The Golden Lotus: A Review of Chinese Foot Binding

Across the globe men and women practice a series of biocultural modifications as directed by the cultural norms that they follow.  These practices are meant to convey a specific status, ethnicity, beauty standard, or other message.  As previously discussed on this blog there is a price to pay to meet cultural beauty standards, particularly among women.  This price may not necessarily be monetary in nature but instead is related to negative health outcomes from changing the natural form of one’s body.  Manipulating the female body was common practice for the Chinese for many centuries, and today’s blog post will discuss the practice of foot binding, aka Chinese Lotus Foot (Figure 1).  A review of the origins, purpose, methods, and ultimate end of the practice will be addressed herein.  Before you go much further, however, readers are warned that this post does contain graphic content and images that may make you uncomfortable, so please read this post at your own discretion.

Figure 1: Zhang Yun Ying shows off her Lotus Feet (Photographed by Jo Farrell)

The practice of binding women’s feet in China began sometime between A.D. 961-975.  Historical evidence suggests that the Emperor’s concubine, who was a devoted dancer in his court, had bound feet, which were required for her to participate in certain dances.  He was so enamored by her feet that he claimed that by being in contact with them he reached new levels of sexual pleasure that he had not previously experienced.  Shortly thereafter elite women began to have their feet bound to mimic that same level of attractiveness and foster that level of sexual prowess the Emperor’s concubine boasted.  Bound feet became a symbol of beauty, sexual prowess, and elite status.  As time went on lower class women began binding the feet of their daughters in order to ensure their place among upper class families through marriage.  These ideas prevailed until the eventual ban of the practice by the British and Communists in the early 20^th century.  Several cultural informants reported the loss of successful marriage opportunities and feeling less attractive when they were no longer allowed to bind their feet. 

Figure 2: Changes to the anatomy of the foot related to foot binding

Similar to many other biocultural modifications foot binding started during childhood.  Some girls started as early as age five while others began the practice during their adolescence.  The average ages for when foot binding occurred was from six to eight years of age.  The process involved a series of steps, first beginning with the ritual bathing of the feet.  The feet would be massaged with oils and toe nails clipped.  Either the eldest women of the household or a professional foot binder would be responsible for reshaping the foot, which involved breaking of the toes and other parts of the foot.  These would be bent under the foot into the arch, which would also eventually be broken through this multi-step process, and bringing all of the parts of the foot together for a tiny, crescent shape (Figure 2).  The foot would then be tightly bound in ten feet of silk wrappings and covered with special lotus shoes (Figure 3).  The feet would be cleaned every few days to reduce infection, but these remained common and many women lost toes as a result of the practice. 

Figure 3: Lotus Shoe

It is estimated that millions (although potentially billions) of women underwent this exercise in order to ensure a suitable marriage partner.  Families who could afford a matchmaker for their sons would often only request one thing of their future daughters-in-law: the golden lotus.  This referred to the size of the foot and smaller was considered better.  The golden lotus foot was no more than 3 inches in length and considered paramount in providing sexual pleasure to men.  Feet that were four inches in length were known as a silver lotus and less desired.  Women with feet five inches or longer were considered to have iron lotuses and not considered proper marriage partners.  They were typically married off to lower status households, thereby ensuring a poor lifestyle and marriage.  Because of the emphasis on marrying well women often encouraged the pain and sacrifice, which included loss of appetite, an inability to move during the process, and reduced mobility afterwards, incurred by this practice to ensure a happy and prosperous marriage, although that did not always work out even for women with the golden lotus feet.  One cultural informant reported that she was married off to a wealth man with an opium addiction, which left her very unhappy.

The practice was banned in the early 20^th century, first by the British and later by the Communists.  The British would send out agents who would inspect women’s feet, but they did a poor job of this as the practice continued in secret for several years.  The Communists, however, were more thorough in their investigations.  They demanded to see women’s feet and would remove the bindings when they found feet bound.  They also levied heavy fines against families who continued the practice.  As a result the only women who still have bound feet are elderly women, and they and their stories are disappearing as they pass away from old age.  Cultural anthropologists, archaeologist, and historians have managed to collect the stories and historical records of this practice, providing us a rich collection of materials on this topic that we can draw upon to learn about and understand this practice.  While the practice has been long discontinued it does provide us with a great deal of insights into the values of Chinese culture, and how we, as humans across the globe, still equate beauty with pain.

References

Cartwright, M. (2017, September 27). Foot-Binding. Retrieved from Ancient History Encyclopedia: https://www.ancient.eu/Foot-Binding/

Foreman, A. (2015, February). Why Footbinding Persisted in China for a Millennium. Retrieved from Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-footbinding-persisted-china-millennium-180953971/

Lim, L. (2007, March 19). Painful Memories for China's Footbinding Survivors. Retrieved from NPR: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942

No, A. (No Date.). Chinese Girl with Bound Feet. Retrieved from The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco: http://www.sfmuseum.org/chin/foot.html

Xiu-ying, L. (2007). Women with Bound Feet in China. Retrieved from Historical Collections at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library University of Virginia: http://exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/clothes/lady_bound/