When she was in her 70s, Xing Guizhen brushed aside the idea of false teeth. "There's no need," she declared. "I'm going to die in a few days."
When she was in her 80s, she rejected her duaghter's urgings again, for the same reason. Now, well past her 100th birthday, Granny Xing is still alive and well, and still without any teeth, while daughter Bao Lianying, in her 70s, long ago acquired a false set. Despite her sunken cheeks and white hair, the small, slimly built grandmother does not look that old -- in fact, the way she licks her lips is almost childlike.
Xing Guizhen was born into a farming family in Haiyan County, in eastern China's Shandong Province, in June 1899. She can't remember how many siblings she had, but at least one younger sister, now close to 100 herself, still lives in the same village. While most of Xing's childhood memories have blurred, the ordeal of foot-binding stands out. When her daughter says the white cloth used to bind the feet was 3 chi long, Granny immediately corrects her: "It was 4 chi!"