Suffering for beauty is a concept familiar to most women, who have dyed, plucked or shaved their hair, squeezed their feet into uncomfortable high heels or even surgically enhanced parts of their anatomy. Millions of Chinese women went even further — binding their feet to turn them into the prized "three-inch golden lotuses."
{From Status Symbol to Subjugation: Legend has it that footbinding began during the Shang dynasty (1700-1027 B.C.), ordered by an empress who had a clubfoot. But historical records date the practice to a later dynasty: An emperor was captivated by a concubine, a talented dancer who bound her feet to suggest the shape of a new moon and performed a "lotus dance."}
Footbinding was first banned in 1912, but some continued binding their feet in secret. Some of the last survivors of this barbaric practice are still living in Liuyicun, a village in Southern China's Yunnan province.
Wang Lifen was just 7 years old when her mother started binding her feet: breaking her toes and binding them underneath the sole of the foot with bandages. After her mother died, Wang carried on, breaking the arch of her own foot to force her toes and heel ever closer. Now 79, Wang no longer remembers the pain.
'Young Bones Are Soft'
"Because I bound my own feet, I could manipulate them more gently until the bones were broken. Young bones are soft, and break more easily," she says.
At that time, bound feet were a status symbol, the only way for a woman to marry into money. In Wang's case, her in-laws had demanded the matchmaker find their son a wife with tiny feet. It was only after the wedding, when she finally met her husband for the first time, that she discovered he was an opium addict. With a life encompassing bound feet and an opium-addict husband, she's a remnant from another age. That's how author Yang Yang, who's written a book about them, sees these women.
"These women were shunned by two eras," Yang says. "When they were young, footbinding was already forbidden, so they bound their feet in secret. When the Communist era came, production methods changed. They had to do farming work, and again they were shunned."
A Dwindling Few
Outside the temple in Liuyicun, old women sit chatting, some resting their shrunken feet in the sunlight. Seven years ago, there were still 300 women with bound feet in this village. But many have since died. The village's former prosperity, from its thriving textile business, was the reason every family bound their daughters' feet. And they carried on long after footbinding was outlawed in 1912.
Zhou Guizhen remembers tricking the government inspectors.
"When people came to inspect our feet, my mother bandaged my feet, then put big shoes on them," Zhou says. "When the inspectors came, we fooled them into thinking I had big feet."
Zhou is now a fragile 86-year-old with a rueful chuckle. Tottering along in her blue silk shoes embroidered with phoenixes, she marvels at how the world has changed. Born into a rich family and married into fabulous wealth, all her possessions were confiscated by the Communists.
A Regretful Decision
Now she opens the door to her dark, decrepit one-room hut with earthen floors and paper-lattice windows through which the cold wind whistles. Values have been turned upside down since her childhood. Then, she says, bound feet were seen as a mark of class. Now, they stand for female subjugation.
"I regret binding my feet," Zhou says. "I can't dance, I can't move properly. I regret it a lot. But at the time, if you didn't bind your feet, no one would marry you."
These "golden lotuses" were proof of a foot fetish on a national scale, with hobbled feet acting as another erogenous zone, the most forbidden of them all. But for author Yang Yang, whose mother had bound feet, the reality was far more prosaic.
"The bandages that women used for footbinding were about 10 feet long, so it was difficult for them to wash their feet," Yang says. "They only washed once every two weeks, so it was very, very stinky. But when I was young I was very free, because when I was naughty my mother couldn't run fast enough with her bound feet to catch me and beat me."
Despite their self-inflicted disabilities, these women are survivors. Wang often baby-sits her neighbors' toddler, carrying the plump 20-pound child on her back as she goes about her daily chores. As Wang surveys her tiny shoes, cocking her head from side to side, it's clear she's proud of her little feet.
Lingering Pride
"There's not a single other woman in Liuyicun who could fit their feet into my shoes," she says. "When my generation dies, people won't be able to see bound feet, even if they want to."
These women even gained fame of a sort, forming a bound-feet disco dancing troupe which toured the region. Zhou was once the star of the troupe, but now she's too old to dance.
Such public display is a far cry from their youth, when their bound feet restricted their freedom, keeping them close to their homes. But the local press criticized the dance troupe, talking of exploitation and freak shows. These women yet again are victims of history in a society that finds their plight an embarrassing reminder of its own recent brutality towards women.
Wealthy Chinese women with bound feet pose for a photo, circa 1900-1920.
Footbinding: From Status Symbol to Subjugation
by Louisa Lim
by Louisa Lim
Legend has it that the origins of footbinding go back as far as the Shang dynasty (1700-1027 B.C.). The Shang Empress had a clubfoot, so she demanded that footbinding be made compulsory in the court.
But historical records from the Song dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) date footbinding as beginning during the reign of Li Yu, who ruled over one region of China between 961-975. It is said his heart was captured by a concubine, Yao Niang, a talented dancer who bound her feet to suggest the shape of a new moon and performed a "lotus dance."
During subsequent dynasties, footbinding became more popular and spread from court circles to the wealthy. Eventually, it moved from the cities to the countryside, where young girls realized that binding their feet could be their passport to social mobility and increased wealth.
When the Manchu nobility came to power in 1644, they tried to ban the practice, but with little success. The first anti-footbinding committee was formed in Shanghai by a British priest in 1874.
But the practice wasn't outlawed until 1912, when the Qing dynasty had already been toppled by a revolution. Beginning in 1915, government inspectors could levy fines on those who continued to bind their feet. But despite these measures, footbinding still continued in various parts of the country.
A year after the Communists came to power in 1949, they too issued their own ban on footbinding. According to the American author William Rossi, who wrote The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe, 40 percent to 50 percent of Chinese women had bound feet in the 19th century. For the upper classes, the figure was almost 100 percent.
Some estimate that as many as 2 billion Chinese women broke and bound their feet to attain this agonizing ideal of physical perfection. Author Yang Yang says that women with tiny feet were a status symbol who would bring honor upon the entire clan by their appearance.
"Some married women with bound feet would even get up in the middle of the night to start their toilette, just to ensure they would look good in daytime," he says.
In Liuyicun, the practice persisted so long because of the village's economic prosperity — and its inhabitants' desire for obvious wealth signifiers, like daughters with bound feet.
Some scholars say footbinding deepened female subjugation by making women more dependent on their men folk, restricting their movements and enforcing their chastity, since women with bound feet were physically incapable of venturing far from their homes.
Certainly the "three-inch golden lotuses" were seen as the ultimate erogenous zone, with Qing dynasty pornographic books listing 48 different ways of playing with women's bound feet.
For those unfortunate women who paid the ultimate price for beauty, there was little choice involved.
Liuyicun resident Wang Lifen, 79, describes her own attitude as a child, saying, "I didn't want to bind my feet, but the whole village told me that I had to. So I did."
And 86-year-old Zhou Guizhen says, "At that time everybody had bound feet. If you didn't, you'd only be able to marry a tribesman from an ethnic minority."
These women disfigured their feet to guarantee their own future, but according to Yang Yang, this act ultimately consigned them to tragic lives. Most of Liuyicun's bound-feet women were forced to perform hard physical labor in the late 1950s, digging reservoirs, for example — work which was punishing enough for ordinary women, but agonizing for those with tiny, misshapen feet.
Their families also suffered food shortages as they were often unable to fulfill their production quotas at work, or walk into the mountains to pick vegetables and fruit like other mothers.
"Their tiny feet sealed their tragic fates," Yang says.
These articles can be viewed on NPR at:
But historical records from the Song dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) date footbinding as beginning during the reign of Li Yu, who ruled over one region of China between 961-975. It is said his heart was captured by a concubine, Yao Niang, a talented dancer who bound her feet to suggest the shape of a new moon and performed a "lotus dance."
During subsequent dynasties, footbinding became more popular and spread from court circles to the wealthy. Eventually, it moved from the cities to the countryside, where young girls realized that binding their feet could be their passport to social mobility and increased wealth.
When the Manchu nobility came to power in 1644, they tried to ban the practice, but with little success. The first anti-footbinding committee was formed in Shanghai by a British priest in 1874.
But the practice wasn't outlawed until 1912, when the Qing dynasty had already been toppled by a revolution. Beginning in 1915, government inspectors could levy fines on those who continued to bind their feet. But despite these measures, footbinding still continued in various parts of the country.
A year after the Communists came to power in 1949, they too issued their own ban on footbinding. According to the American author William Rossi, who wrote The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe, 40 percent to 50 percent of Chinese women had bound feet in the 19th century. For the upper classes, the figure was almost 100 percent.
Some estimate that as many as 2 billion Chinese women broke and bound their feet to attain this agonizing ideal of physical perfection. Author Yang Yang says that women with tiny feet were a status symbol who would bring honor upon the entire clan by their appearance.
"Some married women with bound feet would even get up in the middle of the night to start their toilette, just to ensure they would look good in daytime," he says.
In Liuyicun, the practice persisted so long because of the village's economic prosperity — and its inhabitants' desire for obvious wealth signifiers, like daughters with bound feet.
Some scholars say footbinding deepened female subjugation by making women more dependent on their men folk, restricting their movements and enforcing their chastity, since women with bound feet were physically incapable of venturing far from their homes.
Certainly the "three-inch golden lotuses" were seen as the ultimate erogenous zone, with Qing dynasty pornographic books listing 48 different ways of playing with women's bound feet.
For those unfortunate women who paid the ultimate price for beauty, there was little choice involved.
Liuyicun resident Wang Lifen, 79, describes her own attitude as a child, saying, "I didn't want to bind my feet, but the whole village told me that I had to. So I did."
And 86-year-old Zhou Guizhen says, "At that time everybody had bound feet. If you didn't, you'd only be able to marry a tribesman from an ethnic minority."
These women disfigured their feet to guarantee their own future, but according to Yang Yang, this act ultimately consigned them to tragic lives. Most of Liuyicun's bound-feet women were forced to perform hard physical labor in the late 1950s, digging reservoirs, for example — work which was punishing enough for ordinary women, but agonizing for those with tiny, misshapen feet.
Their families also suffered food shortages as they were often unable to fulfill their production quotas at work, or walk into the mountains to pick vegetables and fruit like other mothers.
"Their tiny feet sealed their tragic fates," Yang says.
These articles can be viewed on NPR at:
i cannot believe that the conditions were that bad. for me this hits home because my daughter is half black. i don't understand and will never understand why any type of person would treat another person this way. It makes me so thankful to be living in the 21st century. Not having enough food or air becuase of the color of your skin is ridiculous, and it makes me sad.
ReplyDeleteI remember talking about this in my high school world history class. I never had the opportunity to actually see the feet and, never understood the process. Now, after reading the first article I can see how painful it must've been. However, not much has changed. You can't feel too outraged since most women nowadays still mutilate their bodies to be beautiful. In fact, a year ago I watched a special on plastic surgery. A new presigior that has become widely popular is foot surgery. The patient can have silicone injected in to their heel so walking in pumps is more comfortable and, bones can be removed from their toes in order to make their feet smaller. The similarities between these surgeries and foot binding are eerily similar.
ReplyDeletethis is absolutely ridiculous. i respect foreign traditions but i am completely against this. it just does not make sense to me. such tradition which alter the human body,spirit,and mind are in my opinion pointless and should be banished. by seeing this, i am grateful that i live in a day and age and in an enviornment where this would not be part of typical life. the pain these women must have gone through must have been horrifying. your feet the bearers of all your weight. i can not imagine it and i do not wish to.
ReplyDelete-S.ARROYO
It is sad and suprising to me that young chinese women would have to endure this painful process in order to be considered beautiful. But I can understand the thought process behind it... Even in the modern world, women still tend to altar their bodies to fit conceptions of beauty (breast enhancement, lyposuction, etc...). That being said, I still believe that this is quite a painful and unsanitary process.
ReplyDeleteReading about these women who endured such an immense amount of pain to possibly find a husband, have a higher rank in society or even to be considered beautiful has really made me realize how lucky we(women) are in this modern day in age... even if we have more pressure to look more "beatuiful" its something that is not thrust upon us, and it is certainly something we do not always rely on to make us a better life.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between foot binding and many modern procedures in the name of beauty is in that binding was done mostly to children. Children are not ready to understand the long term cost of this decision, nor are they really ready to make such a permanent decision. It was cruel.
ReplyDeleteindeed foot binding was a cruel practice because the children could not decide if they wanted the procedure to be done. It is specially hard for me to understand a practice being done for the sole purpose of "finding a husband" it shows how little self esteem is and was expected of women in order for them to believe that they could not take care of themselves. I think what is most shocking to me is that practices like foot binding still occur. For example female genital mutilation which is also done at early ages such as 2 yrs old.
ReplyDelete-mercedes ramans
Im glad this topic came up in class. The other day i was thinking about all the different things that cultures do, for example: gageing and foot binding. To us it may seem obsured but at the time and place it was simply the right thing to do. In china the women felt they had to do this to marry well and provide for their family. In my opinion it was a smart way to go, during that time.
ReplyDelete-kimberly martinez
I can feel the pain for the many women who came before us and felt this unbelievable pain for beauty, their beliefs, rights, and lives. I could have never lasted in the old colures I would have been killed for being the woman I am today. Thank you to all the great women who came before me. I would not be the person I am today if it was not for the women of yesterday (One of the Great Women of America).
ReplyDeleteIt is really amazing story that I had never heard. I feel poor with Liuyicun women because even though they bounded their feet for their future, they lived tragic lives... I did just for passport to social mobility and increased wealth. ANd it is really good fortune for us that we did not have that culture in my country!!
ReplyDeleteThese women must've had it hard,foot bounding wasn't optional. If they didn't do it then it basically meant they had no future. And i couldnt possibly imagine how much pain they had to live through. I'm thankful for the freedom i have.
ReplyDeleteThis is a horrible thing that was made to these women.It is sad how a child had to go through this for the rest of their lives. In order for them to "succeed" in lfe this was mandatory.Having the foot bounded and working at the same time must have been very painful.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Szeto
ReplyDeleteI feel that it's definitely important when thinking about footbinding to consider the context of the procedure. Although we currently view footbinding as a detestable practice that was disgusting and unnecessary, for the Chinese people of that time, that was how society worked. Tiny feet epitomized beauty and wealth, so women did what they had to so that they could secure a successful match and life for their daughters.
In modern times, footbinding exists in a different form. Women are willing to starve or let their bodies waste away so that they may be skinny and thought of as attractive by society. Others are willing to undergo unnecessary surgery to make parts of their anatomy more ideal, using society's image of the perfect woman. We don't think it's a big deal that women get breast implants and suffer from eating disorders today, just how I imagine that the Chinese didn't think it was a big deal that women binded their feet to look more beautiful.
Although I completely believe that Footbinding young girls and causing them so much pain is abuse, I also understand the reasoning during that time period for women to be pressured into Footbinding for a possibility of future comfortable living by marrying a man who could give their wife a comfortable living financially. Today's women/girls in the western world is just as vain in changing their body images with unnecessary plastic surgery in hopes of conforming their bodies to look like the women/girls in the glamorous magazines that unfortunately are dominated by men. It's been like this in the western world ever since I can remember but as women become a stronger presence in the world, I hope intelligence/education will over power women's need or wants to change their bodies to feel beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how it's mostly women who damage or try to change their bodies in order to fit into a status to find wealth. Yet when they do, it doesn't sound like their lives became any better. With the one woman who bound her feet so she could marry into upper class, only to find that her husband was addicted to opium..
ReplyDeleteI can see why these women did this. In probably all countries and different cultures there are ways people mutate or alter their physical appearance to be appealing and be accepted in society.
Just looking at the pictures makes me flinch. The idea that people could be that obsessed with ones feet and hold them with such high regards to put themselves or their kids through that. The after math of it all is really not worth it. I understand why the girls felt like they had to do it, but I don't understand why it was such a big deal for the guys. I am glad that never took in America when I was young.
ReplyDelete-Courtney P
I understand why the women did this to their feet but, its very very sad to see. Women were basically under men and did whatever the man did to make the man happy. Women always had ta satisfy the men and never had to satisfy themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to read this because of the pain and experience that young and old Chinese women had to endure, based on societal norms. It's hard to imagine that such this "agonizing idea" was viewed to their society and Chinese men as some "physical perfection" in Chinese women. This article is just an example of the many cultural pratices seen throughout history and today that is unusual and unpleasant to American society. Also, I think it's important to recognize and remember the experience of these Chinese women who have sacrificed and lived to see the day when foot binding was banned.
ReplyDelete-Gina Hwang
After reading this I feel bad for the women. I think it's sad how foot binding was more like a must than an option. I'm glad we don't have to bind our feet to marry. But I think that even though foot binding doesn't exist now a days it's kind of the same as plastic surgery because of the pain you go through to "look better."
ReplyDeleteActually i have heard about this before but not in detail.This helps me to know more.Its really sad situation.I feel sorry for that womens.Am from south asian country.We too had such beliefs and all.But by god's grace binding foot were not there.
ReplyDeleteReading this article made me sick, even though foot binding was mostly by choice and was a way to show beauty i don't see how women or children did this. I guess I understand that the children did it because they didnt know what the long term consequences were. I also see that we can compare this to plastic surgery now. Foot binding was to make yourself feel wanted by men, as of now when we think something is wrong with us we resort to plastic surgery. I feel for the children that had to go through this but it was their way of living so I can respect that.
ReplyDeleteReading this article really made me think about what others value. Being a 4th generation american my family has forgotten our heritage's traditions. Same goes for many other families in the US. You forget that know matter how foreign something may seem to us, others still uphold their traditions in their rightful countries. This article made me realize that there are other people outside this countries who value for than mcdonalds and american idol.
ReplyDelete"I have heard alot about foot binding. I have also read many books and watched movies with foot binding being a produre that most young women went through. But many cultures do painful things to be accepted in a higher class. The thing I feel bad about is the women that go through the foot-binding procedure because they end up having limited mobility and lots of pain in their feet and back."
ReplyDeleteEven though I understand that this procedure was crucial to have a wealthy relationship, what amazes me is that men actually found this attractive. I am curious if I were living back in that time period, would I also want a woman with bound feet? In this time period I completely detest this idea, but maybe back then I would actually consider it beautiful? Also I am startled at how Chinese women specifically had it tough for their childhood. I read the book, Chinese Cinderella, a story about a young girl completely neglected by her parents. It was hard to read about how this young girl struggled trying to gain her family's love and support.
ReplyDeleteEven tho the girls would go through crucial pain to get their feet to look beautiful, I do understand why they would do it. It reminds me of our generation now, girls taking diet pills and doing other things to their bodies to make them beautiful. I have heard about foot binding before but I never knew about having to break the toes and than bind the feet. It was a good article to read.
ReplyDeleteThis is really intense stuff that i feel like no one should ever have to go through.i respect other cultures and their values i dont understand however how this could possibly make you more attractive and more suited for a better wealthier husband and lifestyle. this is crazy stuff. it just really makes you realize how lucky we are to live in america and how different other places really are
ReplyDelete