破鞋 po4 xie2 (literal translation: broken shoes): loose woman
It used to be such a curse for a woman who was called a loose shoe. Somebody referred to as "broken shoes" was like wearing a scarlet letter A, and would be really looked down upon in her community and wherever people knew her well. When some quarrel occurs, this would be the first weapon others could use to attack her. And this label was really hard to take off all life long! And such a woman always felt like a pariah.
But I think people say things are changing ... Nowadays it seems as if some ladies with similar behavior raise their heads a lot higher and appear much more confident. The extreme version sounds like, if they are capable of being "broken shoe" and are also successful in robbing whatever man from his wife, then they are winners, whether sluts or not. They are no longer forced to carry huge moral debts throughout their lives as before.
Some people in China say this is history taking its upward turn. Some people say it's the opposite. Whatever is true, even the winners nowadays still wouldn't want to be called broken shoes (po4xie2) I'm sure.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
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2 comments:
That is an interesting metaphor, a woman as a shoe. In English we say a woman is "loose" if her morals are lax, but we don't call her a shoe.
Yeah, the association is indeed interesting. Some people say it's because xie2 (shoe) sounds the same as another word which mean harmony.
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