Foot binding of young women´s feet was a custom in China for a thousand years from 10th Century, until it was forbidden in the 20th century with the founding of People´s Republic of China. It started in the royal palaces and later spread to wealthy families and then further to the common people. (Splendid slippers (2000), by Beverly Jackson). It is a painful procedure of binding the toes, breaking and bending them beneath the foot to make the foot smaller with a pointed shape. Millions of Chinese women endured the binding and breaking of bones through centuries. And the foot binding was carried out by mothers, on daughters, for the pleasure of men.
You can find a detailed description of the procedures of foot binding in the book (and the movie) Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005) by Lisa See. Karin and Jie were both deeply moved by the book when reading it some years ago.
Jie: The description of binding the feet of the six-year old girls in the book was heartbreaking to read. It used to be a terrible tradition in old China. My great-grandmother also had tiny bound feet, but I was too young to notice it then.
Ballet dancing with bound feet
The start of the tradition of bound feet seems to be some kind of ballet dancing (like our western ballerinas) performed by a concubine to Prince Li Yu in the Ten Kingdom period in Southern China. And it spread as a fashion and a way to reach high status for women. The belief was that a girl would not get married if she hadn´t tiny bound feet. It was also a way for the men to control the women, since the women could not walk easily with the bound feet. They were “helpless” and dependent, which aligned with Confucian values of women being subordinate to men. (Splendid slippers (2000), by Beverly Jackson).
Lotus bud
Lotus feet
The shape of the feet was supposed to resemble a lotus flower bud with a thin point at the front.They were fitted into special tiny embroidered shoes. Three inches was a desirable size. Sometimes they were bigger.
Tiny lotus shaped shoes
Tiny silk shoes
Red miniature shoes for Kuan Yin
When the foot binding process was to begin, the mother made red miniature shoes, which was brought to the altar of the goddess Kuan Yin at a temple together with offerings of fruit and special red bean dumplings. Prayers would be said to wish for a successful result of the foot binding.
Western high heels shoes – cultural difference or similarity?
Karin: What has come to my mind is that the western fashion of high heel shoes with very narrow front is actually the same thing. Although we haven’t had the binding and deformation of feet, it is not the most comfortable shoes to wear.
Jie: Oh, I think this is an interesting topic! A cultural difference!
Karin: Why?? I would say a cultural similarity!
Jie: High heels was invented by Louis 14th in France, in purpose of increasing one’s charm, which eventually became popular, while binding feet is for men’s interest totally—that’s what I call a cultural difference. Although I think it is also a cultural similarity, and I do believe you can always find both cultural difference and similarity in one thing.
Karin: Ok, I agree, there is a difference since high heels is a more voluntary choice by women in adult age, but still to the men’s appeal, don’t you think? And the beauty ideal is about the same.
Jie: Yes, I agree. What’s interesting is that, after generations of women rights development, Chinese women no longer suffer from the pain of binding feet, but now they voluntarily suffer for beauty!
Karin: It makes me think of you climbing the mountain in Kunming with your high heel shoes! Do you remember that? (See our previous blog , January 2011). You had to buy a pair of traditional flat cloth shoes to survive the day! Haha!
Jie. Won’t forget it! I was so stupid to wear high heels climbing the mountain! (and I remember I kept murmuring ‘if they sell comfortable shoes here…’, and they did!) Anyway, women seems to be willing to suffer for beauty!
Traditional cloth shoes
Jie&Karin
Swedish eyes, Chinese mind 