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Jeph hates long hair?!

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Akima:

--- Quote from: Barmymoo on 20 Nov 2012, 03:59 ---Off the top of my head I can think of several cultures and religions where hair-cutting is symbolic: Amish men, Sikh men, certain Christian groups' women, Buddhist monks and nuns, Catholic nuns...
--- End quote ---
Off the top of my head, I can't think of any culture in which hair-cutting is *not* symbolic. If nothing else, there are typically hairstyles symbolic of social stratification by gender, age and class.

The Manchu conquerors of China imposed in 1645 their "Queue Order" essentially making it treason, and a death-penalty offense, for Chinese men to wear their hair in any way other than the shaved-forehead-and-pigtail Manchu style. This was a deliberate act of domination and assault on Chinese cultural identity, which required ten years and the slaughter of tens of thousands to enforce. It was also a direct attack on the central Confucian value of filial piety, under which cutting your hair at all was regarded as unfilial. As Confucius put it: "Body, skin, and hair we receive from our parents, and we dare not damage them. This is the beginning of filial duty."* Rebels against Manchu rule frequently symbolically abandoned the hated hairstyle. After the fall on the Qing Dynasty in 1912, Chinese men cut off their queues, and adopted short Western-style haircuts practically overnight.

Haircuts are serious business.  :-o

*This idea still underlies a lot of negative Chinese attitudes to tattooing and other body mods, incidentally.

Valdís:
I sure hope not. I much prefer longer hair in general. Boo, buzzcuts!  :-D


--- Quote from: Akima on 21 Dec 2012, 17:27 ---Rebels against Manchu rule frequently symbolically abandoned the hated hairstyle. After the fall on the Qing Dynasty in 1912, Chinese men cut off their queues, and adopted short Western-style haircuts practically overnight.

Haircuts are serious business.  :-o
--- End quote ---

I remember a bit from a documentary on their fall where the rebels would occasionally take over regions and forcibly cut everyone's hair. That would make all the men in the region appear as "Rebels", undermining central authority and basically either making them execute everyone as traitors, which they weren't, or concede the point to the rebels (which was humiliating).

Is it cold in here?:
Welcome, new person!

Valdís:
Hello and thank you, old person!  :wink:

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