~Foot Binding in China~

Foot binding was a custom practiced on young girls and women for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the first half of the 20th century. Foot binding resulted in life long disabilities for most of its subjects. Some effects of foot binding were permanent, especially if a girl's arches or toes had been broken or other drastic measures taken in order to achieve the desired smallness. Multiple theories attempt to explain the origin of foot binding from the desire to emulate the naturally tiny feet of a favored concubine prince. Foot binding was first practiced 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. By the 17th century, everything had changed. The economic and social attractions of such women may have well translated into sexual desirability among elite men. During this time, 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 women had their feet bound. Foot binding was eventually outlawed by the Communists. Binding the feet involved breaking of the arch of the foot, which ultimately left a crevice approximately 5 cm deep, which was considered most desirable. While this 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 fields, and climb to mountain homes from valleys below. When foot binding was popular and customary, women and their families and husbands took great pride in their tiny feet. 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 walk was considered sexually exciting by men. There had been earlier, but unsuccessful attempts to stop the practice of foot binding; various emperors issued unsuccessful edicts against it. The Empress Dowager Cixi issued such an edict following the Boxer Rebellion in order to appease foreigners, but it was rescinded a short time later. In 1912, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the new Republic of China government banned foot binding. Women were told to unwrap their feet or else they would be killed. Some women's feet grew 1 - 3 cm 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 of 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.