China has diverse customs and styles as regards its traditional dress culture, and the abundance and variety of Chinese footwear justifies its being singled out from other items of apparel to be studied separately as “shoe culture”. Footwear is an interesting facet of the many aspects of Chinese culture.
History Chinese Shoes
In the Neolithic age (from about 10,000 years ago to about 4,000 year ago), ancestors of China used grass, hemp, or kudzu vine to make shoes. There were many ways to name shoe, such as Jü, Lü, Xi and so on. Xi is the most valuable. Ancient Chinese shoes were classified into three types in terms of material, i.e. grass, cloth and leather. Cloth shoes refer to shoes made with hemp fiber, damask silk, brocade and so on.
Ancient Chinese Shoes
Ancient Chinese distinguished the main items of dress as “upper clothing,” “lower clothing” and “foot clothing,” the latter referring to both shoes and socks. In the ancient script engraved on bone and tortoise shell it depicts a whole animal hide that has been trimmed and stretched out. This would indicate that, at the time written Chinese was being formulated, socks and shoes were both related to leather. In ancient times there was, in fact, no distinction between shoes and socks. The ancients would protect their feet by cutting out pieces of animal hide, wrapping them around their feet, and securing them with leather thongs. According to archaeologists, this kind of foot wrapping first appeared in the Old Stone Age.
Chinese Shoes Culture
Chinese Shoes Culture is a part of Chinese dress culture. In China, there are many established practices concerning shoes, many of which have become standard life etiquette. For example, shoes are presented to a baby one full month after its birth; newlyweds have to wear wedding shoes at their wedding ceremony; shoes embroidered with the Chinese character fu are often given as birthday presents to elderly people; and at funerals, the children of the deceased have to wear filial shoes. Among the various shoe-related customs, wedding shoes have played an extremely important role in one's marriage since ancient times. The above is about Life Etiquette and Shoes
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