From Head to Toe...

Lately, I've been very busy, going places nearly every day, lots of luncheons and tours and shopping, etc.  Given that I'm going back to Elmhurst in less than two weeks, it's been great getting to spend time with my Shanghai Tai-Tai friends and seeing the sights.  

This week, I attended two very different events.  Tuesday, November 4 was the annual Australian Shanghai Association Melbourne Cup event.  In Australia, they say that the Melbourne Cup horse race is the race that stops the nation - it's a holiday and people even have the day off to watch a 3 minute race.  

In Shanghai, the Melbourne Cup is a (mostly) ladies' luncheon that is mostly about hats, although it does involve watching, and betting on, the race.  Both the women and the men attending the luncheon were dressed to the nines with wonderful outfits and even a fashion show.  Almost everyone wears a fancy dress hat, even me, although I'm not a hat person, other than sun hats.  I had to order a hat on TaoBao for the event, which fortunately cost 19 RMB (just over $3).
 
The good news is that the hat was so inexpensive and I wore a dress I've worn several times before.  The bad news is that I spent $200 US to buy a ticket to a luncheon where I couldn't even eat lunch.  At registration, they asked me if I wanted meat or vegetarian (of course, meat), and asked for any allergies.  I listed them all.  Asking me for the list implied that they would be able to accommodate my needs.


When I arrived at the event, I double-checked that they had my allergies on record and they assured me that the Chef was aware and made provisions.  Unfortunately, even if the Chef was aware, he made no adjustments for it.  I couldn't eat any of the appetizers, and was brought the vegetarian entree.  When I sent it back, they asked salmon or beef and I said beef, if it's safe.  They brought me salmon, which I really don't like.  And they had no plan at all for dessert.  The problem at these events, even if they know my allergies ahead of time, is that there's no provision for alternative options and the wait staff has no idea of my concerns, nor do they speak English.  

The Melbourne Cup could have been a fun event, but it involves a lot of drinking, which is hard to do on an empty stomach, especially as a diabetic.  It was great to see the hats, the gorgeous outfits, even on the men, but the lasting impression I walked away with was not a positive one.  I spent too much money to eat nothing at a luncheon, regardless of the fun everyone was having around me.

I went to a totally different type of event on Thursday, November 6, when we got a guided tour of a foot-binding museum.  Foot-binding is a horrifyingly fascinating  period with a 1,000-year history in China.  It was finally outlawed as part of the Revolution of 1911, when the Emperor was overthrown and the Republic of China was formed.  There are still women alive who have bound feet, although once those bones were broken and the feet were deformed, they couldn't go back to normal.
 

Mothers and Grandmothers of little girls started binding their feet between 3 and 5 years of age.   The girls had to wear shoes all the time and as their feet continued to grow and they eventually they made the girls themselves break a bone in their feet that allowed the feet to be completely deformed. 

We saw a collection of shoes in the museum, which happened to be in the living room of a man who has amassed this collection.  What it appeared like to us was that this whole foot-binding process mostly involved subjugating women to keep them literally shackled to their houses and unable to move about freely.  And mostly, it was all about sex.  

Mothers bound their daughters feet so that they would be appealing to the opposite sex and could make a good marriage.  The girls had to send special shoes to the parents of a possible husband so that they could see how small her feet were and how good a job she did embroidering her shoes.  Then, her mother made her special wedding shoes to put on for her wedding day which included a miniature sex manual inside, since no one talked about sex or what was expected on the wedding night.  We also learned that the most famous prostitute in Canton had incredibly small feet because her foot binding caused an infection which allowed her toes to be amputated, making her incredibly desirable by men in the foot-binding culture.   


The man who put together this museum in his home was very kind and gave us a wonderful tour, via our tour guide, Janny.  He gave us tea and explained his collection to us, shelf by shelf.  He showed us the pictures of him when the BBC interviewed him and the guest book of people who have visited his collection.  The cynical Americans that we are, however, several of us wanted to take a peak at the size of his wife's feet.  :)