Every step a Lotus, Shoes for Bound Feet

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In Every Step a Lotus, Shoes for Bound Feet, Dorothy Ko uses material culture embroidered slippersto reconstruct women's lives. FOOT BINDING in China, a fascinating topic that I had not heard of before I read this book. Its the binding of the feet for young girls, extremely painfully tight, to prevent further growth. She explains its origins, purpose, and spread before the nineteenth century. Her book is a catalogue exhibition, as well, that lavishly illustrates tons of pictures of the shoes, the binding and the shoemaking tools-- the procedures, the wealth of symbolism in the shoes and its decorations. Neither condemning nor defending foot-binding, Dorothy Ko discredits some simplistic popular notions about foot binding, exploring in the process the entanglements of male power and female desires during the practice's thousand-year history. Dorothy Ko expresses that for a woman living in that era, where foot binding was in demand, it was a reasonable course of action to take as it was ones culture and it placed highest moral value on domesticity, motherhood, and handwork. Ko explains that we should not see it as a senseless act of deformation but as a meaningful way in which Chinese women adapted to a mans world. For the women, foot binding was a significant female rite of passage that introduced girls to their gender roles as women. In Every Step a Lotus, Ko reveals the symbolic meanings that underlay this form of material culture, she uses a variety of sources. For example, she examines not only the historic artifacts themselves (the shoes) but also the written texts (poetry) that provide a context for the meanings attributed to the shoes and the foot binding practice. Ko thus lets the women speak for themselves by using their own words. Through this methodology, she examines a cultural phenomenon that is the result of the interaction of gender relations in a Confucian society where domesticity and finely embroidered textiles were symbolic of female virtue.
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The lotus shoe is a private object with public significance. As such, it opens the door to a rich and meaningful world to women. In chapter 4, The Speaking Shoe, Ko shows how women, working on and with their bodies, invested shoes with personal and communal meanings which continue to speak today. Reading shoes as texts, Ko interprets what they tell us about womens art, history, hopes, and bodily experience. Foot binding reshaped a womans body and the image that she presented. Shoes are cunningly designed to present the illusion of even smaller feet. Decorations include visual puns that participate in the broader cultural language of signs and symbols. The social life of shoes also reveals meanings. Regional variation, immediately evident to the connoisseur, expresses differences in climate, taste, local tradition, and ethnicity. Subject to fashion, styles of shoes change over time. Products of womens hands, they continually testify to the talent and skill of their makers. Chapter 5, A New World, discusses through the eyes of the reformers and foreigners. In the nineteenth century, photographic documentation of the flesh-and-blood bound feet brought global scrutiny to the practice of foot. As reformers inside and outside China struggled to terminate the practice, bound-foot shoes changed with the times. Before the practice was abolished, new and hybrid styles emerged in answer to new cultural demands. Foot binding was a custom throughout the tenth century and lasted into the twentieth. There are several legends that endeavor to account for the inception of this custom; one is that the concubine of a Chinese prince named Yao Niang walked so gracefully that it seemed as if she "skimmed over the top of golden lilies." At that time the "lily footed woman" or a woman with bound feet became the model in China. A second legend says that this concubine, Yao Niang, was ordered to bind her feet so that her feet would look like new moons. Another account is that foot binding was made stylish by court dancers. However, this seems somewhat unlikely
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because women with bound feet had a hard time walking let alone dancing. The origin of foot binding may not be clear, however the results or after affects are apparent. Foot binding stopped concubines and wives of the rich from straying or running away from beatings. Confucian teachings at this time stressed the superior status of men over women as a basic element of social order and this was certainly an effective method of restraint. In later centuries, it became more popular and spread from court circles to the wealthy. Eventually, it moved from the cities to the countryside, where young girls realized that binding their feet could be their passport to social mobility and increased wealth. It was as much a part of growing up for many Chinese girls as puberty. There were places in China where people once believed that natural "fan footed" women did not exist, that they were merely a legend. Bound feet was a mark of beauty that became a prerequisite for finding a husband and making their families proud. The shoes were elegantly embroidered silk slippers. A woman to walk on bound feet needed to bend her knees slightly and would have to sway to maintain balance and movement, this act was considered sexually enticing to men. Bound feet due to the dainty walk became a symbol of chastity. The thinking was that the bound foot, once it was formed, could not be unlocked like a chastity belt. Speaking of chastity, bound feet became a major erotic zone. It was believed that the way foot binding made a woman walk strengthened the vagina and made it narrower. Poetry and writings from this period express a great infatuation even an obsession bordering on perversion, for small feet. There was also a large number of pornographic paintings and engravings with scenes of men fondling women's feet. Ancient love manuals outlined the sensual pleasures of the bound foot and illustrated countless positions in which they could be fondled and caressed. While the naked feet deformed and camouflaged by binding cloth were rarely, if ever, revealed 3

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even in the most intimate company - women took great care and attention in making shoes to cover them. Considered part of a woman's intimate apparel, the color of shoe and style of embroidery often held great significance, and they were often perfumed or clad with jingling bells and ankle bracelets to attract attention. An unflattering figure or facial flaws were overlooked if a woman's feet appealed to the man's libido. However, women were not hapless victims because of this tradition. Ko describes how womenthose who could afford itbound their own and their daughters' feet to signal their high status and self-respect. Femininity, like the binding of feet, was associated with bodily labor and domestic work, and properly bound feet and beautifully made shoes both required exquisite skills and technical knowledge passed from generation to generation. Throughout her narrative, Ko deftly wields methods of social history, literary criticism, material culture studies, and the history of the body and fashion to illustrate how a practice that began as embodied lyricismas a way to live as the poets imaginedended up being an exercise in excess and folly. Foot binding, however, in the contemporary world can be associated with both female oppression and sexual fetishism, these aspects of foot binding overshadow much of the complexity and beauty of this cultural practice. This beauty, however, came at a high price. A bandage, ten feet long and two inches wide was wrapped tightly around the foot, forcing the four small toes under the sole of the foot. This made the feet narrower but at the same time it made the feet shorter because it also forced the big toe and the heel closer together by bowing the arch of the foot. The bandage was tightened each day and the girl was put into progressively smaller and smaller sized shoes. The entire process usually took about two years at the end of which the feet were essentially dead and utterly useless. To bind feet, feet were first soaked in a warm bowl of herbs and animal blood, which caused the dead flesh to fall off. Toe nails were cut back as far
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as possible to prevent ingrown toenails and infection. Silk and cotton bandages were dipped in the solution and were wrapped tightly around the feet after the toes were broken. Four toes on each foot were broken and folded under. The big toe was left intact. Feet were often bound so tightly that even short distances were unable to be walked. The bandages became tighter after drying. While drying, the toes were forced down and inward. Sometimes cuts were made in the sole of the feet to make the binding process easier. Most foot binding was done during the winter months, when it was thought the cold would numb the pain. The wrapping process was repeated every couple of days with fresh bandages. Each time, the bandages were pulled even tighter, causing excruciating and long lasting pain. Binding the feet was the easy part, being bent so out of shape the feet required lots of core. The feet had to be washed and manicured on a daily basis. If they weren't manicured properly the toe nails could cut into the instep and infection could set in. If the bindings were too tight they could cut off circulation which could lead to gangrene and blood poisoning. The feet had to be massaged and given hot and cold compresses to help relieve the pain and help improve circulation. With the lack of circulation flesh would rot and fall off and sometimes the toes would ooze pus. The pain was said to have been excruciating especially if this process was begun at a later age. If the bindings were too tight, gangrene and blood poisoning could occur. The bound foot was painful and tender forever. It often had an unpleasant smell. The ideal foot would fit into a shoe only three to four inches long. A Chinese saying says, "Every pair of small feet costs a bath (kang) of tears". It is difficult to imagine the suffering that these women had to endure.

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The desired result was a normal large toe and ball of the foot that slid into a tiny embroidered shoe with a wooden platform to raise and support the heel. A bound-footed woman was easily distinguished by her paradoxical mincing gait, just as the western stereotype depicts. Each step was stunted by the inability to roll forward onto the toes, and those with very small feet may appear to be walking on stilts. The ideal foot was three inches in length. Three inch feet were called golden lotuses. Feet that were between three and four inches in length were called silver lotuses. Fashion has always played with ambivalence. In the contemporary world, ambivalence is seen in the competition between conformity and self-expression. Similarly, for Chinese women foot binding, the lotus was the perfect symbol for ambivalence regarding the bound foot, as in Buddhist ideology the lotus stood for both piety as well as the pleasure of the senses. "I started the process in 1943 when I was 7," says Fu Huiying , who smiles at the memory of those youthful days. "At the beginning it hurt with every move I made, but I agreed to go on with the process because it is what every girl my age did. My mother had bound feet, and her mother, and her mother," she says, trailing off, unsure just how many generations it went back. In Liuyi, even after the practice was banned, Fu says, she and others were hesitant to stop tightly binding their feet and hid them from officials, worried that the ban would be temporary. They also viewed their bound feet as desirable and something to be proud of. There are ways to be attractive, without degrading or mutilating ourselves. In my point of view, foot binding deepened female subjugation by making women more dependent on their men folk, restricting their movements and enforcing their chastity, since women with bound feet were physically incapable of venturing far from their homes.

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Moreover, little girls in China were not given a choice in the matter. In my point of view, any practice that does not give the individual the right to decide for themselves is barbaric. Any practice that causes children to suffer in pain and misery is barbaric, especially when one stops to consider that Chinese girls by the age of eight were robbed of the ability to walk or live a normal lifestyle without extreme pain. Dorothy Ko did a wonderful job discussing the history of shoes for bound feet, but she avoids much comment about the torturous aspect of millions of young Chinese girls having had their feet mutilated for fashion and male pleasure. The x-rays of bound feet are very disturbing. And to think that during that time the women were forced to perform hard physical labor, digging reservoirs, for example work which was punishing enough for ordinary women, but agonizing for those with tiny, misshapen feet. Many lower class families who really could not afford to bind their daughters feet, due to the loss of labor she would have contributed to the family, did so an anyway in hopes that she would be able to "marry up" into the middle class. The women that did not would end up suffering trying to work in the fields tottering on their bound feet, picking vegetables and fruit like other mothers. Their tiny feel sealed their tragic fates. In 1895, the first anti-foot binding society was formed. The main point of the anti-foot binding society was that the pain a woman went through in the foot binding process and through her life was an obstacle to her education. Society members would not bind their daughters feet and would register with the society the names and ages of all their children. This way all registered members were able to find mates for their children. Registered members were not allowed to let their children marry women with bound feet. They were allowed to many nonmembers but only if they did not have bound feet. But the practice wasn't outlawed until
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1912, when the Qing dynasty had already been toppled by a revolution. Beginning in 1915, government inspectors could levy fines on those who continued to bind their feet. But despite these measures, foot binding still continued in various parts of the country.

To avoid physical and emotional trauma, releasing bound feet had to be done slowly, by loosening the bindings on a regular basis and allowing the feet to gradually resume a more normal shape. Women who had not bound tightly were able to release their feet without great discomfort. Others who had achieved the highly desired three-inch feet found it impossible, for in so doing they would have been left completely crippled. In urban areas where jobs and education were more available, the practice faded rapidly as women began to demand more rights and to play a role in the financial welfare of the family. In most of China, however, social and sexual customs were resistant to rapid change, and for millions of women it wasn't until the years following the Communist revolution in 1949 that the perpetuation of foot binding finally ended.

Foot-binding resulted in lifelong disabilities for most of its subjects, and some elderly Chinese women still survive today with disabilities related to their bound feet. Within another decade or two, the last remaining women with bound feet in China will be gone, as will one of the most unusual customs ever devised. "It was a strong tradition passed from mother to daughters, entangled with shoemaking, how to endure pain and how to attract men. In many ways, it underpinned women's culture," says Dorothy Ko, "it is hard to romanticize the practice and I am happy to see it go, but it is a pity there is no comparable, but obviously less painful, practice to take its place and bond generations.
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I will admit that on one level, I saw the absurdity of the ancient practice of foot binding, and my initial reaction was to grimace and turn away. But when I saw all the pictures, the pain and suffering of the now banned practice aside, I saw some amount of pride in the face of women. Every Step a Lotus, Shoes for Bound Feet helps us think about why women willingly bound their own and their daughters feet. So much of our received information about foot binding is false or useless. Foot binding is not the only example of a difficult, unfamiliar cultural practice that asks us to stretch our understanding and comfort level about what is right and what is wrong or what is good and what is bad. The question of whether a practice should be allowed to continue on or whether an outside group should intercede to stop a practice is one that is morally and ethically challenging, or at least it should be a challenging question, in my view. Whose values should be used to decide if a practice is right and good?

In conclusion, one does not know how the custom of foot binding began. It is remarkable that it began at all and that it lasted as long as it did, about one thousand years. What ceases to amaze me is how it permeated so deeply into all social and economic classes of Chinese society. The effect that foot binding had on women is plain to see. Women became more dependent on others. They could not journey far on their own and thus were more controllable. This goes hand in hand with the Neo-Confucian teachings of the time which preached a hierarchical social order starting in the family with women being subservient to their husbands. However, to fully understand a practice such as foot binding one has to think of culture relativism. But come to think about it about a generation or two ago, in America, it was also fashionable for women to have small feet. Their feet would not be bound but it wasn't uncommon for a woman to buy a pair of shoes one or two sizes down to make her feet appear smaller. In addition, the spine9

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deforming corsets that were fashionable for so many years in Europe and America are another example. The extent to which these women went to in order to have the ideal image may seem unbelievable to one today, but what will people one thousand years from now think about the present culture- breast implants, liposuction and plastic surgery, all for the price to look more beautiful? It's culturally relative.

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