As an author, there’s nothing more exciting than receiving the author’s copies of your book. In this video, writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi unboxes the delivery of 12 author’s copies of Bound Feet Blues, the BOOK.
Yang-May writes:
The books arrived during the last week of rehearsals for the show. I got home late one evening and there the box was. I was exhausted and just wanted to sit down and have something to eat. But seeing that box there perked Continue reading
Writer/ Performer Yang-May Ooi shares an extract from her new book, Bound Feet Blues – A Life Told in Shoes. The manuscript has just been submitted to publisher Urbane Publications and will be available in bookshops and online in early November.
I was very pleased at the weekend to be able to put the finishing touches to the manuscript of Bound Feet Blues, the book and to dispatch it to Matthew Smith, my publisher at Urbane Publications.
As I celebrated with some bubbly with my partner, I reflected on how taking of my shoes and going barefoot transformed the stage version of Bound Feet Blues from a long form style of storytelling into a dramatic performance.
I write about that moment in the book so what better way to share my reflections here than with an extract…
I began to go through the scenes of Bound Feet Blues. The sexy walking in the opening moments became sexier. In the scene when I am eight, I suddenly took off half running, half skipping round the dining room – my whole body expressed the gangly movements of a little girl. As the bound foot mother, I stood with Continue reading
In February, I signed with Urbane Publications to bring out the book of Bound Feet Blues: The Stories behind the Story. Here is the historic moment – I am with Matthew Smith of Urbane, signing the contract on the 5th floor balcony of the Royal Festival Hall.
One of my female friends asked me, “Who is that handsome man you are with?”
Hmm. Regular readers of this blog will know that I grapple with the issue of women being objectified for their beauty and in particular, in ancient China for their tiny bound feet. So as a feminist and a humanist, I am in a quandary. Does that comment objectify Matthew?
Another female friend commented on Facebook about me in this photo: “looking f***ing hot”. Was she objectifying me?
I would say that neither comment is an objectification. I am all for appreciating someone’s looks, whether they are male or female – so long as Continue reading
Bound Feet Blues - A Life Told in Shoes 