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// On :Senin, 08 Desember 2014
Bound Feet Tradition in China
Multiple theories attempt to explain the origin of foot
binding: from the desire to emulate the naturally tiny feet of a favored
concubine of a prince, to a story of an empress who had club-like feet, which
became viewed as a desirable fashion. However, there is little strong textual
evidence for the custom prior to the court of the Southern Tang dynasty in
Nanjing, which celebrated the fame of its dancing girls, renowned for their
tiny feet and beautiful bow shoes. What is clear is that foot binding was first
practised among the elite and only in the wealthiest parts of China, which
suggests that binding the feet of well-born girls represented their freedom
from manual labor and, at the same time, the ability of their husbands to
afford wives who did not need to work, who existed solely to serve their men
and direct household servants while performing no labor themselves. The
economic and social attractions of such women may well have translated into
sexual desirability among elite men.
wrapped
bound feetChin bound feet
However, by the 17th century, Han Chinese girls, from the
wealthiest to the poorest people, had their feet bound. It was less prevalent
among poorer women or those that had to work for a living, especially in the
fields. Some estimate that as many as 2 billion Chinese women were subjected to
this practice, from the late 10th century until 1949, when foot binding was
outlawed by the Communists. (Foot binding had also been banned by the
Nationalists, but the Nationalists never had thorough political control over
the entire country, and were unable to enforce this prohibition universally.)
Many other non-Han ethnic groups continued to observe the
custom, some of them practiced loose binding which did not break the bones of
the arch and toes but simply narrowed the foot. Binding the feet involved
breaking the arch of the foot, which ultimately left a crevice approximately 5
cm (2 in) deep, which was considered most desirable. It took approximately two
years for this process to achieve the desired effect; preferably a foot that
measured 7–9 cm (3–3 ½ in) from toe to heel. While foot binding could lead to
serious infections, possibly gangrene, and was generally painful for life,
contrary to popular belief, many women with bound feet were able to walk, work
in the fields, and climb to mountain homes from valleys below.
As late as 2005, women with bound feet in one village in
Yunnan Province formed an internationally known dancing troupe to perform for
foreign tourists. In other areas, women in their 70s and 80s could be found
working in the rice fields well into the 21st century. In the 19th and early
20th century, dancers with bound feet were very popular, as were circus
performers who stood on prancing or running horses.
When foot-binding was popular and customary, women and their
families and husbands took great pride in tiny feet that had achieved the
desired lotus shape. This pride was reflected in the elegantly embroidered silk
slippers and wrappings girls and women wore to cover their feet. Walking on
bound feet necessitated bending the knees slightly and swaying to maintain the
proper movement. This swaying walk became known as the Lotus Gait and was
considered sexually exciting by men. Later, the Manchu women who were forbidden
to bind their feet, and who were supposedly envious of the Lotus Gait, invented
their own type of shoe that caused them to walk in a swaying manner. They wore
‘flower bowl’ shoes, on a high platform generally made of wood or with a small
central pedestal
The practice of foot-binding continued into the 20th century,
when both Chinese and Western missionaries called for reform; at this point, a
true anti-foot-binding movement emerged. Educated Chinese began to realise that
this aspect of their culture did not reflect well upon them in the eyes of
foreigners; social Darwinists argued that it weakened the nation, since
enfeebled women supposedly produced weak sons; and feminists attacked the
practice because it caused women to suffer. At the turn of the 20th century,
well-born women such as Kwan Siew-Wah, a pioneer feminist, advocated for the
end of foot-binding. Kwan herself refused the foot-binding imposed on her in
childhood, so that she could grow normal feet.
There had been earlier but unsuccessful attempts to stop the
practice of foot-binding, various emperors issuing unsuccessful edicts against
it. The Empress Dowager Cixi (a Manchu) issued such an edict following the
Boxer Rebellion in order to appease foreigners, but it was rescinded a short
time later. In 1911, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the new Republic of
China government banned foot binding. Women were told to unwrap their feet lest
they be killed. Some women’s feet grew a 1–3 cm (1/2–1 in) after the
unwrapping, though some found the new growth process extremely painful as well
as emotionally and culturally devastating. Still, societies were founded to
support the abolition of foot-binding, with contractual agreements made between
families who would promise an infant son in marriage to an infant daughter who
did not have bound feet. When the Communists took power in 1949, they were able
to enforce a strict prohibition on foot-binding, including in isolated areas
deep in the countryside where the Nationalist prohibition had been ignored. The
prohibition on foot-binding remains in effect today. In Taiwan, foot-binding
was banned by the Japanese administration in 1915.
The most common problem with bound feet was infection.
Despite the amount of care taken in regularly trimming the toenails, they would
often in-grow, becoming infected and causing injuries to the toes. Sometimes for
this reason the girl’s toenails would be peeled back and removed altogether.
The tightness of the binding meant that the circulation in the feet was faulty,
and the circulation to the toes was almost cut off, so any injuries to the toes
were unlikely to heal and were likely to gradually worsen and lead to infected
toes and rotting flesh. If the infection in the feet and toes entered the
bones, it could cause them to soften, which could result in toes dropping
off—though this was seen as a positive, as the feet could then be bound even
more tightly. Girls whose toes were more fleshy would sometimes have shards of
glass or pieces of broken tiles inserted within the binding next to her feet
and between her toes to cause injury and introduce infection deliberately.
Disease inevitably followed infection, meaning that death from septic shock
could result from foot-binding, but a surviving girl was more at risk for
medical problems as she grew older. In the early part of the binding, many of
the foot bones would remain broken, often for years. However, as the girl grew
older, the bones would begin to heal, although even after the foot bones had
healed they were prone to re-breaking repeatedly, especially when the girl was
in her teens and her feet were still soft. Older women were more likely to
break hips and other bones in falls, since they could not balance securely on
their feet, and were less able to rise to their feet from a sitting position.
Since the women in China weren’t able to walk properly anymore, most had to
have servants do most of the cleaning, cooking, and caring of children and
husband.
