Now, onto the subject today: Chinese Footbinding. This is something I have been interested and fascinated by (almost obsessively) for years. For those of you who don't know what it is, let me explain. Foot binding is the act of breaking and reshaping the foot into a more "desirable" size, in this case, a smaller size. "3 inch golden lotuses", feet not longer than a standard deck of cards, were considered the most perfect feet that you could obtain. How did they do this? With a lot of pain, over a very long period of time. The result left the woman crippled for the rest of her life, barely able to move around the house.
Foot binding began at a very young age, though it was different from county to county. The most common age I have read about is 6. To begin the process, the girls feet were soaked in warm water with herbs and sometimes animal blood and other things. You need to keep in mind that the people of China in this time were very spiritual, so somethings were thought to help based on ideas, not necessarily on the actual effectiveness. Her nails would be cut back as far as possible (to keep them from growing into the skin) and then the process would begin. Using binding cloths, which were just long pieces of fabric, the girls toes (all but the big toes) would be bound under her foot and secured there. The goal was to get the pinkie toe to touch the arch on the opposite side of the foot, I say this so that you can imagine more vividly where the toes were being placed.
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| This woman is pointing to the cleft in her foot, and her pinkie toe. |
After the girls toes were bound on both feet they were forced to get up and walk. Every day after this would be the same for years until their feet were finished. The above picture is a good example of what finished bound feet looked like. In order for this to be achieved, all the toes but the big one, and most of the bones in the foot would be broken either from the pressure of walking back and forth across the rooms of their house, or by using rocks or more force if the bones were more stubborn. 1 in 10 girls died from this process, whether from blood poisoning or other sickness. This was not considered a loss though, because in this time and age, women were only worth their number of sons or the amount of money they could bring in when married off to a higher family. Only by having "beautiful" bound feet could a woman make a better life for herself.
I will in the future write more about this subject, but I just felt like I had to write a little something now. I want people to see this and become intrigued on the subject, and hopefully they will set out to learn more. :)
