What do bound feet have in common with a lesbian thriller?

September 1, 2014October 10, 2015 / Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

My solo show Bound Feet Blues asks the question: how do we as individuals, and as women, live authentic lives true to ourselves within a dominant culture that seeks to control our bodies and our spirit? Foot binding in ancient China broke a woman’s body physically – but also broke her spirit over the course of the many years it would take to create the perfect tiny foot. What dominant cultural traditions in our modern era play a similar controlling role in who and what we can be?

I’ve just received the proofs of the e-book of my second novel, Mindgame, the first and only lesbian Malaysian thriller. It is soon to be re-issued by Monsoon Books and I am now reading through the proofs – all 450+ pages of the book – to check it before publication. On re-reading the book, I see that this same theme that I explore in Bound Feet Blues also Continue reading →

How does a woman with bound feet “run away” from her family?

August 26, 2014August 26, 2014 / Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

How does a woman with bound feet “run away” from her family?

This is the question that has haunted me ever since I was a child when I heard the story of my great-grandmother who had bound feet.

Here is the story that has been passed down in my family, which I pieced together from different family members:

Great-grandfather was a hospital orderly in Taiping (a small town in Perak in Malaysia) when he came across a young woman with bound feet who Continue reading →

Exploring the past gives us a sense of identity – reflections on Rosanne Cash’s “The River and The Thread” [Bound Feet Blues]

May 1, 2014May 30, 2014 / Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

I was fascinated by the stories she told in between her songs about travelling the Mississipi Delta exploring the roots of the Cash family. The songs tell stories from that meditative journey – about her grandmother who

picked cotton in the Sunken Lands and her ancestors who lived and died during the Civil War.

As I’ve been finding in my current project Bound Feet Blues, discovering and retelling stories from your roots/ heritage can be profoundly life-changing. In connecting the past with the present, it gives us direction for the future.

Find out more about her album:

The River & The Thread – Rosanne Cash.

About Yang-May Ooi, Writer & Performer – Bound Feet Blues

Yang-May Ooi is a mixed media author & story performer. Her work explores the power of personal narrative to enchant, inspire and transform. Bound Feet Blues is her first full length solo story performance.

Twitter: @StoryGuru_UK Facebook: www.YangMayOoi.co.uk

My vision for Bound Feet Blues is as a pure form of storytelling

April 22, 2014August 11, 2014 / Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

I have added a page to my blog giving the background to the development of Bound Feet Blues.

Bound Feet

My vision for the piece is as a pure form of storytelling with no costumes or props and minimal lighting and music or sound effects. As a child, I loved listening to the stories my mother and Continue reading →

Yang-May Ooi: My great-grandmother with bound feet [Bound Feet Blues]

April 21, 2014August 11, 2014 / Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

This photo hangs on the wall in my study. It reminds me of my freedom to walk where I choose, to stride through my life, to stand on my own two feet

It’s the small things that make up some of the best stories [Bound Feet Blues]

April 15, 2014April 14, 2014 / Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

We often think that stories need to be grand and on an epic scale to be compelling. We think that great stories involve heroic, larger than life characters. And so, we come to believe that our own stories mean very little because they happen on such a small scale compared to people who have been through war, disaster, terrible illnesses and events that seem “Worthy” of recognitiion.

I am of course not disrespecting the trauma and suffering of people who have been through those harsh and terrible experiences. Those stories are meaningful and need to be told.