Getting the Lowdown on High Heels in China

A man wearing a pair of high heels is not to stroll, but to disseminate a narcissistic message that “I am rich. I have a car, so I do have to walk”. This kind of mind set can be traced back to ancient China thousands of years ago when females from wealthy families were forced to apply painful tight binding to their feet to fit into three-inch lotus shoes. A wobbly gait standing on a pair of tiny lotus shoes was certainly not prepared to work, but to show a social status that “I don’t have to work in the farm because my family is rich enough to afford this life style”. Men on high heals? It is just one of the many acute symptoms secondary to a increasingly materialized and problematic modern China.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for including the Chinese characters and pinyin.

Is there any way this article could have been a bigger waste of time?

No one would interest in such a fetish website "sharpheel".It's a website started in 2002.Jesus,It's 2016 now! " Foreign fiends"You don't know enough about China . Why the author didn't search a proper website in Chinese"Gaogenxie" instead of in English"heels". By the way, the headline is over exaggerated.

As a 16-year Yoga/Alignment professional, it is abundantly clear that high-heeled shoes are a tragic mistake made by far too many women for far too long. The structural and physical problems that ensue after years of regular wear are stunning. The Human foot is designed perfectly in order to support the Human organism. Would you jack up the back tires of your vehicle and drive it around for years that way, knowing that it was disproportionately wearing the front-end and generally wreaking havoc all over the body? Heck no!, but, again, as a Yoga professional who has analyzed thousands of bodies: most people take better care of their cars than their bodies. Oh, and as long as women are considered (and consider ourselves) objects (like cars!) who need to constantly stimulate the male libido (rev their engines if you will), high heels will continue to be suffered-through, and I will still have a job.

I spent 6 months in China, videotaping all over the country in 1988-89 before the Tiananmen incident. China was starting to open up, and EVERYWHERE, women were stumbling around wearing high heeled shoes on cobble stone streets. Oh yeah, Chinese 'hip young things' were also wearing knitted leggings that looked like they were woven by Tibetan yaks on a bad hair day. Then there was the woman who was using her high heeled shoe (with the steel insert), to bash in the brains of her husband in an alley in Canton for fooling around with another woman. While the local hutong watched, she kept hammering him in the head with the business end of her shoe, as he slid down the way leaving a bloody trail. China is an 'interesting' culture'.

Sillicone breasts can't be far behind.

Stupid birds, high heels. Exactly!

We lived in Beijing from 1992 - 94. High heels definitely weren't a thing. Back then, you were ultra cool if you ate cheese ("old milk") and went to Pizza Hut. And yes, the Chinese can be out-of-nowhere abrupt. But there's always something to be learned from it.

God Bless any and all woman who can actually wear high heels on a daily basis.
Sexy, yes, but doesn't is somehow ruin your feet?!

I stopped reading at 'fetish club' b/c that's what I expected this to be about

Usually this type of article has foot doctors repairing the damage of fetish..

"“When you wear high heels, you can’t go for a stroll,” he continued, using the Chinese term “sanbu,” considered an essential part of healthy living here. “You need a car. When you don’t have a car, you can’t wear high heels.”"

Modern footbinding, without the distorting,crippling effect from earliest childhood. The grace, the delicate steps, were considered extremely feminine. But it was also the luxury of either being carried or able to sit through the day, unable to work, which showed off 'wealth' of family or spouse.

This is the perfect story to mention footbinding and women's oppression. High heels are a subtle form of foot-binding. As Mr. Chen makes clear, high heels are for the titillation of men. Wearing high heels is harmful to women's health and safety, just as foot-binding was and the pressure to wear high heels comes from corporate culture, which is a male-oriented culture.

Chinese do take trends and carry them to the nth degree.
Super high heels - do - like bound feet once - and red soles - brands - also indicate status . . .

But I love that the writer found herself interviewing a guy running a fetish site - who though she was sort of dumb for not realizing the true purpose. [Actually, I used to wonder, back when almost all shoes were sold in shoe stores, how many of the men selling them had foot or shoe fetishes . . . ]

The whole interview would be worth it if only for this: Stupid birds fly high!

This is why women have many shoes. We have one for every different occasions. We want to look good and feel good about ourselves We do this because we know men want everything in women.

Maybe I am ignorant but I am really curious what a fetish club is and how it works in China.

There are a whole range of fetishes people can be into. Do they cater to all of them? Does the Communist Party care? Are there fetishes that are verboten?

These are as bad as bound feet, as they will probably crippling the wearers eventually.

I've heard the same thing said about skirt heights as the writer is saying about heel height and the economy. They both rise when times are good. I don't think China has any more to say then the rest of the world. It seems style around the world happens now all at the same time. You'd have to be from Mars to wear anything but skinny pants and high heels. Better be dead than out of fashion.