Conversation:

I had no idea just how this was done - I had thought they were just bound around to stop them growing, I had no idea about the folding.

Yet another reason to be glad to be born in the latter half of the 20th Century into a culture where the emancipation of women is just about universally accepted.

Must agree

Pimms

I'll third that!

And you're absolutely right when us ladies complain about a day in high heels. The strange thing is, whilst I was reading about the method, all I wanted to do was to curl my own feet up

THis is a shocking, but fascinating article. Unfortunately I now fel sick, but that is down to the process (I refuse to call it art) of footbinding, rather than the writing.

The only thing that I think is missing is the answer to the question - can a bound foot ever be unbound? I read 'A Small Woman' when I was a child, and I remember her unbinding children's feet, but I don't remember if it was possible to release feet that had been bound for decades.

Yep... definitely more than I really wanted to know. I remember seeing a show on this subject a LONG time ago. I couldn't watch much of it after what bound feet looked like. Mina, I really don't think bound feet could be 'unbound' without some serious surgery and even then they'd still be mishappen. Knowing how little can be done to correct the effects of rheumatiod arthritis I can't see much more success for bound feet.

Count Zero

Oh and Farlander. Yet another excellent article.

i agree that it was a very informative read.

Yeah, there was a programme on a few years back, think it was on BBC2. They talked about the study mentioned in the entry and showed the bound feet of some of the elderly Chinese women. I felt so sorry for them and counted my blessings (as I still do) that here in the West us women have had it so much better than most.

I was so engrossed in the article that I am now late for work.

?New Italic??? Hiya Dharmesh. I've never seen you around abouts here before. 'Course it is a big place. Anyway, nice to meet ya.


Count Zero, "When dead sailors pass in the night, they're sometimes scared shipless!"

thanks to everybody who read this!

mina, count zero - to answer your question about whether bound feet can be undone: yes, to a certain extent it *can* (that's why the practice continues for years after the perfect 'shape' has been attained), but if you're talking about whether the feet can ever look normal again, that would be a definite NO. i think that once the bones are broken and set and healed in that conformation, they are unable to return to their original conformation. my aunt has a good friend whose husband is from china. *his* mother had bound feet. i remember them particularly well because we used to pay their family visits when i was a kid, and i used to hate going because i got the heebie-jeebies from looking at her contorted feet.


(she lived to be about 110, by the way)

Yes...

I remember seeing that programme and the feet were disgusting. This may sound horrific but they remind me of malformed feotus limbs. Just reading this article had my skin crawling and feeling sick, not an easy task!

I can't remember which ancient culture it was but they bound the heads of the infant royal males which "coned" their skulls. It made it very clear who was royal and who wasn't.

No doubt some time in the future, they will look back at some of our cosmetic surgery like breast enhancement and look at with equal revultion.