I have private Mandarin classes on my lunch break once a week. My Chinese teacher (a 33-year-old mother of a 3-year-old) never fails to surprise me with her opinions and stories.

Today she told me that I was wearing dead man's shoes. I got a bit of a shock and am now staring at my feet in disgust. "Yes, those are only the shoes that dead people are put in before they are cremated. The family of the dead will sometimes burn extra pairs of those shoes at the funeral as well."

I felt a bit stupid. I know that Chinese people had always seemed to disapprove of me wearing these shoes, but I generally assumed that this was because they were just INCREDIBLY uncool for Chinese people (as in only old men in Beijing wear them). I didn't mind being considered incredibly uncool, because I fancied these shoes. I thought there were Kung Fu style shoes, NOT dead people shoes.

My teacher informed me that if these shoes were in a color other than black canvas, then the monks wear them. And if this shape of shoe is made in silk or with a design, that is ok for girls. But specifically in black, it's the dead man's shoes.

My teacher has some strange ideas, as in she informs me that my gay friends can go to the hospital to have their homosexuality fixed. She also believes that I am too old to be unmarried and she asks me if I would like her to hook me up with her stable Chinese teacher friend (but that is only if I agree to settle in China and have baby).

So I am really wondering, am I wearing dead man style shoes, or is she bullshitting me??? I hope you have answers for me.

The shoes in the top photo are exactly the style of the ones that I am wearing. From her description, the style of shoes in the photo on the right are ok for live people to wear, but the photo at the top are soley for dead people.

Top photo from Good Orient.
Middle photo from thecia.com.
Bottom photo from China Direct Store.

UPDATE: Ok after speaking with my Chinese colleagues, it turns out my teacher is in fact wrong. My shoes are Kung Fu shoes, not Dead Man's shoes. My colleagues looked up dead man's shoes in Chinese on the internet, and while they look similar to kung fu shoes, the burial shoes have a slit in the middle and come up over the whole foot. Will see if I can find an image so you can see what I mean...