Good Japanese Children Maintain Super White Uwabaki

Once upon a time, I attended a Catholic Chinese school perched on top a hill. My primary school years were never happy. Before this school, I attended a Catholic kindergarten nearby that taught very little Chinese even though it was also a feeder school for the Chinese primary school on the hill. Due to the absolute minimal literacy in Mandarin, all of us from the same kindergarten plus the few native children who spoke, read or wrote even less Mandarin were singled out almost from day 1 as hopeless. Except for one lovely teacher in my primary one class, I seem to remember the others for barking orders throughout the entire 6 years there.

Malaysian children mostly wear white canvas shoes to school. My parents used to buy mine from Bata and back in those days, the quality of the shoes were disappointing. They were usually uncomfortable because they were too narrow to fit me properly. There was also an obsession in requiring that the children keep the shoes super white. It is not uncommon to see multiple pairs of school shoes drying under the sun on Sundays in front of houses. The mothers/helpers would paint the shoes to make them really white. Today, this obsession lives on.

One Monday when I was nearly 11, I wore a pair of newish Lotto runners to school. It wasn’t because I was vain and it wasn’t because I was a show off. I had to wear it because my school shoes didn’t dry in time due to the tropical downpour over the weekend. After the Monday morning assembly, another student who committed a similar crime and I were told to stay on the basketball court. After all of the other children had returned to their classrooms, we were told to stand under the sun as punishment. I was probably glad to be punished because it was an opportunity to get away from my lessons but a few teachers made the experience unbearable by making stupid comments. One nosy individual (a rookie) inquired after our crimes and chastised me for wearing an imported brand. I was asked, “What is wrong with Bata shoes? Imported shoes are for the rich and you are at this school.” The other student’s crime was slightly different. He was wearing regulation school shoes but they weren’t cleaned over the weekend due to the rain. As for my runners, they weren’t pure white. They were off white in colour and were made of a combination of materials, not canvas. I later wore similar runners to a private school and had no trouble with the law there.

The boy and I stood under the sun past recess and it was probably an hour before midday when my nose began to bleed. I ran to the staff room for assistance. The teacher offered me half a toilet roll and began to search for my contact details frantically. Before my Mum got there, the other student was told to return to his classroom. My Mum took one look at me and knew right away that I had been exposed to the Sun for way too long. Unlike other kids who tan easily, I tended to turn red. My rosy cheeks were burning. My Mum was furious. After an exchange of angry words with the teacher, I was on my way home.

The teachers at my primary school used to remind us regularly that Japanese children (model students) keep their school shoes super clean. We were made to feel like we were backwards and dirty – typical 山芭佬 (Shan Ba Lao). This is similar to calling us Country Bumpkins or implying that we are monkeys that still live in trees. Many, many years later, I found out why the Japanese children have super white uwabaki.

I knew for a long time that many Japanese children walk to school. I have seen pictures of them walking without uniforms and carrying a Randoseru each. In such pictures, one would also see the children wearing all types of runners on the way to school. It turned out that they only change over to pure white uwabaki at the school. The uwabaki is a slip on style indoor slippers, worn only in the classroom! That is why they are so clean! Apparently Japanese mothers also dust a new pair of uwabaki with baby powder to keep them white longer.

Most Malaysian children do not walk to school. They put on the white school shoes at the front door step at home and do not take them off again until after school. They wear them to the filthy toilets, to PE lessons, in the classroom, on the school bus, at the Kopitiam (café) after school and wherever they happen to be during the school day. That is why it is so damn hard to keep them super white for long. Those Gits should never have compared Malaysian school shoes to the Japanese Uwabaki. That is like comparing chalk and cheese!

I don’t own the following images. I googled and pasted them here to show curious readers what the footwear that I have mentioned in this post look like.

This is a typical pair of Malaysian school shoes in 2012. They are a bit like Dunlop Volleys.

This is a typical pair of Japanese uwabaki.