If you missed the sellout showcase performance of Bound Feet Blues in October, you can watch a selection of highlights in this short video (under 2 mins):
The show received 4+Star reviews and we are planning a 3 week run back in London’s West End in Nov/ Dec 2015 – more details to be announced shortly.
For a change from the series of wacky high heels I’ve been sharing, here’s a pair of funky strappy biker style boots that really take my fancy…
They are the kind of footwear that you can stride through life in – and kick ass if you need to…
Looking Western seems to be an ideal of beauty for some Chinese women, according to an article in the Daily Mail. They are getting cosmetic surgery on their faces to remove their Chinese features – making their eyes bigger, sharpening their noses and reshaping their faces to seem longer. Is looking Chinese really so awful for these women that they feel they have to destroy their own faces to look more Western and therefore in their minds more beautiful?
Looking at the photos in the article, I am reminded of depictions of women in anime comics, which originated in Japan – with large saucer like eyes and heart shaped faces, mapping Western features onto Eastern female faces. The skin tones also seem to have been altered to look paler and pinker. There, too, in those comic books, Western features are idolized.
Bound Feet Blues explores why women in ancient China were prepared to do violence to themselves and their daughters in the context of footbinding, which mutilated a girl’s feet beyond repair. That brutal cultural practice died out about 70 years ago. But it looks like it has returned but in another form.
The underlying message of both bound feet and this Westernizing cosmetic surgery seems to me to be that Continue reading
As you may know, I’ve been working on Bound Feet Blues – The Book which brings together the stories behind the story of the show. I have just finished Chapter One: Stilettos, bringing it home at 17,000+ words. The chapter goes behind the scenes of the opening sequence of the theatre performance, which depicts me walking to a ball in stilettos and a red cheongsam, aged 20.
I share stories of my coming of age as a young woman at Oxford, falling in love and discovering the power of my femininity – and how I transformed from a shy, awkward fresher into a woman who can sashay along confidently in a slinky evening gown.
” You must be sleek and slim – and curvaceous, but only in the right places”
Here is an extract, describing what it takes to wear the tight fitting, figure hugging, seductive Chinese traditional dress, while walking in heels…
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“There is something about the severity of the high collar and the unforgiving close fit of the cheongsam that requires a sternness in your upper body as you wear it. You cannot slack if you are to keep the cloth from creasing over your belly or pulling up over any untoward bumps and crevices. You must be sleek and slim – and curvaceous, but only in the right places, which is why the dress has to be tailor made for exactly your shape and cannot be Continue reading
In this video, a 90+ year old Chinese lady in Malaysia is interviewed, talking about her experience of having her feet bound.
The practice of footbinding did not take place in Malaysia but many women who had had their feet bound as childre migrated to Malaya (as Malaysia used to be called before independence from British rule) in later life.
The Guardian has a terrific gallery of photos showing a selection of totally bonkers high heels including this pair of killer stilettos…. – from an exhibition aptly entitled Killer Heels at the Brooklyn Museum, on now till 15 Feb 2015.
The gallery shows that high heels were also in fashion in ancient China – see this pair below. They emulated bound feet for the ruling Continue reading
I’ve made a start on the book version of Bound Feet Blues and I’m pleased to say I have the first 5,153 words.
The script of Bound Feet Blues is only 25 pages and runs to a one hour show. That meant that I had to edit down the stories and simplify it all in order to create a story that works as an oral story and a theatre piece. The book will tell “The Stories Behind The Story”, expanding on and deepening the stories that are in the show.
The book will be framed by the scratch night performance that I tried out at Conway Hall in March this year. This was my first attempt at presenting the piece to a live audience and was made up of 45 minutes of a rough draft of the incomplete material. The book will follow my journey as a writer and performer trying to develop the memoir that would eventually become Bound Feet Blues, the show, alongside the journey of the actual story within the show.
Why this structure?
Well, I tried for many years to write the stories of my family, my heritage and my own personal life as a conventional memoir and that did not work. Bound Feet Blues works because it is a live dramatised story performance. So I want to honour the oral storytelling out of which the show evolved by writing a book that is an UNconventional memoir and that has the feel of Continue reading
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
The reviews are out for the Bound Feet Blues showcase performance on Monday night – and the show has been given 4+ Stars. As you can imagine, I am delighted!
The theatre review online magazine The Public Reviews gave Bound Feet Blues a 4.5 star rating (out of 5 stars) and described the show as “powerful” and “beautifully performed and directed”. Read the review by Nichola Daunton: “Bound Feet Blues – A Life Told in Shoes – Tristan Bates Theatre” (14 Oct 2014).
“With a tiny three inch foot being the ideal size and the process of binding and bone breaking beginning at the age of four, Yang-May’s performance as the mother of a small child who is just beginning the process is very powerful. The fact that Yang-May performs bare foot throughout the piece is also an interesting choice and is used to good effect to highlight both her restriction and her freedom as she discovers the person she is meant to be.”
This theatre review site which bills itself as the “honest and unpretentious guide to the London theatre scene”, gave Bound Feet Blues a 4 star review (out of 5). It described the show as “Engaging, eye-opening, funny and moving” and summed it up in one word: “Excellent” Read Hanna Gilbert’s review: Bound Feet Blues – A Life Told in Shoes, Tristan Bates Theatre. (16 Oct 2014)
“Ooi gives a truly fantastic performance, taking on Continue reading
These photos were taken at a rehearsal the week before the Bound Feet Blues showcase performance. They show me in various scenes from the show, and discussing the script with director Jessica Higgs.
The photos were taken by the brilliant Claudia Rocha
The iconic pose showing my left hand as a bound foot “The Golden Lotus”
Discussing the script with director Jessica Higgs
Two more photos below – Continue reading
Bound Feet Blues - A Life Told in Shoes 