Photo of two men in Beijing's Grand Market in the Moslem area of the city. One of the men wears a dark suit with a white knit Moslem-style cap over his head. His back is turned towards the camera. Facing the camera is a Chinese man wearing glasses, seated on a crate or chair of some kind with his back to the wall. This poor Beijing fellow had, according to my translating guide, mental health problems, so he "chose" to dress as a village idiot with a traditional Chinese dunce cap, known as a "tall paper hat," a form of public shaming used during the Cultural Revolution. (Dunce means moron or idiot.) There are scrawled slurs & fake blood all over his face & over his tall pointed white dunce's cap. He's holding in front of his chest a white sign with additional writing as well as a big X in red. It's as if he's was penalized to wear a condemning Scarlet Letter sign. The tour guide claimed he chose to do this, but I found it non-credible. To me, it evoked how terribly & callously Mao treated those with mental health problems during the Cultural Revolution. Anyway, I didn't want to stare so I took the photo in a hurry, after which the guide said he was surprised the poor fellow hadn't attacked me in retaliation. Once back in the US, I googled the practice & learnt "This form of humiliation was officially abolished decades prior to 2008, and its appearance here likely represents a reenactment, performance art, or a protest. The text on the sign includes Chinese characters that translate to phrases regarding educational or professional failure, further indicating a public denouncement. Similar historical practices were designed to humiliate individuals in front of a crowd." So maybe this was a sort of dramatic historical re-enactment? It didn't look like that at all, however, so I continue to think that the man didn't choose to undergo a humiliation ritual, it was forced on him. A tour guide from the Chinese State had a vested interest, esp back then, to lie
#ImageAndVerse
"You've been criticizing yourself for years & it hasn't worked. Try approving of yourself & see what happens." - Louise Hay
In Beijing, a literal dunce's cap & #ScarletLetter for a man w/ mental illness. Story in AltText.
#MentalHealth #Photography #ECK #UrbanGaze #Mindfulness
