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my daily poem april 20. 21, 2004
Folder:
Childhood Poems BOUND FEET
BY JOHN TIONG CHUNGHOO
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Ancient Chinese oddities were
As myriad as its people.
One of these were bound feet.
A Chinese gentleman judged his woman
By the feet in those days.
Her face mattered but more were her
Feet which had to be as small
As three-inches, a society gauge for
Her breeding and status.
Confucius needs to take part of the
Blame for saying women are born to
Serve their men and no other
Which spawned the bound feet tradition.
Years of pains, tears and sleepless
Nights went into making these
Chinese women walk in little gaits as
Required of a lady, a sign that she was
Not a product of household chores.
Big feet equalled slavery and low births.
An ego trip, it was, for the adherents.
CASTRATED MEN
BY JOHN TIONG CHUNGHOO
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China odds were aplenty
Plenty to puzzle our mind
Fear of infedility led emperors to
Castrate men who helped run
The Palace including 3,000 concubines
But alas, some of these men with
no ball wielded so much power
They actually had the emperors by the ball
And run the Middle Kingdom
One of them Tsai Lun was to be a genius
Who invented the paper
That revolutionised the world
Comic stories told of blunders
At the castration centres
Resulting in sham eunuchs
Who later busied themselves
With the forbidden fruits
But castrated balls and penises
Were never thrown away
They were preserved in tiny jars
And put back to their original place
Before the burial of each eunuch
So that they will be reborn as real men
