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Still, when & where you were in middle school will give us a general idea of when it would have been written by. If you were in Junior High in 1980 for example, then we'd have 27 years less of literature to consider than if it was in 2007. Likewise, if you were in the US vs...IDK where else they have something called Junior High but just for the sake of argument in Germany, then it's more likely a story written in English vs a story in German.
Edited by randomsurfer

Okay, so, when I was in middle school (possibly junior high, I forget), there was an excerpt from a longer story (or perhaps just a short story, I forget) that my class had to read that was set in either Medieval Europe or a place based off of it, where the protagonist, a young man with aspirations to go places and rise up from his low lot in life, happens upon a traveling circus, or something like it, and one of the attractions is a girl from China (or, if it's a different world, the equivalent OF China) who has had foot binding done. As you might imagine, this means that even if she could escape from the confines of the cage she's kept in, she couldn't get very far (especially since I THINK the full foot binding procedure hadn't been done too long ago to her). The boy ends up freeing her, and after some stuff that I can't quite remember happens, while on the run he brings her to a healer woman to help unbind her feet, and to treat the wounds he himself received on the journey (though it could've been exposure to the elements instead of wounds, or a combo of the two, I forget), and the woman is either from China (or its equivalent) and had to have her feet unbound in the past as well, or isn't but still has experience with the unbinding process. Either way, the excerpt (or possible story altogether) ends with the boy and girl recovering safely in the old woman's house.
Edited by dungeonmaster11