Shoe Musuem Showcases the Ancient Art of Foot Binding

On the last International Museum Day (May 18), a new shoe museum opened in Tianjin, China. The museum features over 1000 shoes from over 5000 years of Chinese history. From the most ancient to the most modern designs, these shoes come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them will baffle you, "how could someone possibly fit their foot in there?" The answer to that sort of question dates back to feudal times in China. Sometime in what most historians estimate to be the 10th century A.D., the practice of foot binding began in China. Foot binding is a process where a woman's feet were broken and crushed into a smaller, stub-like shape. The idea behind this was that women who had small feet were more attractive because it meant that they were not subjected to manual labor. In other words, they came from wealthy, high standing families and married rich. At the peak of its practice, almost 100% of all high-class women had their foot bound. Lower class women also had their food bound, but it was a lot less common because they had to work on the fields or perform other manual labors. This at least explains why foot binding became popular, but not how the practice actually began.

There are many many different stories of how foot binding began. Some say that the female Chinese population felt sympathy for a prince's concubine who had club-like feet. In response, women started binding their feet so the club-like shape became fashionable. Others will tell you that an ancient emperor once had a dancer perform with bound feet. The trend took hold and people emulated in the dancer's example (although how she managed to dance with bound feet is a mystery to me). A third story is that an emperor had his empress's feet bound so they would resemble the moon. But one, lesser-known story (more believable in my opinion than the stories of a single women inspiring everyone to crush the bones in their feet) says that when the Manchurians took over China, they made all males wear the distinct "moon cut" where the hair on the frontal lobe of the head is shaved off in an arc from ear to ear and a long ponytail is left in the back. In response to this, the Han people said, "Okay, if you're going to make us adopt your culture, we're going to practice ours even more, lest we lost out cultural identity." Foot binding already existed by then, but only in the imperial courts. So the common people took up the practice and foot binding gained massive popularity among the Han.

Foot binding met its end in 1949 when it was outlawed by the Communist party. In Taiwan, it was banned by the Japanese ruler-ship in 1915 (Taiwan was a territory of Japan back then). There had been previous attempts by the government to ban foot binding, but none were successful either because they were not properly enforced or that the following leadership revoked the ban. Starting in the 20th century, the movement against foot binding started to gain momentum. Educated internationalists realized how foot binding made foreign countries look down on China, feminists opposed how demeaning the practice was to women, and foot binding was theorized to weaken the Chinese population because weaker women would produce weaker offspring. Although foot binding has disappeared into the pages of history, women who experienced foot binding before its banning suffered lifelong disabilities and infections in their feet. Women who had their feet broken were permanently crippled. Despite its perverseness, foot binding is a big part of Chinese history. Being outlawed today, evidence of its practice exists only in shoe museums like the one recently opened in Tianjin.

Egofa

A while ago I wrote a post about the new ECFA between China and Taiwan. This new an revolutionizing pact has its origins deep in the history of the cross-strait relations. In many ways, ECFA is very similar to a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) except the Chinese didn't want it to be called that, since FTA's exist only between two sovereign countries, and they didn't want to give Taiwan that title. On the other hand, opposition to the ECFA comes mostly from Taiwanese independence groups who believe that the agreement will draw them closer into becoming one with mainland China. Also harmed by the agreement are Japan and Korea, two big players in the Asian trade market. The ECFA is surprisingly favorable to the Taiwanese; they do not have the same limits and expenses that Japanese and Korean businesses have to face. As a result, the ECFA is bringing much welcome commerce and business to Taiwan. Chinese workers and Korean/Japanese businessmen hoping to take advantage of Taiwan's vantage point in relation to China.

Also, not as well known is the fact that "egofa" (with the "g" sounding like a cross between a "g" and a "k") means "to expand" or "to develop" in Taiwanese dialect. As such, the ECFA is a humorous notion and a much appreciated little head-nod to the local Taiwanese people.

Calligraphy Got Me Into College

Yujun GAO is a Taiwanese student who recently got accepted into Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, and MIT. How did she do this? Well, her mom tells us that she's not particularly hard working. When we compare her to the male Chinese student mentioned in my earlier post, who applied to almost all these schools but was rejected by all of them, Yujun is the exact opposite of him. He is the number one student in all of mainland China, but it wasn't her academic skills that got Yujun into college. She practices calligraphy, the ancient art of Chinese character painting. Needless to say, she's an expert at it. She says she practices everyday, and while she may not be as diligent in her school work, she is extremely disciplined when it comes to her art. She keeps a blog where she writes about her works and posts galleries of them, and when the administration boards read it, they were stunned.

I think by observing the differences between Yujun and the above mentioned mainland Chinese student, we can see what gets you into college these days and what doesn't. Personally, I think that Yujun presents herself as a unique personality and character. She has good grades, but more importantly she has something more; an art and an interest. While the mainland Chinese student is the "epitome" of the perfect Chinese student, it is exactly that quality that got him rejected. I think the boards saw him as a sort of robot of the Chinese education system. All his awards and first prizes didn't show his personality or how he was special. On the other hand, Yujun listens to rock music while she practices calligraphy; she is clearly one of a kind. The colleges couldn't afford to pass up this truly unique person, but there's a "number one" student in China every year.

My Visit to Sri Lanka

A couple of weeks ago I went to Sri Lanka to attend Sri Lanka Model United Nations 2010. I had a fun time; it was my first Model UN experience and I learned a lot about how the UN works and its role in the international community. But more importantly, I got to see Sri Lanka and the people that inhabit it. It's a very poor country and has emerged even more battered from a civil war only a while ago. Even now, there is still a strong military presence everywhere you go to maintain order and quell riots.

They are similar to Indians in speech, mannerisms, and skin tone, but the main religion in Sri Lanka is Buddhism while Indians mostly practice Hinduism. Another similarity between the two peoples is their "tournament of life". Sri Lanka and India both have high population densities and relatively low standard of living. Every student graduating from high school and going into college is in competition with very many peers. Only the best of the best make it to the top, not like in America, where things are more balanced. You can have perfect grades and still not make it into the top colleges. People in Sri Lanka are always in competition with each other. Westerners might think them rude, for they shove and push in lines and drive recklessly. But that is because they have to. They have to play aggressive or get pushed behind. I think being in Sri Lanka allowed me to feel how lucky I am and how easy of a life I lead.

China Growing Greener

China's rise to international prominence is, in a sense, much like that of a celebrity's. It was fast, it was unexpected, and as soon as China got sure footing on its new status, it was bombarded by accusations of child labor, pollution, government control, etc. But regardless of whether these allegations have merit, the Chinese government understands the importance of appearance and public image. China is the country with the largest population and the most pollution. In an effort to display its efficiency and sensibility, China has been putting money and effort into reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. And more recently, the Chinese government has begun to tackle the Goliath of all pollution problems; vehicle pollution. China is the world's fastest growing automobile market, and as a result, millions of vehicles are leaking greenhouses gases into the atmosphere in streets of China.

That's why China is currently exploiting all available means of cutting down pollution in the country. And while other countries are busing being sitting ducks to their ecological issues in the aftermath of the recession, China is mobilizing its money and resources with astounding speed to show the world that it is autonomous and efficient in everything it tries to do. One of the most recent innovations to reduce vehicle pollution is the "straddling bus", basically its a bus that stands on stilts above the roads so traffic can pass freely underneath it, with its wheels attached to the side of the lanes. The buses run on electricity and solar energy, making them very energy efficient. This design will not only reduce traffic congestion by 25-30 percent, but will save a projected 860 tons of fuel a year that would have been used by conventional buses. Also, the Chinese government announced that it will be investing many billions of USD in the development of more efficient hybrid and electric cars. All of this is intended to show off China's ability to allocate massive amounts of its resources to speedily develop the country into a leader in green technology.

Lastly, continuing on the quest for greener technology. China is trying to become less dependent on environment-harming energy sources and instead turning to greener energy supplies like solar and wind power. Last year, China overtook Germany as the second largest producer of wind-generated energy, putting it behind the US. However, at the rate that China is going, advocates of and experts on the wind power in China say that it will soon exceed the US's output of wind energy, possibly in the next decade.

Japan and Germany - 65 Years Later

I think everyone is familiar with the political positions of Japan and Germany during World War II, but 65 years later, much has changed and much remains the same. Germans for the most part (excluding Neo Nazis) don't condone the actions of the Nazi regime. Even during WWII, Hitler's initial popularity among the Germans was only due to the fact that he hid the Jewish atrocities from the public. However, as the war wore on and people saw how insane Hitler was, they lost a lot of faith in him, even his own soldiers sometimes despised their fuhrer. Needless to say, Germany is now completely the opposite of how it was back then and has clearly put the issue of WWII behind them. This has allowed the international community in which it resides to get along with Germany without conflict over this issue.

Japan's situation, however, is very different. Even though the global community regards its actions in WWII as atrocious, Japan maintains to itself that it's actions were just. Even though Japanese people today don't have the mindset of their WWII counterparts, they have never really repented their role in the second World War. The notion of that war remains a foggy idea in the minds of young Japanese today who were not there to experience it. The subject is rarely mentioned in Japanese history textbooks, and when it is, Japan is always referred to as the liberator of Asia. When we compare Germany to Japan, Germany doesn't make any effort to hide the fact that Nazis massacred millions of Jews. Movies like Stalingrad were even made by Germans, showing how well they've dealt with the issue. That is why everyone today is familiar with concentration camps and ghettos, but not everyone knows that hundreds of thousands of Chinese and Koreans were used by the Japanese for live medical experiments (dissecting their bodies, injecting them with viruses, Frankenstein-like things) or that many many more were simply buried alive by the Japanese. And to add insult to injury, Japan sometimes even commemorates these war criminals as martyrs of Japan.

The Yasukuni Shrine and the Yushukan Shrine immortalize the Kami or spirit of many Japanese casualties of war over the years, including many WWII war criminals. The Yushukan Shrine honors the Kamikaze pilots of WWII as heroes and depicts Japan's role in the war as a defender of Asia that was provoked by the Allied powers into violence. Many high-ranking Japanese politicians make special visits to these shrines to honor the dead. Although it can be said that Japanese people place "respect for the dead" very highly, and that they are also honoring Japanese casualties of war other than those of WWII, each and every visit to these shrines sparks resentment in the international community. However, as a result of this, some Japanese Prime Ministers choose to boycott visits to these shrines. In 1978, Hirohito, also known as Emperor Showa, initiated a boycott of the Yasukuni Shrine due to the fact that 14 WWII Class-A war criminals had been enshrined there. The current PM, PM Naoto Kan, also refused the visit the shrine in an effort to speak out to the Asian community that Japan is ready to move on. I think this is a great leap forward for all the countries of Asia because in the past, China and Korea really really didn't like Japan. And this dislike affected their economic and political relations with Japan. By moving forward and adopting a more "modern" point-of-view, Japan only risks making new allies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasukuni_Shrine
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10978571
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

Big Countries and Their Little Islands

Taiwan and Sri Lanka are similar in their relationship with China and India, respectively. Both are"counterpart islands" to a developing international superpower, and both rely heavily on exchange with their mainland counterparts. However, it can be said that Taiwan's relationship with China is not as strong as the relationship between India and Sri Lanka. The governments Taiwan and China have "strained" relations and only grudgingly interact with each other. While there are some sentiments in Taiwan of independence from China, Sri Lanka relies heavily and openly on India. Although on the surface Sri Lankans and Indians may look the same, they are independent from one another and have major cultural differences. For example, Sri Lanka is around 70% Buddhist while India is about 80% Hindu. However, these ethnic differences between the two states do little to harm their relations. Both rely on each other both economically and militarily (India in the past has used its military to stabilize unrest in Sri Lanka, although they were not as willing to intervene during the Sri Lankan Civil War).

Recently, the governments of China and Taiwan have started corresponding to reach an economical agreement that will provide the interaction that both of them need. By 2008, they reached an agreement that would allow people and commerce to travel between Taiwan and China. Hopefully, this will prove to increase to good relations between China and Taiwan and develop a friendship more similar to that of Sri Lanka and India.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-Strait_relations#Resumption_of_high_level_contact_.282008.E2.80.93present.29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_%E2%80%93_Sri_Lanka_relations

A Display of Culture in China

Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing have always been the big players in China's cultural expansion. The modernization, efficiency, and culture of these few cities masks the rural and shabbier aspects of other parts of China. Guangzhou, however, is on its way to being added to this list of elite cities of culture. The city proudly announced the opening of the new Guangdong Museum and Guangzhou Opera this spring. But when we look at the now vacant 2008 Olympics facilities in Beijing, some of us may be asking ourselves, "do we really need another one of those?". However, I think the sponsors of these two new projects had this in mind as well. The museum and opera house are less of a temporary superficial display and more of a lasting arts center for a city with too much industry and too little culture. In terms of money, the opera house cost around $120 million and the museum was priced around $130 million. And while the museum is free, tickets to the opera house can cost as much as 2880 renminbi (about $410), a hefty price for a population of largely factory workers. However, the opera house has special discounts for monetarily disadvantaged peoples so everyone can enjoy the fine arts that this new project has to offer. Clearly, the construction of these new facilities was not an effort by the city of Guangzhou to impress the world, rather, it was aimed at becoming a gravitational center of art to attract much needed culture to the city.

Zheng He's Visit to Sri Lanka

Recently I visited Sri Lanka for a week and peeked into the local life of the Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka isn't a very popular tourist destination, but hundreds of years ago, the Chinese explorer Zheng He visited the island 6 times! However, Zheng He's voyage was so extensive that his visit to Sri Lanka is only a small blip on the route he took. As a result, very few accounts of his visit are available today. Zheng He's fleet of over 300 ships and 100 times as many crew had various economical and social objectives during their voyages. The primary one in Sri Lanka was to establish an alternate Silk Road passing over Sri Lanka and India because the land road was blocked at the time. Although he may not have been completely successful in this, Zheng He's visit to Sri Lanka strengthened the relationship between China and Sri Lanka so that they became partners in trade and travel. Historian Lorna Dewaraja says that the voyages "improved the good relationship already existed between the two countries for more than a thousand years."

Although many accounts depict Zheng He as a Muslim, he had a rare respect for all religions and an open-mindedness that made his travels much easier. "It was clear that Zheng He, as a Muslim, offered valuable gifts to the Buddha, to Allah and the God of Tamil," says Dewaraja. Clearly, as China's envoy to the world, Zheng He wanted to spread a message of his tolerance and acceptance of other cultures, an invaluable quality for an adventurer.

http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/zhenhe/134661.htm

Guns, Germs, and Steel 12

There is only one subject of chapter 19, and that is Africa. Contrary to the American's notion of an entirely black Africa, Africa is actually home to 5 different races, and as with the other chapters of this book, Diamond draws connections between the development of these races and their environment. Africa, like the Americas, was invaded and colonized by Europeans several centuries ago. And like the Americas, a number of common key factors determined the European's victory. Africans had few domesticated animals compared to the European's army of useful livestock. Also, most of Europe's climate is relatively uniform. Africa, however, stretches extremely long on the north to south axis and has many many diverse and varying climate zones. This varying climate meant that livestock and people from different climate zones had a hard time migrating to other areas for fear of diseases and other alien threats. As mentioned in previous chapters, the spread of technology is that much harder on a north to south route because climates vary north to south unlike east to west. Not only that, but a series of geological obstacles such as the Sahara and other deserts and rain forests blocked the spread of development. However, all these drastic geological features and climate differences actually slowed the advancement of Europeans. This undoubtedly played a role in preventing Africa from becoming like present-day America.

Guns, Germs, and Steel 11

Chapter 18. As stated previously, livestock had an enormous effect on the development of civilizations. If we looks closely, Europe had the most diverse cache of domesticated animals throughout the world. They possessed 13 of the 14 major domesticated animals on Earth. This was a key factor in their ability to dominate the globe. If we look at the European conquest of the Americas, livestock played a big role in the European victory. The reason that European diseases wiped out the natives, and not vice versa, is that Europeans had developed immunity to the viruses carried by their 13 indigenous animals. On the other hand, Native Americans only had the llama which contributed very little to the human society of the area whereas European animals do work, provide resources, and can be used in war.

Other reasons of European victory include better social structures as well as better technology. The Eurasians developed almost every technological advancement before their American counterparts. Obviously, a combination of all these things allowed the Europeans to so easily dominate the rest of the world.

Guns, Germs, and Steel 10

In Chapter 17 of Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond tells us about the relationship between climate and history. Why did Europeans have colonies in some areas of the world but not in others? Why didn't Australians coming from Europe migrate to the rest of Indonesia? Environment is the key to all of these questions. The subject area of this chapter is mainly Austronesia, an area that includes southeastern Asia and Oceania. These Austronesians came from the southern Chinese boarder as well as from Taiwan. As they migrated, their language evolved to adapt to their surroundings. New words were formed to describe regional things that did not exist elsewhere. However, the reason Austronesians could not settle in Australia was ecological. Differences in climate and environment prevented Austronesians from living outside of their "comfort zone". The same is true for Europeans. They only colonized Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii because they were remote and far enough from the equator to have similar climates as Europe. Tropical diseases and other hindrances stopped their advancements. That is why many of the international borders we see today exist at all.