But anyway, in honor of these homeless Fun Facts, today's multi-week extravaganza will be a collection of several short factlets from China and Russia, starting with an update of the very first Fun Fact ever:
Many years later, knowing full well what women were capable of, Russia would send a woman into space decades before America got around to it. America also did not allow women to fight in combat positions until about 1991; one of the most frequently stated reasons for the delay was that it would be an unprecedented action, never before allowed by any nation. The people who used this logic to argue against allowing women to fight seem to have had the same history teachers as the ones who currently use similar ideas to argue that homosexuals have no place in the military, as they apparently have never heard of the Sacred Battalion of Thebes, Socrates' military career and theories, and numerous other historical evidences that they are spouting bullshit. At any rate, if nothing else, Elizabeth and Jeanette will probably get less disbelief and disresepct regarding their professional status in Russia than they have in less civilized countries like Egypt and England.
Meanwhile, however, just to the South of Russia . . .
Parents would start binding the feet of girls around the age of five, when the bones were still malleable, with ten-foot-long strips of cloth. Severe pain ensued for a period of four to six years, followed by a sedentary life as a sexual plaything, since by that time walking without a long pole or someone's help had become impossible. Chinese love manuals recommended the optimum size of a female foot for the man's erotic pleasure should be four inches long and two inches wide, the toes scrunched completely under the sole, and the heel so bent down that it created almost vaginal folds in the fleshy underside. In fact, sex in the fleshy arches of the foot was popular, as was eating seeds or nuts from between the toes. The bound foot (which up to forty percent of Chinese women had during a period lasting eight hundred years) was considered the most erotic part of the body. Marriage dowries were based on shoe size. Only husbands could see unbound feet. All female prostitutes, and all male prostitutes catering to men, had bound feet. The swaying "willow walk" which the bound foot caused (when walking was possible at all) was said to force forward the thighs, plump out the buttocks, tighten the vaginal muscles and develop "layer after layer of [vaginal] folds." Foot-licking was a popular fetish, as was foot-smelling (which makes a little more sense when you note that the women wore scented silk slippers and didn't exercise a lot.)
(This also means that the cult was hardly doing Choi a favor by having the rats start on her feet . . . it's difficult to think of an equivalent in Western society, but in terms of how they were regarded, it seems to be a combination of the ways Americans regard the face, the breasts, and the genitals.)
Although the practice was technically banned by imperial decree in 1902, not a lot was done to actually enforce this and the practice remained quite widespread for the next forty years, until it was finally eradicated by Mao Tse-Tung and the victorious Communists.
Yuck. Let's move back up North, shall we?
However, the disaster is not yet complete; although Stalin definitely has the upper hand, he has not yet fully consolidated his power base - and as a result, he has not yet completely poisoned the country with his paranoia. It is still possible for foreigners to travel through without being shadowed by spies at all times and asked for identification every fifty feet (although bear in mind that Britain and America both invaded Russia not too many years ago.) Also, some of Katya's old friends in the military and OGPU might even still be around - after all, some of the Trostkyite faction that stayed in the country managed to avoid imprisonment and execution until as late as 1929. And as forced collectivization has only just begun, the famine is several years away from being at its most devastating.
Um. So much for moving back North. But as long as we're here, let's look at our route of choice, shall we?
The reason for this economic explosion - the Trans-Siberian railway - is exactly what it sounds like: a massive railroad which extends across the entire significant breadth of Russia ("Do you know how many time zones there are in the Soviet Union?" *bong* "Eleven.") The multiple tracks, frequent route changes, and continuous use make it a routing nightmare; a college degree in railway scheduling is literally required to work in a supervisory position on the railway. Nonetheless, it reduced the travel time across Russia from a matter of months to a matter of a few days.
At the other end of the railway is the town known in 1925 as Leningrad. Although it is also a fairly new city - it dates back only to the eighteenth century - it has undergone several name changes, the most recent being adopted mere days after Lenin's death. Although it is no longer the capital of Russia (after the Revolution it was moved back to Moscow), it is still the nation's cultural heart. The city abounds with theaters, libraries, galleries, and museums (including the famous Hermitage.) It has been called Russia's most European city, and although it has its own distinct character, it is not inaccurate to compare it to Paris or Vienna.
Turning once again to the South -
Perhaps we should start a little further back.
As far as I can tell, the guiding principle of Chinese religions for thousands of years was an unwillingness to throw away anything that might be a good thing.
The first religion in China seems to have been a kind of ancestor worship; a lot of the rituals seems to have focused on giving proper respect to ancestors, asking them for advice, and asking for their help predicting the future. In the 1920's, that principle is still alive and well and respected by everyone. When Chinese culture became a bit more organized, a pantheon of gods developed as well. It was still around in 1925, too.
The number of gods in various ancient pagan religions seems to have gradually increased as one went from West to East. The Greeks and Romans liked to conflate lots of similar tribal gods into one easy-to-remember big god, which is why Apollo ended up being in charge of poets, music, the sun, mice, and archery, and probably why they eventually just decided monotheism was the simplest way to go. The Hindus grouped most of their gods into a threesome, but then gave them lots of aspects and incarnations and lovers and friends and hangers-on. Over in Japan, Shinto pretty much gave everything that existed some kind of separate patron deity, with resulting names for gods like "Prince Big Big Ears Sharp Sword of the Northern Portion of the Rushing Stream West of Edo."
The Chinese pantheon fell somewhere between the Indian and Japanese; there were lots and lots and lots of gods, each with their specific function, but it was remotely possible to keep track of them all and what they were in charge of if you spent a lot of time on it. The Catholic Calendar of Saints might be a system of comparable complexity.
The Chinese took the idea that heaven and earth reflected each other quite seriously - the heavens were perfectly organized, and therefore, the earth was perfectly organized as well. In a bit of odd logic, they therefore determined that their (obviously perfect) earthly organization system had to be the very one used in the heavens - which of course meant that the perfect heavens were governed by a group of petty bickering obstructive social climbing bureaucrats ruled by a distant out-of-touch emperor, just as the perfect earth was. The idea of heavenly perfection, and its reflection on earth, is again still living and well in the China of the 1920's - none but the most Westernized of Chinese would ever dream of getting married without first having horoscopes cast for bride and groom to make sure it was an auspicious match, or build a building without getting the advice of those skilled in knowing the proper size, structure, and orientation for providing happiness, wealth, and luck to those within.
As Chinese civilization developed more and more, a number of extremely sophisticated religion/philosophies developed - Confucianism, derived primarily from the writings of Confucius, Taoism, first written of by Lao-Tse and expanded upon by his many followers, and Buddhism, a "late" import from India which acquired its own sages and changes in China. To do gross injustice through oversimplification to all of them: Confucianism is primarily a code for proper living. That may not sound like too much of a religion, but it was treated with religious passion by many, and, when you think about it, that's pretty close to what Zoroastrianism or Orthodox Judaism are if you remove some history and a god. Taoism exemplifies a kind of "live in the moment" thought - what is, simply is, and the best thing to do is be. Buddhism, on the other hand, preaches that attachment to the world, in the form of desire, is the cause of all suffering, and that paradoxically, the less attached you are to the world (including yourself), the more fulfilled and fulfilling a person you will be. All three, of course, have a variety of branches and sects.
The three religions are often mutually exclusive, and in strict monastic and educated circles, they are kept separate and distinct. Among the vast laity, however, the superficial similarities between them have been emphasized in order to mix them together into one kind of general religion - along with all the others. The Chinese taste for keeping anything useful around recurs. It is also interesting to note that in much of China, writings that were perhaps originally meant to be taken metaphorically were taken literally (as indeed happens with most religions, I suspect - Revelation of St. John, anyone?), with the result that there is a widespread belief that many of the most learned practitioners of these traditions, particularly Taoists, are as a result powerful magicians. This was a belief often shared by both the educated and uneducated.
In the 1920's, these systems of belief had all been in place for hundreds upon hundreds of years. But as the twentieth century made the world smaller and China less insular, changes were beginning to occur. Heavy proselytization by missionaries had resulted in quite a few conversion to Christianity - which caused massive resentment among most of the population, who saw it as a foreign, imperialist influence. And at the same time, a growing trend towards atheism among certain revolutionary sects is calling for the abandonment of all of the old religions.
And, about forty years later, they will call for the destruction of all learning of any kind.
Pleasant dreams.
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