Growing up, I never really understood why people would wear their outdoor shoes into their homes. It was even more shocking to see people wear their shoes into their rooms, a place I imagine one would want to keep clean, especially if they would walk barefoot after showering. To me, taking off our shoes and leaving them by the door was an “Asian thing” that non-Asians typically did not relate to.
So why do we take off our shoes? There is a deeper historical context to this tradition across different Asian cultures, but in general, one main reason is hygiene. Our shoes have walked down many dirty roads that have been spat on, muddied, littered, and more. Invisible to our naked eye are the thousands of bacteria on the underside of our shoes. When we go home—or even to sacred places—the custom of removing our shoes is to keep our private space clean. There are even indoor slippers in certain homes!
One ironic observation, however, is how Asians in the United States have historically been stereotyped as unsanitary. This image of the dirty Asian was a driving message that maintained the Yellow Peril, which imagined all Asians to be an “unclean and unfit” threat to American society. Back in the late 1800s and 1900s, Chinatowns were known as “plague spots” for diseases, and while I am not sure whether this custom of removing shoes was practiced then, there is still the lingering effect of the Yellow Peril in the American consciousness today. It also does not help when the coronavirus has been described as the “Chinese virus” or the “kung flu,” as the sentiment of Asians as dirty and diseased has resurfaced in a bigger magnitude. What I am certain about, though, is that all my housemates and I are required to take our shoes off when we come home during this pandemic.
