Chinese Foot Binding
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and traditionally, the Chinese ideal of feminine beauty is of the petite, demure woman, theatrically decorated and utterly helpless. Somehow, from this notion emerged the practice of foot-binding, the ideal result of which is a tiny, hoof-like foot that adds to the general presentation of a delicate woman.
Beauty certainly is in the eye of the beholder. The origin of the practice is, of course, obscure, but the most popular parable associated with it is that of the ‘Lotus Dancer’, a favorite consort of the Southern Qi Emperor Xiao Baojuan (483-501) who danced barefoot on a floor decorated with lotus motifs. The king remarked that ‘lotus springs from her every step’. This was a reference to the Buddhist legend of ‘Padmavati’, from beneath whose feet the lotus springs. There is some anecdotal support for this in the fact that the ideal of bound feet is the ‘Lotus foot’ or ‘Lotus feet’.
There were numerous variations of achieving the essential result, but basically, at an age between four and nine years old, the process would start. Normally it would begin in winter, when the feet would be numbed by cold, and therefore the initial pain would be less extreme. First, each foot would be soaked in a combination of warm animal blood and herbs, presumably to soften the foot, after which the toenails were cut back as far as possible to avoid future ingrowth, and all of the likely problems that would accrue from that. After that, the feet were tightly bound by cotton bandages soaked in the same mixture. The toes were curled against the sole of the foot, and pressed with significant force until the toes broke. The broken toes were then pressed firmly against the sole of the foot until eventually the arch broke.
The whole process was meticulous. Each time the feet were unbound to be inspected, they were cleaned, the nails trimmed and rebound to continue the process. The whole macabre business went on until the desired outcome was achieved, by which time all natural feeling had been lost in the foot.
The practice was apparently pursued simply for erotic appeal of small feet. Qing Dynasty sex manuals, for example, list forty-eight different ways of playing with women’s bound feet. Usually the feet remained encased in tiny ‘lotus’ shoes, because, while this was an ideal of beauty, there really was nothing beautiful about a mutilated foot when uncovered. The lotus walk, the tiny steps and swaying gait, was also regarded as erotic.
The practice began to slip into decline in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, mainly through the efforts of social reformers and missionaries, although it remained widespread until the early 20th century. In 1912 it was banned, and thereafter actively discouraged. As China progressed towards the Cultural Revolution, it was seen as evidence of Chinese retrogression and backwardness.
Recent research has concluded that women with bound feet were not kept simply as sex trophies, although many were, but also they were debilitated so that that could be encouraged to sit and work at tedious jobs like weaving or sewing for long periods.
Either way, there are still Chinese women, born in the 1930s and 1940s, whose feet were bound, and so evidence of this strange and persistent practice can still be seen today.