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In Chinese offices, if a boss is making life unnecessarily difficult for an employee, colleagues might whisper that someone is "wearing small shoes." This common phrase, describing the abuse of power to hassle subordinates, has dark roots in ancient marital cruelty.
The idiom harks back to a time when women's feet were bound, and marriages were arranged. A folk tale from the Northern Song dynasty tells of Qiaoyu, a woman whose vengeful stepmother tried to sabotage her marriage by providing a falsely small shoe measurement to the groom's family. On her wedding day, the deliberately undersized shoes brought such shame that Qiaoyu took her own life.
Over centuries, the image of being forced into painfully tight shoes evolved into a powerful metaphor for petty persecution, especially in hierarchical settings. In the modern workplace, "wearing small shoes" can manifest as withheld approvals, impossible workloads, unfair demotions, or forced resignations—all subtle, hard-to-prove forms of professional suffocation.
Yet the phrase also contrasts with the positive role of shoes in Chinese weddings, where they symbolise harmony and lifelong union. It's this stark contrast—between the joy of shared commitment and the pain of deliberate oppression—that makes the idiom so resonant today.
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Editor: Crystal H
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