Chinese footbinding

O'k guys, here's something crazy that totally blew my mind. Well I guess most of us knew from history lessons at least something about Chinese footbindings, what I personally did not know was the extent and cruelty of this crippling tradition. Let's start at the beginning: the legend goes that one of the Chinese emperors about a thousand years ago had a dancer who used to bind her feet to shape them into half moon to entertain her master. I don't know how she danced on those but the emperor was very pleased and since then it became more common for high class ladies to bind their feet. With time the tradition sipped thru to middle class and poor families thus encompassing the whole nation. The reason for women binding their feet went deeper than fashion and reflected the role of women in Chinese society. It was necessary then in China for a woman to have bound feet in order to achieve a good life. Approximately one billion women in China have preformed it for nearly one thousand years.

The process of footbinding started when girls were anywhere from four to seven years old. It was done so early in her life so that the arch did not have much time to develop. The mother who was the one to bind the feet, and usually started the process late in the fall or winter, so the foot would be numb and the pain would not be as severe. The daughters' feet would first be soaked in warm water or animal blood and herbs. The special potion that was used for this caused any dead flesh to fall off .She would have her toe nails cut as short as possible therefore not allowing them to grow into the foot. After she received a foot massage, the four smallest toes on each foot were broken. This was not even the worst of the pain. The mother soaked silk or cotton bandages in the same liquid the girl's feet were soaked in. The bandages, which were ten feet long and two inches wide, were wrapped around the smallest toes and pulled tightly to the heel. Every two days, the binding was removed and rebound. This part of the process went on for two years. By this time her feet were three to four inches long. To assure the feet staying small, the ritual continued for at least ten more years.

The process was very painful; every time the feet were rebound the bandages were pulled tighter. But besides just the pain of the process, there were many after affects that were detrimental to the young girls' health. The pain of the bound feet never stopped. The most common consequence was infection. One of appr. 10 girls died as the result.

Chinese footbinding was more than just an attempt to achieve beauty, it was a way of life for more than a billion women: weak and helpless. The tradition was finally abolished in 1911 after the revolution of Sun Yat-Sen.

The reason I did some research on it was a book by Lisa See "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" that describes lives of two girls in China. Reading that book was like entering a whole new world that was heartbreaking and magical at the same time.