The practice known as “lotus feet” originated in China in the 10th century and
involved binding and bandaging women's feet during childhood (to the point of
breaking the bones) in order to make them more attractive to men.
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Origin.
The practice originated in Nanjing at the beginning of the Song Dynasty
(937–975), where the city’s dancers were renowned for their small feet and
beautiful arched shoes. Folklore attributes this exact origin to a legend
featuring Emperor Li Yu and his favorite concubine, the dancer Yao Niang.
According to the story, the emperor ordered the construction of a large
golden platform shaped like a lotus flower and asked Yao Niang to bind her
feet with silk until they took the shape of a crescent moon. Upon seeing her
dance on tiptoe with delicate, graceful steps atop the golden lotus, the
other women of the court were so captivated that they began to bind their
feet to imitate her beauty and win imperial favor.
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| Yao Niang |
Foot-binding was first practiced among the elite and only in the wealthiest
and most prosperous regions of China. Binding the feet of girls from
high-society families signified their exemption from performing heavy labor,
which was reserved for women of lower social classes. It also indicated that
their future husbands were wealthy enough to afford to marry a lady whom
they could support, and that this wife would live solely to please her
husband and oversee the household servants. Therefore, being married to a
woman with lotus feet was also a sign of prestige for a man.
However, during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), the practice became widespread
and extended to nearly all social classes, except for the poorest groups,
who needed their daughters to work in the fields, and the Hakka ethnic
minority.
Beauty and social status.
In the early 19th century, it is estimated that 40–50% of Chinese women had
bound feet. Among upper-class women, this percentage was nearly 100%. It is
estimated that more than one billion Chinese women had their feet bound from
the late 10th century through the mid-20th century.
Bound feet were a symbol of beauty that became a prerequisite for finding a
husband, as well as an opportunity for poor women to marry for money,
thereby improving their social status and, consequently, that of their
families. Women, their families, and their husbands took great pride in
small feet, the ideal length of which, known as the “golden lotus”, was
seven centimeters. This pride was reflected in the elegantly embroidered
silk slippers that women wore to cover their deformed feet. Walking with
bound feet required bending the knees slightly and swaying to maintain
balance. This resulted in a gait that was considered highly refined.
Variants.
Foot-binding was practiced in different ways, and in some areas of China it
was not practiced at all. Some groups practiced loose binding, which did not
break the bones of the arch or the toes but simply made the foot narrower.
The Hakka, for example, did not practice foot-binding. In contrast, among
the Hui in Gansu Province, it was a mandatory custom. The lotus foot was so
deeply ingrained among the Hui that the Dungan people, their descendants
settled in Central Asia, also practiced foot-binding and did not abandon the
custom until the mid-20th century. In Canton, the Westerner James Legge
found a mosque where leaflets denouncing foot-binding were being
distributed, on the grounds that Islam did not permit it because it
constituted a violation of Allah’s creation.
Manchu women were forbidden to bind their feet by an imperial decree issued
in 1644, when the Manchus began their rule over China. Since the “lotus
foot” was already a deeply entrenched practice, the Manchus, who also found
the distinctive gait of women with bound feet attractive, invented a type of
women’s shoe to emulate it without resorting to foot binding. These shoes
forced women to sway as they walked to maintain their balance, much like
ladies with bound feet. These shoes, called “flower baskets,” rested on high
platforms usually made of wood or had a small central pedestal. Thus,
whether or not their feet were actually bound became an important
distinguishing feature between Manchu and Han women.
The cone-shaped shoes were meant to represent a lotus bud. Delicately
crafted from cotton or silk, they were small enough to fit in the palm of
the hand. Some designs featured wooden heels or insoles. They were made in a
variety of styles and colors. They were also richly embroidered with animal
and floral motifs. The wooden insoles or heels of some models were lined
with embroidered fabric as well. Some designs fit only over the tip of the
foot, creating the illusion that the foot was even smaller when hidden
beneath a long skirt. Today, examples of many lotus shoes still remain,
treasured by museums and private collections as works of art and as
reminders of a practice that has since died out.
Many lower-middle-class women with bound feet were, in fact, able to walk
and work in the fields, although with many limitations compared to women
with normal feet. They had greater mobility because they were usually women
who had undergone foot binding using the “loose bandage” method, which
merely narrowed and tapered the foot without actually breaking or bending
it. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, bound-foot dancers were very
popular, as were circus performers who rode standing up on galloping horses.
In the 1980s, a group of elderly women with lotus feet from Yunnan Province
formed an internationally renowned dance troupe to perform for foreign
tourists. In other rural areas of China, well into the 21st century, one can
still find women in their 80s or 90s providing limited assistance to workers
in the rice paddies.
The painful process.
The process began before the girls’ arches had a chance to fully develop.
The binding began at an early age, between 2 and 5 years old, and the
painful process lasted for several years. It usually began during the winter
months, since the feet would be numb from the cold and the pain would not be
as severe.
First, each foot was washed and immersed in a hot mixture of herbs and
animal blood: this was done to soften the foot and make bandaging easier.
Then the toenails were cut flush to prevent them from piercing the sole of
the foot as they grew, since after bandaging the tips of the toes would
point toward the sole and could cause infections. The cotton bandages, 3
meters long and 5 centimeters wide, were prepared by soaking them in the
same mixture of herbs and animal blood. To reduce the size of the foot, the
toes of each foot were bent and pressed firmly against the sole until they
were broken.
The broken toes were held tightly against the sole of the foot while the
foot was stretched downward, forming a straight line with the rest of the
leg. The arch was forcibly broken. The bandages were repeatedly tied in a
figure-eight pattern, starting on the inside of the foot at the instep,
passing over the toes, then under the foot, and around the heel. The freshly
fractured toes were pressed firmly against the sole. With each turn of the
bandage, the wrap tightened further, squeezing the instep and heel together.
This caused the broken foot to bend at the arch, with the toes ending up
beneath that bend.
The girls’ bound feet required great care and attention. They were unwrapped
regularly. Each time a foot was unbandaged, it had to be washed thoroughly,
the toes checked for wounds, and the nails carefully trimmed. They were then
massaged to soften them and make the joints and bones more flexible. It was
also customary to soak them in a mixture so that any necrotic tissue, if
present, would slough off.
Immediately after this procedure, the girl’s bound toes were folded under
her foot again, and the bandaging was repeated. This process of bandaging
and unwrapping was repeated as often as possible (for the wealthy, at least
once a day; for those of more modest means, two or three times a week). It
was generally the older women of the family or a professional who performed
the initial breaking of the bones and the subsequent bandaging of the feet.
This was considered preferable to having the mother do it, since she might
feel guilty about her daughter’s suffering and would be less willing to
apply the bandages properly.
Risks.
The most common problem with bandaged feet was infection. Despite the
regular care taken, such as washing and trimming the nails, they often
became ingrown and infected. For this reason, girls’ nails were often
removed entirely. The tightness of the bandage compromised circulation in
the toes, which was practically cut off; therefore, any wound had very
little chance of healing. This led to infections and necrosis.
If the infection in the finger tissues spread to the phalanges, causing them
to soften, it led to necrosis and amputation. However, the loss of fingers
was considered beneficial because the bandages could be applied even more
tightly, making the foot even smaller. For girls whose toes were fleshier,
pieces of glass or roof tiles were sometimes placed inside the bandage and
between the toes to deliberately cause a cut and infection. The wound was
inevitably followed by infection, which could lead to death from septic
shock. Girls who survived these infections were at greater risk of medical
complications as they grew older, since these infections damaged their
internal organs.
At the beginning of the binding process, many of the foot bones remained
broken for years. Over time, the bones eventually fused together, especially
as the bone tissue hardened after the growth phase. Even after the feet had
healed from infections, they were prone to breaking again, especially as the
girl went through her teenage years and her bones were still soft. Adult
women were more likely to break their hips and other bones due to falls, as
their gait was unsteady and they had difficulty standing up from a seated
position.
Another characteristic of women with bound feet was their limited mobility
and, consequently, their inability to participate in political and social
life. Bound feet made women dependent on their families, particularly
their husbands. They became a cherished symbol of chastity and male
ownership, since women were confined to their homes and could not venture
far without an escort or the help of servants.
Lotus Feet and Sexuality.
Bound feet were considered intensely erotic in ancient Chinese culture, and
women with perfect lotus feet were much more likely to secure a more
prestigious marriage than those with natural feet. Sexual manuals from the
Qing Dynasty listed 48 different ways to play with bound feet. Some husbands
preferred never to see their wives’ lotus feet naked. In these cases, they
were always hidden inside small, richly embroidered lotus shoes. For men,
the erotic beauty of bound feet did not correspond to their unpleasant
physical reality, which, therefore, had to be kept hidden in order to keep
the fantasy alive.
The main erotic effect was the “lotus gait”: the small steps, the swaying
and fragile walk of a woman whose feet had been bound. Women with such
deformed feet avoided putting their body weight on the balls of their feet
and tended to walk predominantly on their heels. As a result, women who had
undergone the binding process walked carefully and with a faltering gait.
The fact that the bound foot was hidden from men’s eyes was sexually
stimulating. In addition to concealing the harsh reality of the deformed
foot, this also prevented the more than likely foul odor it would have given
off. Various microorganisms colonized the deep folds formed in the arch of
the foot and between the toes; even if a woman practiced good hygiene,
washing and drying the area was difficult, so it could not be thoroughly
cleaned.
The end of the Practice.
In 1874, sixty Christian women in Xiamen organized a movement to end the
practice of foot-binding. A few years later, in 1883, this cause was taken
up by the Christian Women’s Temperance Movement and championed by the
Christian missionary Timothy Richard, who argued that Christianity could
promote gender equality.
A new generation of Chinese, who had access to college education and had
traveled throughout Europe, began to realize that this aspect of their
culture represented a step backward in China’s modernization; social
Darwinists claimed that it weakened the nation because women, hindered by
the bound feet, would supposedly give birth to weak children. Feminists
attacked the practice because it caused women suffering and prevented them
from working toward their emancipation. At the turn of the 20th century,
women such as Kwan Siew-Wah (known in the West as Brigitte Kwan), a
pioneering feminist, dedicated themselves to the fight to end foot-binding.
There were also edicts that sought to end foot-binding. Empress Cixi, who
was Manchu, issued one such edict following the Boxer Rebellion, but it was
repealed shortly thereafter. Foot-binding was also banned in 1902 by new
imperial edicts issued by the Qing Dynasty.
In 1912, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the new Nationalist government
of the Republic of China once again banned foot-binding, although, like its
predecessors, it was not always successful. In Taiwan, foot-binding was
banned by the Japanese administration in 1915. Some families who opposed the
practice entered into contractual agreements with one another, promising to
marry their sons to daughters whose feet had not been bound. When the
Communists took power in 1949, they established a strict and definitive ban
on foot-binding, including in isolated rural areas where previous bans had
been ignored.
Although the custom disappeared relatively quickly in large cities, it
continued underground in many rural areas. It was not until the arrival of
Mao Zedong’s government in the mid-20th century that the practice was
completely eradicated through strict inspections, bans on the manufacture of
the special shoes, and re-education campaigns.
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