FRENCH FEET IN CHINA
在中国的法国脚 渐渐的文化适应
THE CULTURAL ADAPTATION STEP BY STEP
MASTER’S DISSERTATION ÉCOLE DE DESIGN NANTES ATLANTIQUE
EL IA
COL LOBE RT- 2015
ABSTRACT FOREWORD INTRODUCTION
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CHAPTER1
FEET IN FRANCE
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Western medicine Chiropodist Health and spirit Barefoot Earth contact Shoes
ADAPTATION Who we are Lack of legibility
CONCLUSION
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FEET IN CHINA Do you like your feet Take care Health & feet Footbinding Shoes
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ABSTRACT
The aim of this thesis was to explore a the notion of «transculturality» through the context of one French foot in China.
抽象
Transcultural design, China, Feet, French & Chinese, Communication, Unknown, Healthcare design 4
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FOREWORD
Firstly it is certainly interesting to speak and consider the reasons to head myself for the feet. Since my arrival in China one years ago, I was particularly concerned by the shoes of onlooker when I moved in the street of Shanghai. My look was often toward the floor maybe a main to forget the crowd and the ambient noises around myself. It was the only way which I had found to get back of my individuality and in this way, see the individuality of people who surrounded me, look at the shoes. I saw every days many news brands, colours, fashion elements and shapes.
�言
The interest which I always carried concerning shoes and feet in China urged me to choose this subject for the general interest of my final project and subject of dissertation. At the start of my dissertation writing the aim was to explore the context of the feet in China.
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INTRODUCTION äť‹çť?
In order to get answers to this big question. I first interviewed Chinese and specially Chinese women. I talk a lot with them. She known a lot about feet. It is in the center of a very big attention of its owner. The more I met people about this subject, the more I opened my mind to this new vision of my foot. Both visions came and confront itself in my spirit: The one that I discovered during my interviews and my readings in China, and the one that I had since I was born. I thought this part of my body like a French, but also like a Chinese. After one year of research, it is a part of my body which became the most afected by China. During this essay I'm going to tell you the story of two foot, one of a French woman (my past) and one of a Chinese woman (my present). And the adventure of a French foot in China with the cultural adaptation which it meet (my futur).
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CHAPTER1
FEET IN FRANCE 法国人眼中的脚
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My size is 39, I made the same size as my mother, my grandmother and many women around me. My feet have a strange flat and fine shape. I also have a bump on the highlyrated of my left foot after a hip fracture, a scar on my right foot after having walked on a fishhook and a sort of ball on the left ankle after a sprain. I describe more often my feet with their impairment, because I find them really more easily.
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“Thin feet, with soft skin and big toes”
“No callus on the hell” 15
“No hairs, nice nails well-manicured.”
“A foot which smells good.”
“Perfect size 37-39, with short nails”
“A feet is ugly and will never be beautiful.”
“There are no beautiful feet”
“A foot can’t be beautiful!”
In France, foot is a part of the body to be ashamed of. The French barefoot disgust its owner. I tried to understand why.
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The western medicine attempts to restore the dysfunction of a precise mechanism by separating all the part of the body: a hand of a feet, a hip of a shoulder, a shin of a wrist. This medicine concentrates especially on the deletion of the symptoms of a disease by using a direct methods: treat the headache when we have a headache, to relieve the pain in the foot when a person has a sore feet.1 Zones are treat only one by one, by the deletion of the symptoms of a disease by using the direct methods. There are specialists of the lung, specialists of ears, heart, eyes but also specialists of the tooth. Better known under the name of respirologist, audiologist, cardiologist, ophthalmologist and dentist. If we have a pain somewhere, the doctor is going to be interested with a precise part of our body and treat us with cleansed molecules stemming from the pharmaceutical industry or other solution that he knows. With the certainty what happening under our skin.2For that, the works specialised on the anatomy and the physiology are really present in our medicine and in our mind.
1/ «Petite histoire de la médecine occidental»,
Professeur Vincent Daniel, 2010/2011. 2/ «The story of Medicine», Roberto Margotta, New York, Golden Press, 1968. 22
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The feet is the center of interest of the chiropodist but also known as podiatrist. During my interviews I came to realise that generally people that I met never went to the chiropodist. This fact amazed me a lot. Because since I was a child I going there. When I wanted to start walking, my feet were completely unbalanced and turned inward. I fell continually. My worried parents brought me at the chiropodist. She mades me custom-made arch supporters. In a few months I found a normal walking of baby of my age. Then 10 years later she was forced to return at these specialist. At this moment I had grown up very fast and my feet also. I felt some pains at the level of my knees and under the arch of my foot. The chiropodist says me that I had flat feet and prescribed me a new custom-made soles. These soles were rounded in such way that I find a normal shape of the arch of my foot.
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“For which reasons I shall go to the chiropodist if I don’t have feet pain?”.
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Most of the time we go to the chiropodist when we have a blatant problem with feet. I spent time in waiting rooms of chiropodists, it is possible for me to say: most of people which composes chiropodist waiting room have more than 60 years old. From certain age we begin to take care of its feet. It is become a necessity.
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“Feet of the human being is like tree roots. When a tree ages, roots degrades and ages the first one.�
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The high French sanitary (“HAS”) are particularly attentive to this problem. The “HAS” thus developed recommendations in an official article, intended for the professionals involved in the care of the elderly feet: pedicurists, chiropodists, general practitioners, specialists, surgeons, nurses and physiotherapists. This article explains that, beyond 75 years, 30% of peoples are not able to provide their personal hygiene, clipping nails or the cutaneous surveillance of their feet. This is caused by visual disturbances, incapability to reach their feet, insufficient prehension force or the presence of cognitive disorders due to age. For all these reasons, the “HAS” recommends an annual clinical feet examination of every elderly person.1
1/ HAS, «Le pied de la personne âgée Approche médicale et prise en charge de pédicurie-podologie», 2006
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In France, emphasis is given to the feet health, but only peoples of a certain age. French peoples take care of it only when they are in trouble.
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More than a sensitive zone for the elderly, it is also, for all human beings, a way to move. If people have big feet pains, it will be more difficult to move outside and thus to socialise. Just a matter of health question, I interpret this attention by a way to avoid social isolation. If I can walk, I can meet people and discover the world around me. I shall be happier. Maybe, if the spirit is well the body will be well. This idea, is far from Cartesian spirit of the western medicine, mentioned before, which led to the separation of the body and the spirit. Many doctors are starting to express concerns spirit health. If the moral is well, the body get better. Between body and spirit a link science exist. The fabric of the life is made by links. It is exactly these links which the Xxième century science does not use. Nevertheless, our every days experience offers us the proof of a constant relation which becomes established between our thoughts, our faiths, the feelings aroused by these and the reaction of our body.1 Thoughts and negative feelings represents a danger for our survival. And provoke in the long run, rates too high of adrenalin which damage the heart and the blood vessels. An increase of the cortisol production provokes immune system disorder that can lead to inflammatory reactions at the origin of autoimmune diseases. To be convinced of this, it is sufficient to imagine that you learn that you gained an important sum of 37
money. In the present moment, you will feel increasing in yourself an immense energy. The life will seem to you wonderful. You will build projects, you will be joyful, you will want to move, to run and dance.Let us imagine, on the contrary, that you learn the death of your best friend? Immediately, you will have the impression to be drained of your life force, the existence will seem to you absurd, you will feel a profound sadness, you will be weakened. And the next day, maybe, you will be confined to bed with a high fever. In the long term, it weakens the body, making it more sensitive to the disease.2
1/ «Comment l’esprit peut-il guérir le corps?»,
FRANCE CULTURE, 2013.
2/ «Entre corps et esprit une science du lien», Thierry Janssen, 2010.
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“The negation of the nature is the way of happiness�.
This is something that John Locke said during the XVIIeme century. 40
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First, the human being appropriated the mission to influence, control and dominate the nature considered like an enemy. Formidable faith, which three hundred years later, still incites us to deny this nature which we are all made and a part of. It is nevertheless thanks to this posture “outside the world” that western medicine knew its biggest developments.1 Reduce the reality to its tiniest constituents allowed the description of numerous mechanism of the alive.
1/ «Entre corps et esprit une science du lien», Thierry Janssen, 2010.
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The foot can be used to contradict this obsolete idea.
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“When we are barefoot, we are obliged to open up what surrounds us. Our sensations are increased tenfold, in this way, I have the impression to reconnect with nature.�
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The complex anatomy of the foot is particularly adapted to the barefoot bipedality on natural ground. Let us begin with the skin which surrounds this specific part of our body. The subcutaneous tissue and the skin present on the foot a variation of texture in link with the infrastructure of the feet. It is rich in fat cells, in veins and in nervous twigs. It establishes a real buffer shock absorber and elastic. A quantity of bones, muscles, tendons and articulations are present under the skin. The arteries and veins who have location in the foot are the most distant from the heart and thus have a very important physiological role in the human body. The foot is a “peripheral pump and heart” of the venous system during the walking, with plantar compression. And possess a very dense nervous network. The sensory nerves transmitting all the informations collected by feet to the brain: thermal, tactile, vibratory, spatial and traumatic sensations. Thanks to these informations the brain can adapted an involuntary “tendino-muscular answer”. All characters gives to the human foot 3 main functions: an active leading role, a role of balance and a shock absorber.1
1/ «Podologie», A.Goldcher, France, 2012. 49
The foot have a particular importance in our body. French people realise its importance? I wanted to know more about this feeling in asking this question:“ Take you care of your feet?�.
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“I cut my nails regularly, put nail polish, use a pumice stone on my hell when I have time and put some cream before to sleep for a good moisturised of my feet. After the application, I protect my feet and the cream with a pair of socks. I like when my feet are clear and soft, but it is not the more important.” “I don't think that I take care of my feet as I take care of my hands or my face, but I don't forget them completely. My feet are too much distant from my body and the most complicated to achieve when we stand under a shower. But I am taking time to cute my nails, to put some nail polish and depilate the hairs of my big toes.” 53
“I don't think that I take care of my feet. I take care of my face and my hands but I do not still think of necessity to make it at the level of my feet. I never puts on my feet cream and never pounce them. They are beautiful naturally I does not feel the need to give them more care than it�.
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Feet care is about the aesthetic aspect, never with the purpose of a good foot health. If they take care of its feet, it must have to be beautiful. This idea influence a constant foot protection.
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Why do not we use our feet as the nature gave them?
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Me, I adore to be barefoot and even more when I was small, but my father hated seeing me like that. During winter I had got used to walking with barefoot on the cold ground of the stone floor of my house. Especially when I had just gone out of my bed and with my pyjamas in front of my favourite cartoons. My father chased me all the time with my slippers. By telling me: “Elia puts your slippers you go caught a cold”. To try to calm this problem my mother bought me very often new slippers to tempt me to wear them. I had many different slippers in my life: slippers of my favourite cartoons, slippers bought in an other city, slippers with crazy colours and shapes,... and a lot of other. But in spite of that I did not put my slippers and I preferred to stay with my barefoot. But the summer my father did not stop. I live near the sea in France and we went every day to the beach to swim and have a playful time with my parents and my brother. I always wanted to go out of the car and go barefoot on the beach but my father forbade it to me. Then I tried it by leaving but my father was afraid that I injure myself and get dirty feet. I obeyed to him and put back my shoes. I have never asked him for which reasons it refused to see me with nude feet but these arguments was often managed towards the safety of my feet”.
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Thinking about it, to be barefoot is a strange think in France.
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It reminds to me my neighbour in France, “Mr Dupont”. He was always in sandals, the winter as the summer, under rain, win, ice and cold. It was a subject of discussion with my parents and my brother. Nevertheless, he had shoes. A barefoot walk in the streets is very badly seen. I often saw it, in the street and all the curious onlookers around had all the look manages towards their feet. But it is not illegal in France.1 But some shop owners found a legal way to prevent these people from going into their store. It is the article L122-1 of the French Consumer Code: “It is forbidden to refuse to a consumer the sale of a product or the service provision, except legitimate motive”. The last details, “except legitimate motive”, is the valid point of a legal refusal. To be barefoot is thus justifiable and legal argument to prevent the entrance of people. To be barefoot, and live most of the time like this, is for certain person an militant act or a lifestyle.3 To proclaim more hardly this right, some meet in groups of words, in gatherings or on Facebook, but under the common noun of “barefooter”. It is a way to defy prohibitions or and to claim them.1It is also a way to tell their life without shoes, difficulties which they meet and good tricks which they can give to other members of this community. For this, there are numerous website, associations and Facebook group, which gather people around the world, but the best known is “barefooters.org”. In the German website of informations, “Spiegel 65
Online”, an article had been dedicated to this subject and kind of gathering. Stephie Lutz is spokesperson of a group of students from Munich which defends and promote the right to live without shoes. She lives barefoot, every days, summer and winter since 10 years.4 She is trying to make is barefoot life, almost normally, but it is complex. In a way, barefoot people in the street, claims the human with his natural and animal being. Some people can't handle it, but that's how nature thought us.
1/ «Barefooting et pieds à poils», Le Mouv’, France, 2014. 3/ «Society for barefoot living», http://barefooters.org/. 4/ «Des pieds à l’air libre», FPS/chronique jeunes, 2010. 66
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Feet is made to support a walking without shoes?
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That is the question that I have asked to my doctors in France, after some quarrels with my father about slippers. I had asked to him if I could get sick as my father predicted to me. He had explained to me that “my feet was a muscle and that if we got used to not protecting it, the foot would become used to it. If I walked all the time bare foot my feet shall accustom to the ground and to the coolness by becoming harder and less sensitive.� Feet is particularly adapted to the barefoot walking on the natural ground. It is good for foot and beneficial for all the body.1 As seen previously, the feet have an complex anatomy, which composed of numerous muscles, bones, tendons and articulations. Most of the times compressed in our shoes, our feet forgot the contact of elements and forgot its first functions. It will take time to appreciate a walking in pebbles or on the grass. The skin became harder and thick until become completely insensible. Some tendons, muscles and articulations works for the first time. Foot recover its original purpose. All our body takes its natural and perfect posture. The walking adapts itself to the natural ground, and all the body takes places and move in different ways. The body doesn't suffer any more. To discover new appreciation of senses through and in this way rediscover our body. A German doctor create the concept of barefoot path in 1992. This method arrived in 71
France, few years later, and it is now possible to practice this experience everywhere in the French countryside. Where it is possible to hike without shoes on natural ground and sensory ways. You will feet ground, wood, sand, stone, mud, barks as well as the other natural elements which you will remember. It is a real rejuvenation walk in a timeless place and perfect landscape. “Barefoot, I don't have the impression to walk on the path, but to walk with the path, with the nature. Because, when we are barefoot we are obliged to open our mind to what surrounds us and the ground on which we walk. We are one with the nature”. Barefoot can become a way to rediscover its body and few new sensations. It is also a way to relax and to appreciate the life and what surrounds us.3 Nature, freedom, happiness means health?
1/ «Podologie», A.Goldcher, France, 2012. 2/ «The new book of shiatsu», Paul Lundberg, GB, 2003. 3/ «Barefooting et pieds à poils», Le Mouv’, France, 2014. 72
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Barefoot can become a way to rediscover its body and few new sensations. It is also a way to relax and to appreciate the life and what surrounds us. Nature, freedom, happiness means health?
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The human being suffers from his lack of contact with the Earth.
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fluids are therefore good conductors. Free or mobile electrons can also move about within your body.2Other materials, called insulators, have very few free or mobile electrons. Plastic and rubber are good insulators and are used to cover electrical wires to keep the conductors from touching each other and from touching your skin, which could otherwise give you a shock. Traditionally shoes were made of leather, which actually conducts electrons and therefore maintains a conductive contact between the earth and your feet.
It is not just a mental health question. A barefoot walking is good for the health and it is scientifically proved. A new book called “Earthing” by Martin Zucker. This scientific study, explains how direct physical contact with the Earth's limitless and continuously renewed natural energy helps drain freeradicals from the body. When you are in direct contact with the ground (walking, sitting or laying down) the earth's electron are conducted to your body, bringing it to the same electrical potential as the earth. This supply of energy is one of the most potent antioxidants available. It also has antiinflammatory effects on the body among other health benefits. Another study stated if you connect the human body to the Earth during sleep it normalizes daily cortisol rhythms and improves sleep. Since 2003, the chiropractor Jeff Spencer helped these cyclists to recover by putting in touch with the Earth. They slept in a conductive cloth sleeping bag. The sleeping bag was linked with a wire pricked in the ground. The fact of being so bound with the ground energy allowed cyclists to sleep better, to be more quiet and to be more quickly cured of their wounds.1 Material such as metals are electrical conductors. They contain free or mobile electrons that can carry electrical energy from place to place. Our body is somewhat conductive because it contains a large number of charged ions, called electrolytes, dissolved in water. Your blood and other body
1/ «Earthing», Martin Zucker, 2012. 2/ «Why walking barefoot might be an essential element of good health», Dr Mercula, GB, 2008.
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However modern day rubber and plastics are electrical insulators and therefore block the beneficial flow of electrons from the Earth to your body.
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Originally created to protect the foot, if it is to be believed this theory, new shoe materials would be bad for our health. The shoe would be dangerous for our body?
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fronted shoes. It can also pull a thickening of tissues around a nerve situated between the third and the fourth toe. The consequence is that “Morton's nerves” disease which is translated by a severe pain and which often has to end a surgical operation. The ankles too, undergo the effects of heels, just like the back and the hips: joint pains, tension of the Achilles' heel, bad posture. But give also, in certain cases, a painful “Hallux Valgus”, toes in hammer or still to provoke the disease of “Haglund”, a formation of a sort of bum behind the heel which rub against the shoes. High heels put pressure not only on feet but also on ankles, knees and back. The list of small pains and big pathologies is long.
I never imagines that my shoes could be dangerous for my whole body. Most of the times compressed in our shoes, our feet are damaged. By various symptoms, our feet express their unfortunately, by bulbs, calluses, burns, corns, verruca on its skin. By adapting itself to the shoe shape, the foot modifies and adapts itself to its confined environment. This can result in harmful consequences and discomfort.1 But it is only a question of quality and shape. This is demonstrate by a study carried out by College of Podiatry in the United Kingdom sounded 2000 British with the help of 60 chiropodists and pedicurists. The results are irrevocable: 90% of the pooled have problems of feet because of their shoes. For example, wear high heels is not without consequences on the health and can turn out to be a practice for risks for those women who perch regularly on several centimetres. Chiropodist and doctors raised the alarm bell and underline the danger that high heels can represent for the health of the feet. Because on one feet well balanced the weight of the body is distributed on all the plantar skin in a harmonious way and by zone of pressure. By being perched on heels, a woman limits the capacity of her feet to absorb the shocks. It is the knees which take over, as well as hips. It can deteriorate even provoke the arthritis. So a knee undergoes a pressure of 26% superior when a woman wears carries heels. The port of high heels combined in a narrow shoe, as it is the case with sharp low-
1/ «Podologie», A.Goldcher, France, 2012. 2/«Society for barefoot living», http://barefooters.org/. 84
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Some women are ready to damage their feet in favour of heels?
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High heels shoes change the woman by pushing buttocks away towards the back, by pulling the breast forwards, legs seem longer and calf finer and more flexible. It allow to underline the feminine curves, general size and have a big influence on the walk because it accentuate the swaying hips. High heel gives to its users an other way of feeling its body and express their selves.
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“For special occasions I like putting high heels. It draws the shape of my body and my legs. My walk is really more serious and feminine. I really feels myself like a woman when I wear heels. I feels myself like a woman but also more seductive for the men. For the work I am obliged to carry heels. It is the suit of the women in my world of work. It is true that I feels me more serious and more professional with heels. It is a way to be taken seriously at work.�
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More than a choice, the heel is sometimes an obligation to be considered, consciously or unconsciously at work or in life. My grandmother, had been one stiletto victim. During all her life has been really concern about her appearance and refused to wear flat shoes. But its deformed feet had always impressed myself. She liked all the coquetry but these toes was all, without exceptions, turned together on a side, with a big onion on each foot. The most important for her was to see heels on its feet. But of course she is not alone. Many women are ready for many things for high heels.
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“I prefer to have beautiful shoes than beautiful feet.”
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But despite it all, high hells stir up passions some women are prepared for anything. A famous designer, Christian Louboutin drives women really crazy. He is French, and is get known by the red colour of the soles but also by the vertiginous height of the heels that he created. He is the shoemaker of different fashion shoe of creators, such Jean paul Gaultier, Azzaro, Diane von FĂźrstenberg, Givenchy, Lanvin, Roland Mouret or Alexandre Vauthier. This creations are considered by their beauty and their elegance but also by their dangerousness. A normal walk is impossible with this kind of shoes. But that does not stop, many women, everywhere in Europe, from loving his works.
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That is why certain plastic surgeon created a new method to decrease the pains that provoke these kind of heels on foot. This new method is called “Loub Job”. There are many surgeons which practises this operation in the United states, but just few in Europe. In this way, various techniques exist. There are injections of collagen, silicon or hyaluronic acid. In France only hyaluronic acid injection is practised because this substance is absorbable. And it is only injected on the small feet cushion in front of the foot after several chiropodist examinations. After an podiatric examination gone deeper, the diagnosis is complete. The doctor has all the necessary elements to estimate the quantity of product to be injected in each foot and the point injections location. Concretely, the doctor injects to fill the foot areas where there is no support to relieve the pressure and limit the pains. It is not the case in the United States. This techniques is poorly controlled, without podiatric examination, we fall where the patient present a pain. The resultant damage may be extremely serious. This procedure is “totally painless” and guarantees until six months of comfort for 450/600 €.1
«Fetish ballerine», Christian Louboutin,2007
This invention increase the sale of stiletto heels all around the world. The researchers are currently developing a new substance with a better long-lasting, until one year.2And new Louboutin is for sale. How far will we go?
1/ «Les pieds s’adaptent aux escarpins avec la chirurgie esthétique», L’Express, France, 2013.
2/«Des injections de collagène pour bien porter ses stilettos»,
Libération, 2013.
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The human being foot is hurt for the benefit of the rest of the body.
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Victim of what impose to it, the foot is also the reflection of the state of mind of its owner.
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“When I go home from work, at once I remove my heels and replace them by low shoe or slippers. When I am in slippers, I feels myself more free. It is my exposure time. I communicate through my shoes: “Today I am at work”. “Today I am in holiday”. “I have shoes for various uses, for different moment day and week. It is the reflection of my life.”
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There are variable models with different colours, shapes and materials. We do not use the same shoes for all the occasions. Flat shoes which well recovers our feet for sport moments. Soft and comfortable shoes for lazy moments, plastic material which recover the thigh for rainy days, shoes which lets appear toes and skin for warmly summer moments. It would be highly inadvisable to put flip-flops for a job interview. It is the final actor of the “preparation ceremony� before the departure, the last element that we put by going out. It has to adapt itself to our needs, when the time to leave comes. If our shoes are put on, we are ready to leave.
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“Take you care of your shoes?” was my question, most of the French women answered me: “YES, I take care of them”. The cleanliness and the aspect of our shoes is not a small matter in France.
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“I got used to washing my shoes which I use the most, more or less every month. Besides washing them with a water fabric, I puts some shoe polish on my leathers shoes. For my new shoes I always soak them with a waterproof spray to avoid the water on my shoe during wet weather. And it is all that I make.” “It is important to have clean shoes to go to work”.
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“I like buying quality shoes. In this way, I can keep them, but it is important to take care of them to keep them for a long time. I also visit a shoemaker as soon as heel is damaged. In this way he restores a new life regularly at my tired shoes.” “I clean it with water on a fabric, but the care stops there.”
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French foot importance exist most usually through the shoe and the choice of the shoe. Foot with shoe has much more meaningful than a simple barefoot, more significant in its appearance than in its health. But in a way, it is not forgotten the foot.
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CHAPTER2
FEET IN CHINA 中国人眼中的脚
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To discover what is a foot in China. I needed to know the relation that Chinese women have with their feet. I discussed with Chinese women. Generally we talked in English around all their shoes which they had brought for the interview. It was a moment convenient to the discussion and to the discovery. The Chinese women sizes range from 35 to 38, but for the greater part between 36 to 37.
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In China, foot is an essential part of the body. I tried to understand why.
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因为我有一双漂亮的脚， 所以我是个漂亮的女孩 “I am a beautiful girl because I have beautiful feet.”
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“But me I have a really big preference on the part of the ankle.”
“The skin must be soft without scars, calluses and injuries”
“I like when the tumb is big and long” 125
“I am a beautiful girl because I have beautiful feet.”
“I like very much my feet. I am a little be proud of it.”
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“It should not be too big or too small..”
“very
white skin”
“A beautiful feet is also very clean, with nails well cut and no grime under nails.”
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对于我来说 什么是美丽的脚？ “Do you like your feet?” It was my first question. I don't know if it was a coincidence but approximately all the women that I met told me that they liked their feet.
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“I like very much my feet I find them really cute, I like their size, I like their aspect, I like their touched. We can say that I am proud of it. It is a part of my body which is hidden but which I like. For me it is important to be proud of it.” “I like the aspect of my feet in general. You know, it is like to have a big stomach, or big and small thighs or buttocks. To have ugly feet for a woman in China it is a little bit shameful. And it brings many complexes. Feet be an important part of our woman body. And it need to be beautiful in the eyes of the others.”
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It is a part like an other part of their body which she had to showcase and an important part of pride. She can be proud of their feet like a beautiful hair or like tall and fine legs.
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如果我照顾好我的脚， 就等于我在照顾全身的健康 “If I takes care of my feet, I takes care of all my body and thus my health”.
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The interest and the affection which they have for their feet, introduce the importance of the care which it offer to their feet. No one of the Chinese women that I met did not take care of their feet. Quite very careful around the aesthetics, the aspects but also in the health of this part of the human body. The care are diverse and varied but they are very regular and request a lot of investment and time. It is certainly one of reasons which explains the strong presence of massage parlor and beauty salon in streets of Shanghai.
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“I regularly go to a nail salon. I go there generally every month. It is very practical because this salon is very close to my apartment. There, my nails are cut, sanded, cleaned and covered with a colour and the session finishes by a fast massage.“ “I take care of my feet especially before sleeping. Every evenings I put my feet in a bowl of hot water during 20 minutes and after that I put some cream to moisturise them. This bowl of water is always near my bed, and I add it some hot water before going to sleep. After that, I avoid putting my feet on the ground. They stay in my bed all the night. It is very good for the health of my foot.”
Foot cream for massage
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To takes care of its feet is an important thing, not only from an esthetic point of view. Foot care take into consideration the health, but also of all the body.
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“Every month during the winter, I go to a massage parlour for a foot massage. It is really good for the feet but also and especially for the health. It is the central point of the body, for a Chinese it is really important to take care of this part. It is not just for my foot but good for all my body.�
Massage parlour in Shanghai. 144
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脚
The word “foot” in Chinese is “jiao” and is etymologically translate by “a part of the body who safeguard the health”. This etymological translation confirms and explain the importance which the Chinese population offers to this part of its body. The feet of the human body is interpreted in a way by the Chinese tradition as the tree roots.
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脚对于人就相当于树根对于树。 “Feet are like the roots of a tree”.
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The Chinese medicine is based on observation of people and their response to the environment over thousands of years. Without the anatomical knowledge made available much later, this theory established its own frameworks to explain how the body works. People are an intimate part of their environment and depend on it as much as they influence it. The primary tenet of this medicine is to live in accord with nature, rather trying to adapt nature to the needs of people. And then, the physician's task is twofold: to interpret the cause, then to advise on appropriate lifestyle adjustments and to find a means of restoring the functions of the body. The emotions and lifestyle were also acknowledged as contributory factors in health and disease. If these adaptations are not made, illness manifests as disharmony within the body.1
Qi
The universal energy in the body, is called “Qi” and flow within the body forming a matrix that links the vital organ with all the other parts. It is the primary substance of the universe. In treatment the emphasis is on restoring harmony to the “Qi” in the body. “Qi” arises from the interaction of “Yin” and “Yang” are concepts that are central to the unique viewpoint of traditional philosophy, science and culture in China. And all life was seen as being dependent on their harmonious interaction. Understanding the role of “Yin” and “Yang” is essential for the basis for all diagnosis and treatment. 150
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“Yin” and “Yang” play together. When “Yin” declines, “Yang” expands, and vice versa. In treatment the emphasis is on restoring the balance between “Yin” and “Yang” in the body. They cannot be separates either from each other or from existence itself. A system of channels, the meridians, carries the “Qi”, “Yin” and “Yang” to all parts. It flows from within and circulates near the surface of the body. The internal condition of the body is reflected on the outside. In a way, work on the outside can affect the inside. Through manual manipulation of the body in conjunction with the use of natural substances. Chinese medicine aims to uncover and use all the resources we have within ourselves that contribute to a state of wellbeing.
1/ «Dictionnaire de médecine Chinoise», Ottino, La-
rousse, 2001.
2/ «Reflet de la lune sur l’eau, Guérir le corps et
l’âme grâce à la médecine Chinoise», Xiaolan Zhao, Beijing, 2007. 3/ «The new book of shiatsu», Paul Lundberg, GB, 2003.
Feet card 152
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中医里脚的重要性 Foot importance in Chinese medicine
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Foot therapy is a branch of traditional Chinese medicine. It contains a number of unique therapeutic methods established and developed over a very long historical period. Ancient Chinese physicians began to treat diseases with foot massage about 2000 years ago and mention of foot therapy can be found in many medical books of the Jin, Ming and Qing dynasties. It spread to Japan during the Tang Dynasty and to European and American countries in the late Qing Dynasty. As recorded in the history of Chinese medicine, foot therapy originated much earlier than other therapies.1 Now, foot therapy has been widely adopted and steadily developed through study and research done by more and more medical workers.3 Because the foot is closely linked with the internal organs through meridians, and fixed acupoints and corresponding areas of the internal organs are located on the foot, different stimuli applied to those acupoints and areas on foot can prevent and treat diseases, improve and preserve health. It produces stimulation transmitted from a superficial part to a deep part of the human body and from a nearby part to a remote part. The manipulation should be heavier, even and applied at the correct acupoints and reflecting areas. The results obtained by local massage maybe even better than those of the general massage. Foot therapy are local application of stimulation can adjust the functions of the entire body, reinforce the body's resistance, cure diseases and 157
prolong life without any harmful side effects. For prevention of diseases and maintenance of health, the manipulation must be gentle and applied regularly, and for the treatment of diseases.
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YANGMING STOMACH
In terms of meridians our foot has three foot “Yin”: Taiyin spleen, Shaoyin kidney and Jaoyin liver. And three foot “Yang”: Yangming stomach, Taiyang urinary bladder and Shaoyang gallbladder. This six meridians passing to through and including their origin and terminal points in the foot. They are used to treat diseases and to adjust the functions of the whole body. Foot acupuncture is applied to special acupoints on the foot other than the acupoints of the 14 meridians to treat diseases of the entire body. As a branch of traditional acupuncture, it is adopted according to the meridianal theories and on the basis of the close relationship between foot and meridians, internal organs and “Qi” and blood to treat diseases by stimulating the circulation of merididianal “Qi” adjusting the functions of internal organs, tissues, enriching vital energy and expelling pathogens.
SHAOYANG GALLBLADDER
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TAIYIN SPLEEN
JUEYIN LIVER
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TAIYANG UTINARY
KIDNEY
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An important branch of traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Chinese massage, also called “Tuina� is an ancient therapy applied with physical stimulation.7 The foot is a specific and compact structure of bones and thin muscles, rich in blood vessels and nerves. Therefore, the massage applied to the reflecting areas on the foot is quite different from that applied to other parts of the body. Massage at the reflecting areas can adjust the functions of their corespondent internal organs, promote the healing of injured organs, improve the body's resistance and restore the normal function of internal organs. Produce an effects from the body's surface to the internal organs promote blood circulation, relieve blood stasis and eliminate toxic pathogens. Massage applied to the reflecting areas on the foot can cure disease in their correspondent internal organs. But cause also a relaxation of muscles and tranquillisation of mind.5 The pad of thumb and other fingers or the knuckles are used to evenly and rhythmically apply pressure to the correspondent reflecting areas on the foot. The methods of massage include the following techniques. The pressing, rubbing, kneading, knocking, and holding techniques. The duration of a massage to a particular are may vary from 20 to 50 seconds dependings on the nature of the reflecting areas and the condition of the patient. The duration of a massage 160
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applied to principal areas should be longer and the total time for a massage of both feet is about 30-40 minutes once a day or every other day. 4
a warm herbal decoction for treatment. Both methods are mentioned in many ancient medical book. Foot therapy can cure diseases and maintain health through keeping the potency of the meridians, adjusting “Ying”, “Qi”, promoting the circulation of “Qi” and blood, and balancing “Yin” and “Yang”. It can also enhance body resistance, expel pathogens, control inflammation and pain, relieve stagnation and promote the repair and regeneration of tissue. Therefore this massage can be used to treat many medical, traumatological, orthopedic, gynecological, pediatric, dermatological,... diseases. It can also be used for cosmetic purposes. This is a therapy easy to learn and practice for people of any age or occupation. It can be applied at any time or place, especially useful where medical facilities are poor. Of course, foot massage is not a miraculous remedy capable of curing all diseases. Although it can be used to treat many diseases without side effects.
Although, the local application of drugs may produce a direct stimulation to the reflecting areas and acupoints or have an indirect therapeutic effect on the body after they are absorbed through the skin to resolve inflammation and swelling expel cold and damp pathogens and relieve pain and fatigue. Because fresh plant herbs contain juice after pounding an herbal paste may be directly applied over the reflecting areas and acupoints. Dry herbs must be ground to prepare powder firt and then mixed with excipients: alcohol, vinegar, water, ginger juice, egg white or bee honey. It is to produce a paste for application. The methods of preparing external drugs are very simple and patients often can prepare the drugs for themselves. A long foot bath can produce both a local therapeutic and thermal effect and a remote therapeutic effect through “Qi”, blood and the “meridians” from the body surface to the internal organs and from the lower to upper part of the body. For an adjustment of “Qi”, blood, “Yin” and “Yang”, the reinforcement of the body resistance and the removal of pathogens. In the steaming method, the feet are placed in steam evaporated from a boiled herbal decoction for the treatment. And in the washing method, the feet are soaked in
The place of the foot in Chinese medicine and Chinese life is very important. Foot is the central point of the body. It can be used to treat and maintain the health of the body and also to relax the spirit and the body.
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1/«Dictionnaire de médecine Chinoise», Ottino, Larousse, 2001. 2/ «Traditional Chinese hand and foot massage», Wu Gengwei, 2001. 3/«Foot therapy for common diseases», Ji Quingshan & Li Jie (ed.1/2), Beijing, 2009. 4/«Practical foot reflexotherapy», Zhou Xin, GB, 2009. 5/«Traditional Chinese hand and foot massage», 2001 Wu Gengwei 6/«Ce que les pieds peuvent raconter grâce à la Reflexologie», Dr. Eunice D. Ingham - USA , 1981. 7/«The new book of shiatsu», Paul Lundberg, GB, 2003.
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In opposition to the foot in the Chinese medicine, everybody knows the mutilation that undergo the foot of the Chinese woman and which requires the use of narrow shoe.
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裹脚 Footbinding.
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The crippling practice of foot binding was practised in China during more thousand years. Its origin would go back to the end of Tang, to the Xe century. When the emperor asked to his wife to bandage its feet for execute the traditional lotus dance and to increase his desire. A century later, the custom becomes fashionable at all the women of the empire. This practice symbolizes the wealth and the distinction. Indeed, women with foot binding can work only at home. The importance given to small feet size and the opportunity to marry their daughters to more fortunate families spread the custom.1At the end of the dynasty Qing, we could see women with bound feet in all the social classes of the society Han, with the exception of the most miserable. Most of the Chinese walked with an unsteady gait, slowly, arms in pendulum, the slightly bent knees. Small feet summarized the whole beauty of the body. In 1912, after the fall of the dynasty Qing, the government of the Republic of China, forbidden the foot binding and forced the women to remove their strips.2 This Chinese practice is considered by many specialist as a fetishist. In the popular sense of term, the “fetishism� of the foot is the love of the foot.2Without it has a nature of exclusivity and differs not all from the fetishism of breasts or from of the buttocks which are the most common fetishism. That is to say the parts of the body which are the most wished in the sexual relations. Tidied up in the category of the sexual
Foot binding / Jo. Farell 170
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perversions, the term fetishism indicates a practice which consists to have recourse, in a obsessional way, to elements divested of any sexual meaning to satisfy libidinal drives. To express differently the sexual fetish is a “non genital” object among which the view, the touch or the use is essential to obtaining a sexual enjoyment. The sexual fetishism is a sexual problem which affects almost exclusively the men and which consists in demonstrating an exclusive attachment to certain categories of objects to which the individual attributes a sexual sense. It would originate in the genital phase of the psychic development of the male child and would result from the not resolute conflict engendered by the discovery of the sexual difference. The denial of the castration of the mother and the imaginary return of his phallus. Believing that the woman, his mother or the very first woman assuming this role possesses a penis. The small boy discovers that such is not the case, the mother lacks this organ. In the view of the absence of the sex of the mother, he sees itself threatened in his own physical integrity and maintains a fear fantasised over the castration. The fetishist sees in the foot the most exciting erogenous organ of the woman. The woman barefoot excites the instincts of the man, polarizes the sexual desires by its fine aspect, the subtle toes, the bending of the sole of her foot, the flexibility of the ankle, the curvature of its heel,...
a Chinese version of Cinderella story writes by Charles Perrault . 叶 限,“Ye Xian” or “YehShen” is a Chinese fairy tale that is similar to the European one. It is one of the oldest known variants of Cinderella, first published in the 9th century compilation “Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang”. This story that I heard during my childhood in this Chinese context takes in my spirit an other direction. I'm going to tell you this story. Ye Xian is the Chinese Cinderella. Without family she is reduced to poverty and forced to become a lowly servant and work for her stepmother and envious older sister. Despite living a life burdened with chores, housework, and suffering endless abuse at her stepmother, she finds solace when she ends up befriending a beautiful fish in the lake near her home, with golden eyes and scales. The fish was really a guardian spirit sent to her by her own mother, who never forgot her daughter even beyond the grave. These regular discussions were noticed by one of her old sister and the fish was finally eaten in the last meal. Once in a a year, the “New Year festival” was to be celebrate. This is also the time for the young maidens to meet potential husbands? Not whishing to spoil her own daughter's chances, the stepmother forces her stepdaughter to remain home and clean their house. Ye Xian is visited by the fish's spirit again. She makes a silent whish to the the bones and she finds herself clothed magnificently, in a gown of seagreen silk, a cloak of kingfisher feathers and
By making some researches I discovered 172
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a pair of golden slippers. Ye Xian goes to the festival by foot. She is admired by everyone, in particular the young men who believed her to be a princess. And enjoys herself until she realizes that her sisters have recognized her and leaves. Accidentally leaving behind a golden slipper. The golden slipper is found by a local people who trades it. Fascinated by the shoe's small size, the prince issues a search to find the owner. He proclaims he will marry with this girl. The search extends until reaches the community and everyone tried the slipper. Ye Xian arrives there late in the evening to retrieve the slipper, but is mistaken as a thief. Ye Xian was brought before the king and there she told everything about her life. And now a slipper. The king, struck by her good nature and beauty even though she lived in the land of the savages, believed her and allowed her to go home with the slipper. The next morning, the king goes into her house and asks her to come with him into his kingdom. Ye Xian then wears both her shoes and appears in her beautiful sea-green gown. The stepmother and sisters, however, said that Ye Xian could not have clothes of that kind. For she was only their slave. The king invites ye Xian to live at the palace with him as his wife and queen. She accepts, but her cruel step-family was left with their fate which is to be banished to the wilderness by the king forever. They live a harsh, unhappy life until the day they were killed by a rain of fiery stones. On the other hand the king takes Ye Xian into his kingdom and makes her, his queen.
This story urges me to believe that the Prince not only seek its perfect future wife but it is also a way to fill its fetishists desires.
1/«Cinderella’s sister’s-A revisionist history of foot binding”, Dorothy Ko, 2005. 2/ «Splendid slippers: a thousand years of an erotic tradition», Jackson Beverley ,1998. 3/“Chinese footbinding: the history of a curious erotic customs”, Howard S. Levy NY, 1966.
4/«Vent d’est, vent d’ouest», Pearl Buck, 1972. 174
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Sexual and medical Chinese past, that foot represents, is necessarily connected to the shoe. All the attention is given to it.
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“I am sure that woman with beautiful and clean shoes can seduce more easily a man.” “Shoes is essential in my life.” “Shoes is really important for my look and my appearance. I have a range of 100 to 200 shoes at home.” “I take care of my shoes a lot but in different way. For my sport shoes, I washed them always every week in summer and just one time per month during the winter. For my leather shoes, I put some oil one time per month to protect the leather. It's for protect not for wash. I like to take care of my shoes but my mother often takes care of it.”
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“I put all my shoes under the sun when I'm in my home. To remove moisture and aerate them.�
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In many ways, the foot expresses its importance in the life of the Chinese.
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The feet of a Frenchwoman in China try to adapt itself to the world which surrounds it. By mixing their cultural past and what its discover in this new country.
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I am French and lived in Shanghai since one year and a half. I can tell you this story.
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Once a few days after my arrival in a district of Shanghai. I have seen a pair of beautiful shoe through a shop window. I hesitated. Finally, I returned the next day. I looked them closer and asked my size. But the biggest size of the store was 37. The seller took advantage of this situation to speak, about it, with irony and laughs. I went out without shoes but with frustration. I never returned in a Chinese shoe store. I had just come three days ago and discovered, for the first time, the most striking difference, which separate me from Chinese around me. I was naturally, not the only one. It was the case of most of French women that I met during my interviews.
“During my holiday in Xian, last year. We have plane to go up the mountain Huashan. I had no shoes adapted to the hiking. I thought I could to buy it on-the-spot. I finally climb this mountain with simple shoes.” We have to adapt ourselves to this important constraint and find places with right size. And take into account the westernisation that city know. The more western population is important, the more, in term of size, shoes will adapt it selves.
Chinese shoe store
But more than a question of size, western women meet an important aesthetic confrontation.
“I do not like the design of the shoes of Chinese brands. Colours are very gaudy, materials who composed the shoes are often too brilliant and with a poor quality, for an ensemble to shiny and sophisticate”. “Unfortunately, most of the time, you found the perfect shoe and you finally notice a little horrible detail.” But more than a question of aesthetic taste. It is a question of identity. We wear who we are. We wear where we come from, our status, our family but also our traditions, our culture, our universe and our history. For example, I like the shoes which have a real-life experience, which have a story to tell. When they are a little bit damaged, when they are a little bit dirty. It is certainly the reason why, for me, it is impossible to buy shoes in Shanghai. Because it represents nothing for me. That is why, I brought in China my French shoes. I bought them with my mother before leaving and I often think about this moment when I seeing or put them.
“It crashes more quickly, I have holes which appeared in my shoes that I had since three years, in six months in Shanghai!”. 7
“My father have always said to me that everything comes from feet, because it is an extremity of our body. For example if I am sick or if I do not want to be sick. I have to cover my feet! And this is very important to take care of them. I do not know if it is due to the fact that my dad is Vietnamese and know the asiatic culture. But in any case, I believe in it and I have the feeling that it works”.
“My
shoes are not rather solid for my life in Shanghai and get damaged too fast. I walk a lot and run all the time”. I often wondered if my French shoes was convenient for my life in China. But Shanghai has particularly damaged my shoes. The life in Shanghai is really more active than somewhere else. I have to walk, cycle, run and move to find a cab or the subway. My shoes undergo a very intense daily movements in a new climate. But I don't want to change them.
We doesn’t adapt ourself to what surrounds us and express our difference.
I have noticed that many French expatriates are going to practice the foot massage in massage parlours. But it is not the case of everybody. Some knows this practice or have heard about it without practicing it. But most of them who practice the feet massage in Shanghai, are not conscious about the importance of the feet massage for all the rest of the body.
The foot is victim of a lack of legibility.
8 My shoes in the street of Shanghai
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CONCLUSION
结束
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Thanks to this project, I have discovered a new role for a designer. I became an observer who is able to understand differences from one culture to another. I spent a year, my eyes fixed on my feet to understand their cultural past and what its discover in this new country. Now, I thought this part of my body like a French, but also like a Chinese. For me, foot has became a tool to a better understanding of China. As a designer my mission is to pass this knowledge in order to give the opportunity to discover China, by the feet, and give a simple access at a new way of thinking the human body.
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