This morning I sat next to an Asian woman reading Snowflower and the Secret Fan. She told me that her grandmother's feet had been bound. She discovered this as an 8 year old girl when she pulled off her grandmother's socks while she was sleeping. Her grandmother always kept them covered, and it was sort of a mystery. She said that reading the book has given her some insight on the way her mother treated her, and the way her grandmother treated her mom.
I find it so interesting that the Chinese characters for "mother love" are pain and love together. I guess an American translation would be "tough love." I think this concept is depicted very well in The Joy Luck Club (does this book conjure up images from that movie for anyone else?) with Auntie Lindo's story. I'm sure we've all experienced some "tough love" in our lives and I wonder if there are roots of it in other cultures.
~Huey-Tyng
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I'm so curious to see the feet of a woman who was bound, but am too scared to even look at Google images!
Ah, Joy Luck Club - so good, but I read it too long ago to remember any parallels it may have to SF&tSF. (Or maybe MommyBrain has really kicked in...)
I have definitely felt tough love before from my mom, and she's not even Chinese! It was heartbreaking to read (and feel) the pain some of the moms had for their kids and even the LACK OF pain other moms (like Lily's) had for their own children. I did realize though, that maybe the "tough love" parenting style was the only way they knew how to raise a daughter, and were expected to follow that in society...
Cathy
Just to let you know, there's an interesting set of photographs on flickr.com of an old lady with bound feet. I'll warn you guys..it's pretty graphic.
The first image is a shoe for bound feet compared to a deck of cards. The next ones are worse, but it's funny how the lady is showing off her feet with a big smile on her face.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnbullas/
501815785/in/set-72157600223475803/
It's crazy!
-Roxanna
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