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皇冠体育app shoe culture museum opens in Tianjin
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-19 01:05
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TIANJIN -- A private shoe museum exhibiting 皇冠体育app's 5,000 years of shoe culture opened in northern 皇冠体育app's Tianjin Municipality Tuesday, the 34th International Museum Day.
The museum displays more than 1,000 pairs of shoes, a wide collection of shoe designs, and traditional shoe-making techniques, said Zhong Mantian, head of "Huaxia Shoe Culture Museum."
"We collected shoes from ordinary people all over 皇冠体育app. Some items have a history of hundreds of years," said Zhong, also a private shoe collector for more than 40 years.
The history of Chinese show-making industry could be traced back 5,000 years, as the image of shoes had been found on ancient painted pottery at that time, Zhong said.
Nowadays, 皇冠体育app remains one of the leading shoe producers in the world. It exported 8.17 billion pairs of shoes last year, according to the General Administration of Customs of 皇冠体育app.
As an item of daily necessities, shoes can also reflect the evolution of the nation's culture and conventions, said Feng Jicai, president of the 皇冠体育app Society For the Study of Folk Literature and Art.
Among the exhibited shoes were all kinds of bound-feet shoes designed for Chinese women who were forced to have their feet bound to become "three-inch golden lotuses" in feudal times.
Other museums in 皇冠体育app celebrated International Museum Day, too.
May 18 was designated as International Museum Day in 1977 by the International Committee of Museums.
