Foot Binding

Foot binding became a desired form of beauty among women in China a thousand years ago. The exact origin of what started the desire for small delicate feet is unknown but two explanations exist. According to “Painful Memories for China’s Foot binding Survivors”, the two explanations are, “legend has it that the origins of foot binding go back as far as the Shang Dynasty (1700-1027 B.C.). The Shang Empress had a clubfoot, so she demanded that foot binding be made compulsory in the court. But historical records from the Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) date foot binding as beginning during the reign of Li Yu, who ruled over one region of China between 916-975. 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’” (Lim 1). Both explanations give an insightful view to how it became a desirable form of beauty and status. If the first reason is true, and the court were the ones to bind their feet to look like the empress, it became a symbol of upper class and slowly spread throughout China and became a form of social mobility for girls in that it showed that they could move to higher class and be acceptable even if they were not originally from that class. The second explanation also makes sense because a ruler found it desirable, why wouldn’t other men then also find it desirable. Also, it gives reason to the name of the desirable foot size to be the “three-inch golden lotuses’ (Lim1). However, “a 4 inch (10cm) foot, called a silver lotus, was considered acceptable” (Foot Binding: the-inch Golden Lotus 1). Foot binding was not only for beauty, but signified which class girls were because it could only be done in families with girls who did not need them to work in the field because it limited the amount of physical labor they could perform. This shows that the family had to be economically stable. The binding of feet was desirable not only for its looks but what it implied about a girl. Besides status, women with bound feet had to rely on their families for assistance because it was hard to walk long distances and do hard physical labor. This “restricted their movement and enforcing chastity” (Lim1) which is important for women to be acceptable for marriage. Before researching this, I never was aware how the foot binding was done, and when reading about the process, I seemed to be painful very painful and realized to what extent women will go to in order to fit cultural beauty. According to the San Francisco Museum, “by the time a girl turned three years old, all her toes but the first were broken, and her feet were bound tightly with cloth strips to keep her feet from growing larger than 10cm”(1). Foot binding was started at such a young age because bones are still developing and are softer and easier to break. In John Mao’s article he states, “Traditionally, the foot binding begins with the clipping of the toenails and the soaking of the feet either in hot water or in a concoction of ingredients ranging from various herbs and nuts. This is to soften the tissue and bones of the foot in order to facilitate manipulation, and the feet are massaged and doused with alum. All the toes on the foot, except the big one, are broken and folded under the sole. The toes are then bound in place with a silk or cotton bandage of size 10'x12”. Every two days these wrappings are removed for washing and meticulous manicuring of the toenails to avoid infection. The arch of the foot is also broken and the foot is pulled straight with the leg. Gradually the sizes of the shoe are also reduced in order to accommodate the shrinking feet. To encourage the feet to achieve the desired conformation, the girls are made to walk long distances so that their own weight crushes their feet into shape. The flesh of the foot would also be lacerated, or sharp objects may be inserted in the bandage to encourage 'excess' flesh to rot away so that smaller feet may be achieved. In earlier years, the washing and binding is carried out by the mother. As time passes, the girls themselves tighten their bandages on their own. At the end of two years of excruciating pain a pair of tiny folded feet is seen. To make sure that the toes stay in place this foot binding process is carried out for an additional ten years”(1). Another interesting fact about footbinding was that mothers and grandmothers who were wrapping the daughter or granddaughter’s feet started binding in the winter months to keep the feet numb to lessen the extremeness of the pain (John Mao 1). Foot binding no longer exists in China but there are still a few women of the generations that still have bound feet and identify it with beauty and status.

Citations
"Chinese Foot Binding- Lotus Shoes." Museum of the City of San Francisco. Internet. 06 November 2000
<http://www.sfmuseum.org/chin/foot.html>

John Mao: Foot Binding: Beauty And Torture. The Internet Journal of Biological Anthropology . 2008. Volume 1 Number 2.
<http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijba/vol1n2/foot.xml>

Lim, Louisa. “Painful Memories for China’s Footbinding Survivors”. NPR. March 19,2007
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942>