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Chinese menstrual belt and pad, 2000
An male e-mailer from China kindly sent (November 2000) unsolicited
this photo to the museum, saying it showed menstrual pad belts
- I assume the rectangular blue-and-white strips attached
to the narrow waistbands - and pads,
probably the slightly wider rounded-end object at
the right in the middle. I've asked the e-mailer for more information,
including if the pad is washable or disposable.
It looks like the Japanese uma, "pony"
or "horse," a homemade pad and belt used by the Japanese for hundreds
of years. I suspect the Chinese have used something similar for centuries.
China influenced Japan in many ways - Buddhism arrived from China, and the
Japanese language uses kanji, Chinese characters used with Japanese grammar
and pronunciation, something that makes Japanese perhaps the most difficult
major language to learn - and maybe China gave Japan this kind of belt and
pad, although there really aren't many different ways to make a menstrual
pad belt.
See more - and better photographed - Chinese
belts and pads, from 2000 and 2005.
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The two belts are the rectangular
objects attached to the string-like bands, probably the waist bands.
The two white and basically vertical bands in the blue area of the pads
might be a band to hold the pad in place.
The pad is the wider,
almost completely white object with the rounded end, part of which you see
at the right side of the picture.
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© 2000 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
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