See more Chinese belts and pads, from 2000 and 2005. - Chinese pad and panty pad - Japanese pad, older
Snap-on style washable pad -Washable pad with belt - See how women wear a belt with a pad - see a Swedish ad showing a belt and pad - German pattern for washable pads, probably before 1900 - And see a menstrual sponge
Washable pads from Almora, Uttar Pradesh state, India - Nineteenth-century Norwegian washable pads - Italian washable pad, probably from the 1890s
DIRECTORY of all topics (See also the SEARCH ENGINE, bottom of page.)
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepage | LIST OF ALL TOPICS | MUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants & panties directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

Chinese menstrual belt and pad, 2000,
with a correction in 2011

A Chinese woman sent me the following e-mail that changes the impression the male (below the next top e-mail) gave of Chinese menstrual practices.

In fact, it is rare for women to use belt pad instead of stick-in pad, as
it is rare for Asian women to use tampons. I guess the items the man sent you were vintage. When you go to a supermarket in China, you'll be amazed for the variety of pads, but there are always no tampons on the stack!
Western brands like Whisper and Kotex are very popular in China.

I am a Chinese living in Hong Kong.
(November 2011)
She actually wrote about the belts and pads here.

Latinas also much prefer pads over tampons.

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.

 
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.

See more Chinese belts and pads, from 2000 and 2005. Chinese pad and panty pad - Washable pads from Almora, Uttar Pradesh state, India - Nineteenth-century Norwegian washable pads - Italian washable pad, probably from the 1890s

© 2000 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any of the work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org