A social activities named as "bathing feet for parents" (or "bathing parents' feet?) seems to be quite active in China here and there, during recent years. The "spirit" of such activities is "thanksgiving to parents". This picture shows somewhere in China over 300 hundred middle school students washing (or bathing ) their parents' feet. Of course, such event would doubtlessly occupy the title page of major news media, such as "People's Daily News" in China, and gain wholehearted support of majority of Chinese population.
The event in the picture happened sometime in May of this year, but I did heard such thing happened several years ago, when I wrote a critical post in my Chinese blog.
As I always understand that the only true "religion" in China is ancestor worship, to revere parents also can be one of such "religious" practice. Of course, Mao once destroyed such tradition, which led China went another "extreme", but now, such tradition revived, even though the political environment is still "communism" (I always believe it is ideologies, not politics decide collective behaviors or actions).
I guess, China will have a long way to go before she understands that parents, the ones who produce kids simply by having sex - an animalistic function, were not the revered one who gives us life.
yunyi, I think affection between a parent and child is a beautiful thing, one of the most beautiful things in the world, but it must be based on genuine feeling, not convention. Otherwise it's hollow and meaningless.
ReplyDeletewell said np!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how I would have felt about washing my parents' feet when I was 12 or 13. One thing my mom always did for me, which I in turn do for my sons, was to scratch my back. I love having my back scratched. I've reciprocated for Mom, but my sons have yet to return the favor for me!;-)
ReplyDeletethanks kris. forgot to mention in the forum, that scratching parents' back when parents got old was one of honor of filial piety in chinese tradition. that's why the tool of scratching back made by bamboo is called "filial piety".
ReplyDelete