My first day trip of the season was to Wuzhen, about a two hours' drive south of Shanghai. Best. Water. Town. Ever. You know I've seen more than my fair share, too. Truly, Wuzhen was the the best. If you visit, make sure you go the the western side which is waaaay more picturesque (pronounced "picture-skwee", right, Dad?) than the eastern side. Yes, its charm is manufactured for the tourists, but I didn't care. Give me that over crowds and being mowed down by scooters any day. The buildings still retained their historic value and the kitsch factor was the lowest I've encountered.
The Wuzhen Visitor Centre and its fountain
featuring the gods of harmony and good union.
Dragon and phoenix lanterns in the atrium
Our ferry boat
Over the moat we went to check out the calico dyeing workshop.
Yes, I know they don't really do it like this any more,
but it does make for a terrific photo.
Plain white fabric is laid out flat. The paper pattern (that brown folded back thing to the right) is placed over it. Starch (in the bowl in the foreground) is then spread over the pattern and the fabric. What the starch covers, i.e. the cut out sections of the paper pattern, will remain white.
The paper pattern
Other patterns drying
A cool shot, if I do say so myself.
A dye bath
I checked the "dye". You know I had to dip my finger in there to see!
Yep, water. I'm sure I'm the 1,476th person that month to have checked that out.
More replicas of finished product.
Actually, I think these swathes of cloth were there simply
to provide photo opps for the tourists.
to provide photo opps for the tourists.
Off to explore!
Doorways...
...and waterways
Love this house with the vines!
Recognize these pots with conical lids?
Yes, containers of fermenting soy sauce.
Here's the historical evidence.
The workers who made the pot.
Fine, here are the facts. It was cast in 1866 by the Shen family (hey XS!). It took two months to make. Once it was made, the Shen family used it to make porridge to feed Goldilocks and the Three Bears the poor in the village.
The bowl is three metres in diameter.
Here's proof of THAT.
This is what they call the Live Water Garden.
I know. I don't understand it either.
Interesting bars and cafes overhanging the water.
Street scenes
I can never decide which one is the better photo,
so I just posted them both.
What I do know is that this is real shell, a decorative detail designating (alliteration!)
the owner as a person who made his living from the water.
A garden in the shape of a dragon
Unfortunately, I couldn't get up high enough to give you a perspective that would make that statement obvious; so instead, enjoy the shot of the garden with an ancient pagoda in the distance.
Having seen the water town that is Wuzhen,
we headed off towards the Foot Binding Museum. I know, so weird.
Before the photos, a little history. These are my notes taken during the tour, so forgive the point form.
- foot binding probably started in the Tang Dynasty, around 939 AD, when a concubine bound her feet in a crescent shape (similar to pointe shoes in Western ballet) to perform a dance, the ruling emperor was enchanted
- bound feet became a palace fashion and status symbol, women started binding their feet not just for dance, but for every day wear
- 3 inch feet (!!!) were considered the "best" size (again !!!) and were called Golden Lotus, after the type of dance stage where the concubine first performed
- 4 inch feet (still !!!) or Silver Lotus
- 5 inch feet, Iron Lotus
- understandably, nomadic tribes did not adopt this fashion of bound feet
- eventually, bound feet became widely popular and even necessary for a girl. If her feet weren't bound, she was looked down upon and it was impossible to get her married (can't have that!)
- a girl was around three years old when the foot binding process was started
- with some families, at age 7 or 8, she would go to live with her future husband (who was also that age) and his family. The two grew up together and became close.
- a girl would embroider her own (tiny) shoes as a display of her skill and desires for her future
- butterfly=love, peach=long life, for example
- the smaller the shoe, the more valuable the bride
- tiny bound feet also became an erotic symbol, women had to wear shoes to bed (sleeping shoes), bare feet were considered too provocative (even in bed! imagine!) I also think men didn't want to see what was really underneath those silk foot wrappings and have their erotic imaginings squashed by reality
- coffin shoes (yes, even in death) had their own symbols, lotus=ladder to heaven
- mourning shoes were plain white
- heels could be added to the shoes for when the women actually went out of the house (I imagine that didn't happen too often)
- various rulers tried, but did not succeed, in banning foot binding, but the habit had become too entrenched in society, even among women themselves
- even as late as the early 1900s, shoes were being manufactured for bound feet, small factory-made leather shoes (pointy toes and all) were considered very fashionable
- foot binding was banned (again, not entirely successfully) in 1912 when the Qing Dynasty fell and the Nationalists came into power
- in 1949, the Communists again banned foot binding and had more success with prohibiting the practice (wonder how that was enforced? monthly inspections of young girls' feet?)
I couldn't resist, stats from Wikipedia:
By the 19th century, some 40–50% of Chinese women had bound feet; for upper class women, the figure was almost 100%.[4] It is estimated that more than one billion Chinese women had their feet bound from the late 10th century to the mid-20th.[5]
This sign sums it up so well. I love how the Chinese (sometimes) just tell it like it is.
We weren't supposed to take photos. The guards were surprisingly strict about this.
I did sneak a few, but without the flash. I know. I'm bad.
Beautiful embroidery, itty bitty size.
Hard to imagine these were for a grown woman, not a toddler.
A tiny shoe on its side.
You can see that the heel had a drawer for perfumed powder that would come out the bottom with every swaying step and leave behind a white lotus design. I bet those feet didn't smell so dainty! What a contrast between the outer appearance of delicacy and the inner reality of man-made deformity.
Shoes with "Knee Trousers"
I'll let the sign explain.
In the foreground you can see attachable wooden heels.
In the background, cloths that were wrapped around the legs.
A mannequin and her "lotus feet"
Forgive me once more. I had to include this excerpt from Wikipedia. Must be my personality trait of fascination with the morbid. Feel free to skip over it, especially if you have a weak stomach.
Process
The process was started before the arch of the foot had a chance to develop fully, usually between the ages of two and five. Binding usually started during the winter months since the feet were more likely to be numb, and therefore the pain would not be as extreme.[18]
First, each foot would be soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood; this was intended to soften the foot and aid the binding. Then, the toenails were cut back as far as possible to prevent in-growth and subsequent infections, since the toes were to be pressed tightly into the sole of the foot. Cotton bandages, 3 m long and 5 cm wide (10 ft by 2 in), were prepared by soaking them in the blood and herb mixture. To enable the size of the feet to be reduced, the toes on each foot were curled under, then pressed with great force downwards and squeezed into the sole of the foot until the toes broke.
The broken toes were held tightly against the sole of the foot while the foot was then drawn down straight with the leg and the arch forcibly broken. The bandages were repeatedly wound in a figure-eight movement, starting at the inside of the foot at the instep, then carried over the toes, under the foot, and round the heel, the freshly broken toes being pressed tightly into the sole of the foot. At each pass around the foot, the binding cloth was tightened, pulling the ball of the foot and the heel together, causing the broken foot to fold at the arch, and pressing the toes underneath.
The girl's broken feet required a great deal of care and attention, and they would be unbound regularly. Each time the feet were unbound, they were washed, the toes carefully checked for injury, and the nails carefully and meticulously trimmed. When unbound, the broken feet were also kneaded to soften them and make the joints and broken bones more flexible, and were soaked in a concoction that caused any necrotic flesh to fall off.[14]
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Immediately after this pedicure, the girl's broken toes were folded back under and the feet were rebound. The bindings were pulled ever tighter each time. This unbinding and rebinding ritual was repeated as often as possible (for the rich at least once daily, for poor peasants two or three times a week), with fresh bindings. It was generally an elder female member of the girl's family or a professional foot binder who carried out the initial breaking and ongoing binding of the feet. This was considered preferable to having the mother do it, as she might have been sympathetic to her daughter's pain and less willing to keep the bindings tight.[18]
The most common problem with bound feet was infection. Despite the amount of care taken in regularly trimming the toenails, they would often in-grow, becoming infected and causing injuries to the toes. Sometimes for this reason the girl's toenails would be peeled back and removed altogether. The tightness of the binding meant that the circulation in the feet was faulty, and the circulation to the toes was almost cut off, so any injuries to the toes were unlikely to heal and were likely to gradually worsen and lead to infected toes and rotting flesh.
If the infection in the feet and toes entered the bones, it could cause them to soften, which could result in toes dropping off—though this was seen as a positive, as the feet could then be bound even more tightly. Girls whose toes were more fleshy would sometimes have shards of glass or pieces of broken tiles inserted within the binding next to her feet and between her toes to cause injury and introduce infection deliberately. Disease inevitably followed infection, meaning that death from septic shock could result from foot-binding, but a surviving girl was more at risk for medical problems as she grew older.
At the beginning of the binding, many of the foot bones would remain broken, often for years. However, as the girl grew older, the bones would begin to heal, although even after the foot bones had healed they were prone to re-breaking repeatedly, especially when the girl was in her teens and her feet were still soft. Older women were more likely to break hips and other bones in falls, since they could not balance securely on their feet, and were less able to rise to their feet from a sitting position.[19]
[edit]Reception and appeal
Bound feet were once considered intensely erotic in Chinese culture, and a woman with perfect lotus feet was likely to make a more prestigious marriage. Qing Dynasty sex manuals listed 48 different ways of playing with women's bound feet. Some men preferred never to see a woman's bound feet, so they were always concealed within tiny "lotus shoes" and wrappings. Feng Xun is recorded as stating, "If you remove the shoes and bindings, the aesthetic feeling will be destroyed forever"—an indication that men understood that the symbolic erotic fantasy of bound feet did not correspond to its unpleasant physical reality, which was therefore to be kept hidden.[14]
For men, the primary erotic effect was a function of the lotus gait, the tiny steps and swaying walk of a woman whose feet had been bound. Women with such deformed feet avoided placing weight on the front of the foot and tended to walk predominantly on their heels. As a result, women who underwent foot-binding walked in a careful, cautious, and unsteady manner.[18] The fact that the bound foot was concealed from men's eyes was sexually appealing. On the other hand, an uncovered foot would also give off a foul odor, as various saprobic microorganisms would colonize the unwashable folds.
Another attribute of a woman with bound feet was the limitations of her mobility, and therefore, her inability to take part in politics, social life and the world. Bound feet rendered women dependent on their families, particularly their men, and became an alluring symbol of chastity and male ownership, since a woman was largely restricted to her home and could not venture far without an escort or the help of watchful servants.[20]
...and we're done with that topic.
Back to the boats and the waterways
Luggage arriving for a hotel...
Even the boats weren't motorized!
Look at this boat!
Yes! Those are the famous fishing cormorants!
True, he only uses them to entertain the tourists,
bit it's still very cool.
Another old school attraction, popcorn making.
I sometimes see this sort of thing in Shanghai.
I think the wooden objects are covered cooking burners,
similar to ones I had seen in Henan.
Decorated overhang (wish I knew what it is really called) and dragon detail
Boat building
The end of a wonderful and educational tour and the beginning of a what I hope will be a season full of them and other fascinating activities.
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