Posted by Eye scraping is an ancient Chinese custom still practised by a few barbers, especially in Chengdu: a razor is scraped across the inside of the eyelids to “clean” the eyes. A similar technique was once used against trachoma, but today ophthalmologists strongly advise against it because it can seriously damage the eye.
The customs of other countries can sometimes seem strange, funny or disturbing. Disturbing is one custom of some parts of Asia, such as China and Vietnam, where in the past it was common for the barber, as well as making your hair and beard, to scrape your eyeballs.
You read right: a barber inserted a razor or other instrument under the eyelids and scraped the eyes. Literally he scraped them.
Despite being a now abandoned practice (who knows why?), you can still find some barbers who execute it.
Scraping of the Eyes
First of all: why would anyone want their eyes scraped?
Because according to a saying of the province of Sichuan, “cleaning” the eyes would help to see the beauty of life.
There is evidence of this custom since ancient times, but unfortunately (unfortunately?) today this practice is slowly fading.
However you can still find the eye scrapers, such as Liu Deyuan, a barber in Chengdu, Sichuan, who in 2013 was 53 and said he had learned at 17, taking three years to become skilled. For 5 yuan he offers a haircut, a shave and an eye scraping, and he has loyal customers who come back every month for a nice scrape of the eyeball: one of his most faithful clients, a 97-year-old man, had been having his eyes scraped by him for seven years. In 2017 another Chengdu barber, Xiong Gaowu, aged 62, said he had been doing it for more than 40 years.
How do you scrape an eye?
Usually the barber takes the same razor used to shave, rinses it in the same water used to shave for various clients and then proceeds to place it under the eyelids scraping the same eyelid and the white part of the eye.
After scraping the eye with a razor, he inserts a metal rod under the eyelids, and also cleans by moving the bar back and forth.
I do not know what made me more afraid, the razor in my eye socket or that the razor was used to cut the hair and beard, and scrape the eyes of hundreds of customers before me without being disinfected.
According to some doctors, in the 1940s and 1950s a similar technique was also used in Chinese hospitals to treat trachoma, a bacterial eye infection, by scraping away the ulcers and scar tissue under the eyelids. Today, however, ophthalmologists strongly advise against it: it can seriously damage the eye, and for the problems it is supposed to treat, such as dry eye or inflamed eyelids, there are much safer alternatives. So, if you happen to take a trip to China and want to try something different, maybe skip the barber and just watch!
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