Footbinding – an iniquitous Chinese custom

Both my paternal and maternal grandmothers had their feet bound when they were quite young.  My paternal grandmother particularly, as she was born in an exceptionally wealthy family, one that had past links with the imperial family.  Her huge family mansion boasts ninety-nine doors and it still stands today.  All girls of noble birth had their feet bound early, as they were sought after as wives for families of equal nobility or wealth.

My grandmother often spoke of her memory of her feet being bound at the age of seven.  Her childhood ended then and she stopped being able to run.  In fact she could not even walk without help, as to place her feet on the ground would be excruciating, 'like being set on fire".    

A professional foot-binding woman was hired to do the task, as few mothers would be able to bear the screams of their beloved daughters as their bones were broken, and the feet then tightly bound to stop their growth.  Girls of 'ordinary' families who could not afford this service usually had their feet bound by their mothers or female relatives, and their feet seldom reach the sought-after "three-inch lotus" status; as with my maternal grandmother.  Her mother had tearfully loosened the bindings just a little at the entreaties of her suffering daughter…

This article was first written for Chinatown - The Magazine.

Footbinding – An iniquitous Chinese custom

Today one rarely sees a Chinese woman who has bound feet. This deplorable practice is now dead, yet footbinding lasted for more than a thousand years, surviving dynastic changes, and surreptitiously continued even in early 1930s in defiance of the 1902 governmental decree banning its practice. 

The custom of footbinding probably originated towards the end of the Tang dynasty (618 – 907).  But footbinding was more than just a custom; it is one of the elements belonging to the central problem of the position and role of women in Chinese society.  It is a vivid symbol of the subjection of women and was an integral part of a patriarchal society that demanded women obey a strict and comprehensive moral code.  A woman of virtue was expected to passively accept her role as an intellectual inferior.  She engaged only in approved hobbies and household tasks, and was confined within the women’s quarters, largely ignorant of the outside world. 

The preference for small feet in Chinese women stretched from antiquity to the recent past and was poetically expressed in odes and songs. The admiration of women who walked with small and measured steps was a social code of feminine behaviour that stressed gracefulness and poise, gentility and refinement.  Another reason why this custom survived for so long was its profound sexual appeal to the Chinese male, where small feet are exalted as “Golden Lotus”. In actual fact, footbound women often hobbled about with difficulty as a result of this virtual crippling.  They were physically unable to move about freely and this act as a restraining device for the suppression of women.  The possibility of improper behaviour was also greatly reduced in a society where feminine chastity was a vital part of moral standard.

Footbinding was carried out in early childhood (between the ages of 5 to 8) to ‘girls of good birth’, and involves the application of a length of bandage about 2 inch wide and 10 foot long.  One end of the bandage is placed on the inside of the instep, and from there it is pulled over the small toes so as to force the toes in and towards the sole.  The big toe is left unbound.  The bandage is then wrapped around the heel forcefully so that the toes and heel are drawn close together.  This process is repeated until the entire bandage is used.  The object was not merely to confine the foot but to make the toes bend under and into the sole and bring the sole and heel as closely as was physically possible. The feet of the young child were therefore subjected to a coercive and unrelenting pressure, the flesh often became putrescent and the acute pain continued for up to two years before becoming dead and numb.  

The eventual elimination of footbinding resulted directly from the drive to emancipate Chinese women from the age-old inheritance of social inequality.  The natural–foot movement in the 1890s was initiated by liberal reformers and champions of women’s rights.  By the early twentieth century, powerful officials and influential statesmen were giving it increasingly open support.  A major factor in bringing the evils of footbinding to a larger audience was the missionary community, which worked tirelessly for this cause and gradually influenced public opinion against it.  The practice was deemed unlawful and banned in 1902, bringing an end to a unique contribution by Chinese culture to the history of feminine suffering.