>I've just got chime in on the movies showing breastfeeding (hi, Jeanne!)
>The Last Emperor, which is about China's last emporer, shows the approx.
>2-year-old new emperor being separated from his mother and handed over to
>a wet nurse.  In a later scene the 9 (? or so)-year-old calls for his
>nurse and nurses.  It is depicted as heartbreaking for him when the court
>ladies have the nurse sent away.  It's got to be the oldest child I've
>ever seen nurse onscreen (the audience gasped).

In this scene, the Emporer is actually about 12 or 13...and the film makes
it quite clear that this was strongly disapproved of, not so much because
of the fact he was still bf (though that is part of it), but because of the
fact that the wet nurse was someone who loved him, and who he loved. The
'correct' way to behave was to express no passion and to need no emotions.
It is hugely sad when the wet nurse is sent away.

I often use this scene in classes when discussing the cultural norms of bf.
Most people know of the  film and it has been on TV a few times. Clearly
extended bf was the norm at the Chinese court (even if by 12 or 13 it was
thought unusual). When we talk about it, it rather challenges the idea that
'normal' bf lasts six months : )

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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