main thing that I notice is that she does not Continue reading →

“Beaches” with Bound Feet – footbinding and female friendship

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

In Chinese tradition, where marriages were made for social or business reasons and where women – especially those with tiny bound feet – were seen as trophies, there was a recognition that women would not find much emotional comfort, love or meaningful human connection with their husbands.

So as part of this tradition, girls were given “sworn sisters”  who would be their emotional partner – rather like the “blood brothers” relationship that boys would have. These formally sanctioned and socially accepted partnerships were known as “laotongs”.

I learnt about this intriguing custom from the film Snow Flower and The Secret Fan which I discovered over the weekend, based on the novel by Lisa See. How had I not known about this touching tradition before now!

Here is the official movie trailer:

The movie is about two female friendships, one set in modern Shanghai and the other in 19th century China, during the Boxer Rebellion. The same two actresses portray the two pairs of friends. The arc of the story has echoes Continue reading →

Experience London’s Chinese history “on location” in Limehouse – The Last Days of Limehouse [live show]

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

It’s rare to see theatre pieces in the UK about the Chinese experience of life and featuring Chinese actors. So I’m excited that Yellow Earth Theatre are putting on The Last Days of Limehouse,  a live drama about the Chinese community in Limehouse, London’s original Chinatown.

LimehouseMarketing Image

From the Half Moon Theatre website, with thanks

 

It is a promenade show, which means that it different scenes are enacted in different locations and the audience moves from place to place as the story progresses. The show starts at Limehouse Town Hall where it dramatizes a town hall meeting that took place in 1958 in that very same building. From there, the story will unfold in Continue reading →

The Last Bound Feet Women of China [video]

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

Photographer Jo Farell is documenting the last women in China with bound feet. This timely and important project tells the stories of these last remaining women who suffered the brutal practice of footbinding through intimate and respectful black and white photos.

This video gives an overview of the project and also outlines some the history and reasons for this ancient Chinese social tradition.

She funded this project via Continue reading →

Bound Feet Blues: Performance Photos – China Doll – walking to the ball

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

This moment is from the opening sequence of Bound Feet Blues. My friends and I are walking to a ball in Oxford in 1983…via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/nrsexh 

Continue reading →