I went in to the BBC London Live studios on 16 Oct to chat with the delightful Jo Good about my novels The Flame Tree and Mindgame and also Bound Feet Blues.
In case you missed it, here is the interview again. It runs for about 20 mins. Click on the image below and an audio player will open up.
Or, you can click on this link – https://app.box.com/s/n5kxj3szaric1d03r8qi
Here’s a short video interview of me talking about the inspirations behind Bound Feet Blues and the challenges of bringing it to the stage.
It was filmed just after the Heritage Panel that I took part in, discussing the role of heritage in South East Asian Performance with Anna Nguyen of Trikhon Theatre and Elaine Foo of TrueHeart Theatre.
There’s also a short snippet of me performing a scene from the show for the audience at the Heritage Panel.
Enjoy!
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
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
Bound Feet Blues - A Life Told in Shoes 