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RESEARCH PAPER
FOOTBINDING: A PAINFUL TRADITION IN CHINA
By
Liliana Melo
Composition I. I: An Introduction to Expository Writing, Course 101.5767
LaGuardia Community College, Long Island City
November 16. 2006
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OUTLINE
Thesis:
Although footbinding increases a woman’s chances of marrying well, it was a violent act against
women.
I.
Footbinding:
A.
B.
C.
D.
II.
Footbinding increased a woman’s chance of marrying well.
A.
B.
C.
D.
III.
Family.
Women’s work.
Footbinding was a violent act against women.
A.
B.
C.
V.
Beauty
Eroticism and Femininity
Obedience and Discipline
Status and Social position in Chinese society
Women’s position in Chinese society during 10th century of Imperial China.
A.
B.
IV.
Definition.
Origin and its history
Description and Process.
Myth around footbinding
Physical pain and its deformations.
Psychological and emotional pain and its relationships.
Footbinding thought the death
Conclusion.
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Footbinding: A Painful Tradition in China
“Keep her barefoot and pregnant,"
- Old Chinese Saying During the time women have deformed, mutilated, bounded, changed, manipulated, damaged, and
altered their bodies not only to survive in the society, but also to satisfy the men erotically and sexually.
Thus, one of the most painful ways in which women participated in and became bound to patriarchy was
the footbinding. Footbinding was a Chinese tradition of the binding the feet of women lasted for 1,000
years. Mothers bound their daughters’ feet, and footbinding evolved into a rite of passage into womanhood
within the Confucian system, which valued female domesticity and textile arts. “The historical origins of
footbinding are frustratingly vague, although brief textual references suggest that small feet for women
were preferred as early as the Han dynasty” (Vento 1). This custom was “the act of wrapping a three- to
five-year old girl's feet with binding so as to bend the toes under, break the bones and force the back of the
foot together” (Vento 1). Its main purpose was to generate a tiny foot, the "golden lotus", which was three
inches long and thought to be both lovely and alluring (Ping x). In fact, footbinding symbolized the Chinese
nation, civilized man, and the patriarchal power; in order words, the smallness of the feet became a source
of pride for the woman - she was considered unmarriageable without them- (Vento 3). In addition,
footbinding was the way to introduce a young girl to the patriarchal power that would exist and dictate a
woman throughout her entire life. Although footbinding increased a woman’s chances of marrying well, it
was a violent act against women. In fact, footbinding was an enduring violence and pain, mutilation and
self-mutilation in the name of beauty and good marriage, and was transmitted only through codes of silence
that was only a masquerade (Ping xi)
“Theories on the origins and purpose of footbinding are proposed, and the erotic element is
strongly stressed” (Ross 327). According to the records and sources, the practice of footbinding was
-4originated during the fifty years that elapsed between the T’ang Dynasty (618-906) and it gradually spread
through the upper class during the Song Dynasty (960-1297) (Greenhalgh 7). In the early 10th century,
Emperor Li Yu of the Southern Tang dynasty in China ordered his favorite dancer, Yao-niang, to bind her
feet in silk ribbons and dance on a platform littered with golden lotus flowers so that her feet would look like
new moons. From that day on, foot binding was often associated with the term golden lotus. In fact, the
most popular and stylish type of footbinding shoes were known as "golden lotus" or "lotus shoe". Also this
term is a synonym for bound feet. Most lotus shoes were beautifully embroidered and about three inches
long ("lotus shoes"). The lotus shoes are known to be lovely and alluring to the male population in China
(Vento 1). Although footbinding was lovely and alluring, it is also life threatening (Vento 1). Foot binding
was something practiced only by those within the royal court but soon women of all social classes were
eager to have dainty, "beautiful" and desirable feet (Greenhalgh 8).
In the article “The Disappearance of Footbinding in Tinghsien” by Sidney Gamble explains the
situation of footbinding during the twelfth century.
“The highly influential scholar-philosopher, Chu His (1130 – 1200), according to the Dr. Lin Yutang, was
“enthusiastic in introducing footbinding in southern Kukirn as a means of spreading Chinese culture and
teaching the separation of men and women … The custom does not seem to have penetrated northern
China to any great extend under the Liao, the Chin, or the early Yuan dynasties” (181).
By the same token, in the chapter II “Brief History of Footbinding” of the book Aching for Beauty by
Wang Ping describes that “Tao Zongyi (1,368) records in his Chuo geng lu that footbinding was still
infrequent between 1,068 – 1,085” (31). In order words, the practice of footbinding already started, although
it was still rare. Nevertheless, during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), “footbinding began to spread all over
China. Bound feet, apart from being the measurement for beauty, became the symbol for social status”
(Ping 32). In the same way during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), the custom of foot binding spread through
the overwhelming majority of the Chinese population. In the article “The Poisoned Lotus” by Beth Harrison
confirms the following:
-5“Although footbinding in China can be traced back to the twenty-first century BCE, the practice spread during
the Song dynasty (960-1279CE). By the beginning of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), despite a ban imposed
by the Manchu rulers, all classes of Han women (the predominant Chinese ethnic group) bound their feet.
(1).
In fact, Ping points out what happened to footbinding during the Qing dynasty:
“Footbinding reached its peak in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), even though the Manchu emperors forbade
Manchu girls to bind their feet and throughout their rule gave numerous orders to stop the practice among
Han women (the largest population of the ethnicities in China)” (33).
The journal “The Body as Attire” by Dorothy Ko introduces the symbol of the Chinese nation and
civilized man in the bound foot. In a 17th century story we are shown how officials decided to strength their
defense against the barbarians. “One suggestion is to entice them (the barbarians) to civilize their customs
by having their women follow the Chinese method: have them all tie up and bind their feet into the arch
shape. Their men would thus be indulgent; would become lax in striking and lancing. This would weaken
and subdue the barbarians” (Ko 11). During the 17th century China also introduced the “Chinese clothing
and civilizing project” (Ko 12). Here clothing “headdress, dress, and shoes”(Ko 12) all became symbols of
political control and the Chinese nation. At this time China was constantly being invaded and therefore the
clothing of an individual became a function of friend or foe. “Unadorned bodies and feet were thus seen as
visible signs of savagery of peoples”(Ko 12). Visible unbound feet were seen as being savage-like than it is
only normal that a woman would want her feet bound. Not only because as a woman she would be placed
at the bottom of society, but also she had to have unbound feet as well she would be lower than the lowest.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, the first antifoot binding society was formed in China (Ping 36). The main point of the anti-foot binding society was that
the pain a woman went through in the foot binding process and through her life was an obstacle to her
education (Broadwin 421). Society members argued that the practice of footbinding was painful, deforming
and crippling, and it was a sign of sexual indulgence (Broadwin 427). As a result, “boundfoot women
symbolized China’s lack of military strength, lack the economic productivity, and dissipation in individual
erotic pleasures” (Broadwin 427). In the same way, Harrison says:
-6“After the fall of the Manchus in the early twentieth century, a national propaganda campaign against
footbinding began. Women with bound feet abruptly lost their high social status. In anti-footbinding meetings,
women's feet were bared, humiliating them and satisfying curious spectators. Suddenly footbinding was no
longer a female rite of passage but a symbol of national shame” (2).
Finally in 1911 with the revolution of sun Yat-Sen, foot binding was officially outlawed.
The process of footbinding was in effort to make the feet narrower, but it also made the feet shorter
because it forced the big toe and the heel closer together. In fact, this process was synonym of “the violent
mutilation of the feet eliminates between human and beast, organic and inorganic” (Ping 3). Not only did
footbinding whisper “seduction, eroticism, virtue, discipline, and sacrifices, but also it taught little girls about
pain, about coming of age, about her place in this world, about her permanent bonding with her mother and
female ancestors” (Ping 4). The process of footbinding had the following step:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
“Place one end of the bandage, about two inches wide and ten feet long, on the inside of the instep and
from there carry it over the four small toes and wrap them once.
From de inside of the foot, pull the binding toward the front point and turn it tightly around the big toe.
Wrap the heel from the outer side of the foot, and pull the binding toward the front point so that the heel
and toes are drawn together as closely as possible. Wrap the front except for the bid toe.
Wrap over the instep, go around the ankle, and return to the instep.
Turn toward the heel and wrap the binding from the inner side of the foot to the front point.
Wrap from the inner side and over the instep ton the outer side. Wrap around the heel and pull the
binding back toward the part of bending cloth on the instep.
Repeat the process from the beginning until the entire bandage is used, then sew the end to prevent the
binding from coming loose” (Ping 4)
“Little girls were initiated into the binding between the ages of five and seven, when their bones were still
flexible qi (primary life force) and their minds mature enough (dongshi) to understand the importance of this
bodily discipline to undergo a long period of intense physical pain. The trauma radically changed her sense
of the body in space and her sense of being in general” (Ping 6).
“Although the upper class began to binding as early as age three and the peasantry began as late as age
twelve or thirteen. The initial binding was always performed by the mother or grandmother, whose “maternal
feelings of compassion were more than offset by social considerations,” such as the necessity of finding a
husband for the girl” (Greenhalgh 9).
“Once the girl’s foot had taken the desire size and shape, she would spend the rest of her life caring for the
health and hygiene of her small feet and making the footwear she would use on them. Size and shape was
both subject to continuing attention, effort, and some degree of transformation” (Turner 464)
Julie Broadwin through her article “Walking Contradictions: Chinese Women Unbound at the Turn
of the Century” explains that “every locale and social class had different ideal sizes and shapes for the
altered foot” (428). By the 1600’s, which is considered the height of the footbinding obsession, the perfect
-7Lotus Foot was a mere 3” long. For women from an elite family, the 3” bound foot was the desired size. The
wealthier women employed servants to do daily tasks and could afford to be carried around their village in
sedan chairs instead of walking. For poorer women who needed to work, 5” was considered an acceptable
size. Not only was the size a factor to judge the perfect Lotus foot, but also the shape of the foot was taken
into account. If the foot were misshapen, as in crooked or a large big toe, it was not considered beautiful.
The popularity of the properly proportioned and well-shaped Lotus Foot made the girl who possessed them
a good catch for marriage. For a girl from a poor family the well-bound lotus foot could give her the
opportunity to marry into a higher class.
Likewise, footbinding was around some myths among men. Kaz Ross in his article “(Hand) Made in
China: the curious return of the footbinding shoe” points out two important assumptions of footbinding.
“The first is the importance of vision: seeing is believing. The second is that the bound foot is the ‘sexual holy
grail’. Although the bound foot may not look immediately ‘sexy’ within western sexual taxonomy there is an
unbreakable link between the bound foot and sex, which becomes stretched (but not broken) once the bound
foot is nothing more than a curious oddity and an obvious symbol of the exotic rather than the erotic” (318).
In the same way, “the multiple values, inclining beauty and morality, which women believed their
bound feet embodied, remained relevant” (Broadwin 418). Footbinding was “a tradition that evolved in the
concept of "ideal image" including beauty, marriage and sex” (Vento 3). Footbinding was also considered
charming, showed a sense of class, and was the symbol of chastity in most Chinese cultures. It was
believed to promote health and fertility, although in the reality the tradition was malodorous and virtually
crippling (Vento 2). In fact, it was a way to keep women in seclusion from the rest of the world, which made
them more dependent on others and less useful around the house. Therefore, the beauty of the foot could
not be divorced from the beauty of the shoe.
Foot binding began as a luxury among the rich; it made the women more dependant on others and
less useful around the house. This was especially hard on the poor who needed help around the house or
farm. It soon became a prerequisite for marriage well.
-8“Women marrying into the patriarchal family could disrupt its stability by offering dissenting opinions about
the allocation of labor and goods within the family, or by simply refusing to accept patterns of authority and
interaction already established, and returning to their natal homes … footbinding functioned differently in the
premarital and post marital phases of female’s life” (Greenhalgh 13).
In fact, footbinding was even a just reason for a man to call off marriage if he found out that the woman that
had been arranged for him to marry did not have bound feet. This situation is very sad because there are
very few accounts of women who were successful. These women would end up suffering trying to work in
the fields tottering on their bound feet. A mother was obligated to bind her daughters’ feet or she almost
certainly would never get married. The bound foot woman had to walk with all of her weight on her heels
and tottered as she walked. For instance, Vento explains in her term paper the following:
“Within the areas and classes in which footbinding was widely accepted, a girl of marriageable age with
natural feet had only limited prospects for making a "good" marriage, one which reflected well on her family's
ability to raise her properly. Having a daughter with bound feet conferred many potential benefits both on the
girl and her family, transforming the biological disadvantage of being born female into a distinct social
advantage by increasing her opportunities for making a lucrative marriage … her selection in marriage was
the responsibility of her prospective mother-in-law, whose criterion for a good daughter-in-law was the
discipline that the bound foot represented, thus a daughter learned that she carried the reputations of both
her natal family and the family into which she married in the bind of her feet.” (3).
Although females were less valued in the traditional Chinese society, the family members may
have viewed footbinding as a good investment on their daughters. It may elevate the status of the family by
increasing her opportunity for making a lucrative marriage. In fact, footbinding offered not only the parents
some economical and political advantages of marrying their daughter into a rich family, but also the
daughter got some positive things.
The most immediate source of economic gain was the gift of money sent to the bride’s family from the
groom’s parents. Other potential sources of profit, such as loans or business deals with the son-in-law’s
family, were less immediate and hinged on a multitude of unforeseeable factors. Political benefits, however,
were more persuasive. For having relatives in office or even making contracts with influential people was the
best way to gain immunity from political exploitation. In addition to political gains for the family there were
advantages for the daughter, for the higher she married, the less degrading manual labor she would have to
perform” (Greenhalg 13).
Footbinding brought woman married life in two duties to fulfill in order to keep a good relationship
with her husband:
-91.
2.
“In realizing her primary function of reproduction, the young woman transgressed critical social
boundaries by the taint of uterine discharge and the introduction of her and her babies unfamiliar,
unsocialized bodies into the family to which she was married.
Footbinding prepared the young woman for the aggravation, pain, and dread associated with
menstruation, sexual consummation, pregnancy, and birthing” (Blake 648)
On the other hand, footbinding was a key of becoming beautiful by men’s eyes. “It was entwined
with all the key events in a woman’s life. Her maturation process was punctuated with the acts of binding
and the crafting of special shoes to contain her bound feet. These activities also entailed a woman’s
expression of her sense of beauty” (Broadwin 430). Later, footbinding had becomes a must for females
because unbound girls were considered unsuitable for marriage. A girl with natural feet had limited
opportunities for making a good marriage, one that reflected well on her family’s ability to raise her properly
(Vento 3). Because of the beauty of footbinding, tiny feet were more important than pretty face; for
example, “peasant daughters who could no afford to have their labor power impaired for life often swathed
their feet just prior to marriage and unbound the soon after” (Greenhalgh 14).
Bound feet became the emblem of femininity and eroticism through physical and linguistic violence
(Ping 4). The sexual play is often involved with oral consumption – the mount that kisses, bites, and licks
the tiny feet as well as the languages that dotes on them” (Ping 79). In other words, “the bound foot clearly
differentiated woman from man while simultaneously serving as an erotic object” (Harrison 2). However,
bound feet were compared to the “golden lotus”, which is characterized by grace and beauty. Bound feet
symbolize femininity, so women cannot be compared to the delicateness of the flower unless they have
their feet bound. Women having natural size feet were considered to be similar to men’s and it’s therefore
disgraceful and unattractive. “Sealing decay and death beneath its beautiful surface (wrapping and shoe as
masks); footbinding promises immortality; yet at the same time, the odor, shape, and euphemism of the
bound foot constantly reminds the fetish lovers of carnality, animality, death, and violence” (Ping 4).
“Flat shoes decorated with flowers in gold thread, high-heeled shoes which make a large pair of feet (five or
six inches) appear smaller, slippers with erotic scenes stitched inside as a form of wedding night sex
instruction: all are subject to the same impulse to collect and display” (Ross 312).
- 10 Women began to learn how to have disciple and obedience thought the practice of footbinding. For
instances, the mother began the transition into the discipline of the social world. “Chinese, nevertheless,
recognize that around the age of five or six, the child’s ability “to understand things” (dongshi) is sufficient
for the child to begin in earnest the discipline of the mindful body” (Blake 679). In fact, the correct female
behavior was based on her marriageability (Greenhalgh 12). During the second century A.D, the Precepts
for Women (Nu Chieh) codified the principle of male dominance in the three obediences (San Ts’ung) and
four virtues (Ssu Te). Greenhalgh points out the following:
“Before a woman is married, she must obey her father; when married she must live for her husband; and as
widow she must serve her sons. As one Chinese male put it, “the chief end of a woman in China is to live as
a good daughter, a good wife and good mother … (for) a true Chinese woman has no self.” The four virtues
that had to be learned were:
Woman’s Behavior: chaste and yielding, calm and upright.
Woman’s Speech: not talkative, yet agreeable.
Woman’s Carriage and Appearance: restrained and exquisite.
Woman’s Occupation: handiwork, embroidery” (12).
At the same time, footbinding was a way to achieve a good status and position in the Chinese
society. In fact, “A girl’s foot marked her as being from a particular region, as well as belonging to a
particular economic and / or cultural stratum” (Ross 313). “Children had no say in the choice of partner
and, one married, were pressured to remain in the joint family, where the senior male parent controlled all
family resources and the senior female parent controlled all domestic affairs” (Greenhalgh 12). In effect,
“from the standpoint of the girl’s family the optimal match was with a family moving up the ladder of status
and success” (Greenhalgh 13). In addition, footbinding had two purposes applied in the development of
Chinese society: “First, footbinding kept women in a hobbled and subservient domestic state; second, it
rendered them sex objects to satisfy certain perverted erotic fantasies of men” (Ko 8). Therefore,
“footbinding again supported the family system with its elevation of age over youth and male over female”
(Greenhalgh 15).
As footbinding restricted women physically, women are forced to stay at home and to be easily
dominated by her husband. It strengthened the Confucian ideal for a woman to be confined and subjugated
- 11 by men. The control of women’s mobility not only assured her chastity, but also prevented her from running
away or seeking help in the neighborhood. As a result, women must be passive and accept every whim and
desire of her husband. In most cases, women were only treated as sex objects for men’s satisfaction.
Women are being dehumanized. Because of this gender inequality, men are allowed to have as many
concubines as they want, while women should always be loyal to their husbands.
Footbinding covered all aspect of the core social, political, moral, and economic institution of
Chinese society:”The Chinese family was both the root and microcosm of a highly centralized and stratified
political system. “The root of the empire is in the state” … The root of the state is in the family” (Greenhalgh
11). “Feet and shoe were advertisement for upbringing, cultural level and accomplishment, family
background and temperament. Impossibly small, these feet were originally a source of great pride. Small
feet added prestige to a family” (Ross 313).
“Neo-Confucian though was long on its demand that female become virtuous and industrious while bending
to the will of male authority, but it was short on how this process of “becoming her body: should be
accomplished … Given the culturally exaggerated sense of a woman’s body as mediating space and given
the cultural necessity that a woman properly orient her body – that is, bend it to will of male authority – it is
reasonable that a girl’s way of signifying her womanhood should be conceptualized in bending the organs
that control space, spatial extension, and motion”(Blake 681).
In fact, footbinding was out of the interrogate for most women
“Destined to become wives in lower class households and very hard to achieve without substantial skill,
some natural attributes, and perhaps some luck. On the other hand, women’s positions in a hierarchy of
classes did not divide them into a binary bound / unbound distribution …it possible for dine gradations of
status to be displayed un women’s small feet and the varied footwear with covered them” (Turner 459).
Thus,
“Foot-binding was an integral part of that family system, and although it was a symbol of the leisured classes
to which people in all walks of life generally aspired, it did not necessarily exempt women from participation
in the system of economic production” (Blake 678).
By Chinese footbinding, “the size, shape, and convertings of a woman’s feet could place her within
a hierarchy of work ranked in prestige by the ability to perform it in relative seclusion” (Turner 458).
Women’s work was virtuous, womanly, requiring diligence, patience, and skills. However, Chinese women
did so many activities in order to keep the balance at their home, including heavy physical and outdoor field
- 12 work with bound feet. “Footbinding did more to mask than completely cripple the labor of women” (Turner
458). The traditional work of women was based on domestic-based sewing, spinning, embroidering, and
weaving (Blake 703). In fact, “agricultural work, while highly valued and frequently done by women, was
characterized, where footbinding was prevalent, by division of labor permitting women to work without
removing their shoes” (Turner 458). For instance, at the beginning of the 18th century, “peasant daughters
emulated the upper classes by binding, and although some Chinese people criticized the practice as
frivolous, women with bound feet could and did work” (Ruark 3). So women’s work had the meaning of
“collecting firewood or weeding, rather than standing knee-deep among the rice paddies, but even women
who stayed inside were always productive, crafting beautiful "Lotus shoes" of satin, silk, and cotton at home
or laboring in silk workshops” (Ruark 3). In the same way, “parents chose to fill the void between
themselves and their daughters, ordinary mothers were saddled with the task of teaching their daughters
the realities of a woman’s domestic roles” (Blake 698).
Thought one thousand years of footbinding, its practice was a violent act against women. Not only
did women have to face the physical pain transmitted since their childhood, but also they had to cover their
emotional and psychological pain. In fact, footbinding caused enormous pain and agony for Chinese
women; for example, each tune they tried to walk around the house, they encountered great difficulties.
Some of the other problems footbinding caused were the loss of toes and/or even death. If the woman's
feet were not properly bound, an insufficient amount of blood supply in the feet led to gangrene, causing
the decayed toes to fall off (Vento 2). In the article “Deformities of Childhood” by New York Times confirms
that “the practice of footbinding created an outside swelling of the abdomen, a line down the back due to
the muscle stress and the lumbar vertebrae would curve forward. Foot binding forced a woman to focus her
weight on her lower body putting a lot of pressure on the pelvis, which caused it to expand in diameter and
to lower the height of the pelvis. It also caused the sacrum to be longer and wider” (1). This practice not
- 13 only affected a woman with pain but it also affected her entire body causing it to become deformed as well.
For instance:
The skeleton of the human foot shows all the bones separates. This Chinese footbinding process bends the
toes underneath the instep … the large heel bone is changed from its horizontal position, the instep bones
are squeezed together, increasing the arch, and a short foot is produced … deformities – the bones of the
leg become not only smaller diameter, but smaller in length, because the foot, being cramped and the whole
structure of the leg, from the knee down … and the limb and foot became – to all but the Chinese mind – a
frightful deformity” (Deformities 1).
The most common health factor of footbinding is osteoporosis, which consumes most of the footbinding
population. It can also cause ulceration of the foot, paralysis, and gangrene. The consequence of
footbinding that is the least to occur but does is blood poisoning, which is deadly (Vento 2). Nonetheless, “if
this painful discipline between mothers and daughters became a “tradition”, it was represented and
recorded almost entirely in the male voice” (Blake 677).
Not only did little girls lead psychological and emotional pain, but also their parents had to struggle
against footbinding’s consequences. Little girls lost appetites and sleep at the beginning of practicing
footbinding. They tried to run away, hide, loosen their bandages, and endure beatings while attempting to
comply with their mother’s demands in order to escape from their reality (Blake 682). At the time of initial
process, only wealthy young girls received a body servant in order to look their personal needs during their
terrible nights of pain; consequently, these girls developed into a life-long relationship which provided
mutual psychological dependency, as well as comfort, affection and companionship (Vento 2). Likewise,
footbinding was ruinous to the mother – daughter relationship because the mother usually felt feelings of
guilt (Broadwin 422). Mothers had to balance their feelings between their love for their daughters and their
duties.
“According to Chang, if a mother took pity and stopped binding her daughter’s feet, the daughter would later
blame “for having been too weak and thus forcing the daughter to endure the contempt of her husband’s
family and the disapproval of society” (Broadwin 429).
“In the struggle with the mother over the painful, bloody, and terrifying labor of making the brute nature of her
feet materialize into an object of beauty, mystery, and discipline, the daughter formed a new selfconsciousness based outwardly on a sense of dependency and attachment to a male-dominated world and
that of the persons to whom she was attached” (Blake 683).
- 14 -
Some anti-footbinding speeches required “to cast footbinding as a horrible crime committed by
parents against their children” (Broadwin 422). Fathers began to feel sad when they saw their daughters
walking badly. There, they understood what place their daughters have to be in the world. This is why some
fathers in the late 1890’s began to stop having their daughters with bound feet, and supported antifootbinding movement.
Finally, footbinding was a synonym of death among Chinese women. In Late Imperial China, from
the Song era through the Qing, Neo-Confucians were concerned with the disruptions brought by
urbanization, anonymity and social change; for example, the reversal of hierarchies among family members
and between sexes or women refusing to marry. Despite the fact that footbinding was considered as the
essential symbol of female sexuality, it was deeply conserving of social and domestic hierarchies. The cult
of the exemplary woman in the Ming and Qing dynasties reached the most terrible self-mutilations and the
most shocking methods of suicide (Ping 69). For example, some women cut of their noses, ears, hair, or
arms; they also destroyed their faces – all in order to show their determination not to remarry or were raped
by soldiers or bandits. Also, some of them committed suicide in order to keep their chastity. In the present
of this situation, Ming and Qing scholars decided to collect and record these stories with great fervor and
passion in order to help to spread the cult to wide-reaching areas of China. Ping confirms:
The cultural fetishization of the female body through footbinding and the cult of the exemplary woman was
not a mere coincidental or isolated phenomenon, but was connected to the political, economic, and social
situations of late imperial China (69).
In conclusion, the painful custom “footbiding” controlled women's lifestyles and roles in the Chinese
society during one thousand years. Binding women's feet to the point of crippling confined them to their
home. This practice showed that in the Chinese family, the woman belonged in the house and had no place
in the outside world. Women were bound to patriarchy in the state society. Women were destined to be
mother, wife, lover and friend. If a woman were unfortunate to become unmarried, she was then prepared
- 15 through footbinding in order to become subservient to her father or whoever is the patriarch in the family,
who would take care of her for the rest of her life. In the same way, the world outside of the house business world-, belonged to the men who earned money for the family. In addition, footbinding and the cult
of the exemplary woman were the manners to maintain the Chinese culture, customs, identity, and
traditions; to keep the boundaries of hierarchy, gender, and sex; and to rectify language. However,
women’s bodies were the sites for both commercial and sexual consumption. Chinese female bodies had
been used successfully by men to perform the task often impossible crisis in order to idealize loyalty and
integrity. As a result, footbinding and the desirable female body were publicized, visible, and fetishized in
order to push the nation into a further. Finally, the pain endured during the early years would later prepare a
woman for the rigors of adult life that includes childbearing, rejection of one’s self, and pleasing the
husband.
WORKS CITED
Blake, C. Fred. “Foot-binding in Neo-Confucian China and the appropriation of female labor.” Signs:
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