storytelling

Imagine a grown woman with baby feet

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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 →

“Beaches” with Bound Feet – footbinding and female friendship

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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 →

Bound Feet Blues secures Arts Council Funding

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I am so excited that the Arts Council has granted funding for the development of Bound Feet Blues!

The funding enables us – my director Jessica Higgs and me – to work on the creation of the performance and explore the most meaningful way that the story can be brought to life on stage. Our work in progress will culminate in the showcase performance at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Oct – show details below.

One condition of the funding is that the Arts Council logo or an acknowledgement to the public funding they are giving us must appear wherever Bound Feet Blues is mentioned.  For me, it feels a privilege to be able to display their logo alongside this project – their support is a public recognition of my transition as Continue reading →

Running Barefoot on the Beach like a Child

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Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a keen (though very slow!) runner. I usually trot along my neighbourhood pavements or round my local park in my cushioned running shoes. I love the feeling of speed (well, compared to a walking pace anyway) that running gives me and the challenge of the effort that it takes, as well as being outside in the fresh air and among leafy, pretty scenery.

Last month, I was down in Devon and had the chance to run on a number of long, sprawling beaches at low tide. One of my favourite stretches was along Saunton Sands where the sand is firm and fairly smooth.  In contrast to city streets or parks there was no hard tarmac and no landmines of dog poo or rusty cans or broken glass.  I took the chance to whip off my shoes and set off on my run barefoot.

What a sense of freedom to feel the warm sand underfoot and the cool air around my toes! It was like being a child again, running for the joy of running. Without the line of the pavement or the footpath I was used to in the park, I ran in any direction and in a tangle of routes. And all the while I could feel  Continue reading →

Writing for Performance is wildly different from Novel Writing – here’s why

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Over on my main blog StoryGuru.co.uk, I’ve just written about the differences between writing for performance and writing novels. As a novelist, I had a steep learning curve working on the script for Bound Feet Blues and found lots to love about this fresh genre of story performance, and also lots that has been a challenge in terms of creating the text.

In contrast to 180,000+ for each of my novels, I have had to…. Continue reading →

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

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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 →

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

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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.

 

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Yang-May Ooi - Writer/ Performer, Bound Feet Blues

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.

 

Bound Feet Blues – Researching My Great Grandmother’s Journey from China to Malaya by Junk

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I am now working on the second half of Bound Feet Blues. There is very little factual information or evidence in our family stories about my great grandmother. All we know is that at some point, as an adult, she left China and travelled to Malaya where she would meet the man who would become my great grandfather. We have no information about where she lived in China or which port she would have left from or arrived at.

I want to insert a line in Bound Feet Blues about how long the journey by sea would have taken her eg “It was a ….. days or …. weeks journey”.

For that single sentence, I looked at Continue reading →

My favourite pair of hiking boots [Bound Feet Blues]

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This pair of boots has taken me 200+ miles – along the South Downs Way and the Cotswold Way and more. It will soon clock 300 miles once we do St Cuthbert’s Way later this year…via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/niG6G5

My story performance Bound Feet Blues is a way in to talking about contemporary feminist issues

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I  workshopped Bound Feet Blues at The Centre for Solo Performance with 6 other solo performers and two facilitators. What was fascinating was that after my piece ended, in addition to giving me feedback on my performance and the structure of the script, the others in the group started talking about contemporary issues of body modification, body mutilation, the outward signifiers of feminity and masculinity and the eroticization of different part of our bodies in different cultures and times.

The facilitator had to interrupt the animated discussion to bring Continue reading →