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Katie Molina November 4, 2019 The Literature on Foot Binding in China The Ancient Chinese believed that a child’s body is an extension of their parent. The child must show gratitude towards their body as any sort of bodily modification like cutting their hair or piercing their body was shameful to their parent. By Ancient Chinese values, the body is seen as a valuable and precious. Therefore, the practice of foot binding brings wonders on the mutilation of the feet of young Chinese women. The practice of foot binding emerged in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the small foot that was molded by the practice was seen as gracious and beautiful as small feet was seen among court dancers and concubines.1 The process of foot binding occurred during a girl’s transition to womanhood, which began when they were as young as seven years old. The mother (or female figure) would draw the four smaller toes towards the heel, breaking the bones of the child’s feet, then binding them tightly with cloth.

This would lead to serious complication as the girl grows older which included infections, calluses, pelvic pains, and rotting of the feet. The practice of foot binding was stylish within the elite upper class, by the nineteenth century, foot binding rose in popularity by the middle and lower classes.2 Due to its long history and cultural significance foot binding intrigues many scholars from all forms of disciplines because of its relevance to feminism, sexuality, womanhood, culture, and economics

It was not until the early twentieth century that the practice of foot binding began to die out, as the concepts of “western modernization” became the ideology in China. Through

1 Howard S. Levy, Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom. (New York: Bell Publishing, 1967), 29-30.

2 Valerie Steele and John S. Major, China Chic: East Meets West. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 37. 2 modernization, active campaigns against foot binding caused the formation of the Anti-Foot

Binding Movement in China and activism against the practice by influential Chinese men who wanted China to modernize. By the introduction of western ideas and beauty values, many

Chinese reformist saw that foot binding weakened Chinese diplomacy and culture if their women were “disabled” and “enfeeble” and may bore weak sons for the future generation of China.3 By the time the Republic of China was formed in 1911, foot binding was legally abolished. As an isolated practice that is solely located in China and a tradition that stood for thousands of years, foot binding continues to spark the interest of scholars. The historiography on foot binding continues to evolve as history evolves.

Even though the practice of foot binding was thousands of years old, the sources on it are limited. As Chinese women were scarcely literate, it is rare to find sources from these women’s perspective of foot binding prior to modernization in China. Most of the literature of foot binding begins in 1990s, but there are pockets of monographs that are used among many researchers prior to the 1990s, the earliest of the literature began in 1967. Theories that emerged by the fascination of foot binding were based on the sexual nature that many historians believe it obtained. From the 1990s, the literature related on foot binding centers on the social, political, and cultural pressures woman on the practice. Instead of focusing on the negativity of foot binding, current scholars center their works on the womanly and feminine attributes that foot binding brought to Chinese women.

The disciplines that focuses on foot binding are vast and different. Many scholars from different disciplinaries such as psychology, anthropology, women’s studies, and history focus on foot binding with various angles and viewpoints from these scholars respected studies. Foot

3 Levy, Chinese Footbinding.

3 binding have caught the eyes of many since its “discoveries” in the late-nineteenth century when western missionaries entered China and lead campaigns against foot binding. Prior to current literature, foot binding was viewed as “sexual and maternally”4 and that foot binding brought a sexual experience of “feminine mystique”5 for males. The historiography and sexual classification on foot binding emerged when psychologist Sigmund Freud introduced his 1927 controversial-and-acclaimed article “Fetishism.” Freud, who appreciated Chinese culture, asserts that foot binding is a female mutilation that appeases to the male desire of castration.6 Freud was not the only one to see foot binding as an erotic practice to appease to men. Many historians agree that there is a sensual nature that comes with foot binding and it is a topic that rarely focuses away from the sensibility that foot binding brings.

Historians that study foot binding have diverse and contradicting theories on the origins of foot binding and how it maintained as a cultural practice. An overall theme that modern historians agree upon is that foot binding was a symbolic tradition for wealth, as parents hoped that by binding their daughter’s feet, they would marry into the highest class possible. The first comprehensive and extensive English work on foot binding came from historian Howard S.

Levy’s 1967 Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom.7 He believed that the practice of foot binding began for aesthetic purposes and the maintenance of the small feet brought male erotic interest. Levy’s examination of foot binding is asserted by his introduction,

4 Gerry Mackie, "Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account," American Sociological Review 61, no. 6 (1996), 1000.

5 Ibid.

6 Sigmund Freud, “Fetishism,” ed. Angela Richardson, trans. James Strachey, (New York: Penguin Books, 1977), 139.

7 Other works done on foot binding by Howard S. Levy includes The Lotus Lovers: The Complete History of the Curious Erotic Custom of Footbinding in China. (New York: W. Rawls, 1966).

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“Most Westerners who saw bound feet did not try to find answer to their questions, but simply detested and deplored the custom.”8 Instead of detesting the customs of foot binding, Levy attempts to rectify and exam a variety of issues surrounding the practice. He argues that there is a sensibility in foot binding, but that foot binding goes beyond sexuality. Levy asserts that foot binding was the center of a women’s life, her social class, her reputation depended if her foot was bound or not. Levy uses primary and secondary sources in his work, but the most notable of these sources that caught the eye of many historians is his use of early twentieth century Chinese men who deplore the loss of foot binding. Other primary sources that Levy uses is having a chapter dedicated to interviewing women who had their foot bound and their personal experiences with foot binding. In the 1967 historian Howard S. Levy introduced a historical overview and recollection of memories of foot binding rather than discuss about the tragedies and medical effects of the custom like his predecessors. His 1967 publication of Chinese

Footbinding was not recognized until a republication of the monograph in the 1990s, by then a major emergence of publication on foot binding follow well into the 2000s.9 During this time, there was a shift from the erotic nature of foot binding to making connections of womanhood that foot binding brought.

After Levy’s publication, Chinese author and poet Wang Ping’s 2000 novel Aching for

Beauty: Footbinding in China followed in Levy’s footsteps on averting the topic of eroticism and broadening the literature of foot binding. Both monographs focus on the sexual nature of foot binding but assert that the eroticism was only a piece of a wider and bigger picture. Unlike Levy,

8 Levy, Chinese Footbinding.

9 During this period, various historical novels appear that focuses on a women’s perceptive of footbinding and how they adapt to social pressures. See: Lisa See, Snow flower and the Secret Fan, (New York: Random House, 2005); Pang-Mei Natasha Chang, Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir (New York: Anchor books, 1997); Feng Jicai, The Three-Inch Golden Lotus: A Novel on Footbinding (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994). 5

Wang Ping’s monograph focuses on her personal perspective of foot binding in China and the experience that she faced as a child. She asserts that foot binding was a cultural creation that connected women together than for aesthetic purposes and the eroticism of foot binding followed suit. By the time Ping was a young girl, China had outlawed the practice of foot binding, her grandmother had her foot bounded and Ping wanted to mimic her. Her works later centers around her girlhood desires to bind her foot and viewing her grandmother’s bounded feet as beautiful.

Ping addresses the relationship that foot binding brought among women and young girls and she also addresses issues like femininity, hierarchy, and the fetishism. In terms of sources, Ping uses novels, plays, and personal account from women who experienced foot binding in her novel.10 In recent literature, the topic of eroticism continues to follow in terms of foot binding but by 2005 with the introduction of historian and women’s studies scholar Dorothy Ko’s 2005 Cinderella’s

Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding, the shift of the studies on foot binding altered and focused more on social and cultural aspect.

This wave of genre changed in 2005 where readers were introducing to Dorothy Ko’s acclaimed monograph, Cinderella’s Sister. Since then, Ko’s monographs have changed the perceptions of foot binding for many scholars of different disciplines who only focused on the brutality and anti-foot binding campaigns history. In order to understand foot binding, one must understand the purpose and history behind the practice then focus on the brutality of foot binding. Dorothy Ko provided rich and new publication for the literature of foot binding.

Comparable to Levy, Ko’s monograph creates a daring and provocative argument against the

10 Personally speaking, it’s best to read Lisa See’s novel Snow flower and the Secret Fan prior to reading Wang Ping’s Aching for Beauty. Lisa See is notable known for her historical novels having the ability in finding voices Chinese women during the period where foot binding was prominent. Both monographs work well together to describe the voices and perceptions of Chinese women and foot binding.

6 anti-foot binding campaigns and male narratives that historians commonly agree upon. Instead,

Ko focuses on the femininity behind foot binding, she approaches her work through a women’s perspective. In Cinderella’s Sister, Ko focuses on womanhood and the understanding of self through the practice of foot binding. In both monographs, Ko makes a compelling argument that there was a sense of power in this female practice. She asserts that the practice “locate[s] the woman’s agency and subjectivity not only in the world that the pain destroyed, but also in the subsequent unfolding and creation of meanings for each woman, foot binding was an ongoing process, just as each body was located in a specific time and place. Therein lies the possibility of a history.”11 Just like her predecessors, Ko believes that there is more to foot binding than victimizing Chinese women who practiced the custom.

After the publication of Dorothy Ko’s Cinderella’s Sister, another new wave on the literature of foot binding emerges. Many authors now focused their stories and research on a feminist and women-based narrative on foot binding and expanding beyond social and cultural studies. In Lauren Bossen and Hill Gate’s 2017 monograph Bound Feet, Young Hands: Tracking the Demise of Footbinding in Village China, they follow the footsteps of Ko’s and beginning to question and research on the purpose and femininity that foot binding brought to Chinese women. A notable theme that these works brings is taking away the narrative from men and bringing it to women. The sources on a woman’s perspective on foot binding is limited due to

Chinese women scarce education on reading and writing until the early twentieth century, though this did not stop Bossen and Gate from finding sources and interviewed women who bounded their feet that were still around the time they conducted the research.

11 Dorothy Ko, Cinderella’s Sister: A Revisionist’s History of Footbinding. (Berkley: University of California Press, 2005), 1-2. 7

In comparison, Bossen and Gates are both anthropologist and research the correlation of foot binding and the economy in China. Their primary sources were notable as they interviewed the last generation of women who bounded their foot and were located in rural Southwest China.

Their central focus is the economical factors that foot binding had a role in China. In order to conduct their research, Bossen and Gates prepared questionnaires and interviews with women who were over the age of 60 and had their feet bound. Their sources came from eight providences in the North China Plain and they also collected information from women who had grandmothers, mothers, and sisters that had their foot bound. They assert that a girl’s handwork in labor was of importance, especially in the production of making shoes for bounded feet and believed that mothers bounded their young daughter’s feet in order to discipline them. In their research, Bossen and Gates found a correlation between industrialization and foot binding. They realized that the decline of foot binding coincided when the demand of handmade items from women also declined. Unlike previous works, Bossen and Gate’s research focuses on a more modern period of foot binding. As foot binding was well practiced into the 1950s, many of the women questioned were children or young adults during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Even then, their research shows the memory that foot binding has in Chinese women years after it’s abolishment and how it affected their daily lives.

There is no single answer to why foot binding was a practice that lasted for as long as it did. Based on the literature, based on the author’s background and time, there are various perceptions behind why foot binding was so important. It can be agreed among scholars that foot binding achieved social mobility to a women’s life as she was able to obtain a good husband if her feet were small. Foot binding began as a girl’s coming of age to womanhood and the answer remains unknown to why the mutilation of a young girl’s feet was so impactful in China. The 8 sources are limited, as generations of women who bounded their feet are no longer here and leaving little records about their purpose of foot binding, it becomes difficult for historians to see the story behind the practice. Yet, the fascination and unique practice captured the eyes of many scholars to ask why. Foot binding will never be forgotten as scholars continue to write and research a practice that was meant to bring social mobility for women.

“I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work.”

Katie Molina 9

Bibliography

Bossen, Laurel and Hill Gates. Bound Feet, Young Hands: Tracking the Demise of Footbinding in Village China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017.

Chang, Pang-Mei Natasha. Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir. New York: Anchor books, 1997.

Croll, Elisabeth. Changing Identities of Chinese Women: Rhetoric, Experience and Self- Perception in Twentieth-Century China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1995.

Feng, JiCai. The Three-Inch Golden Lotus: A Novel on Foot Binding. Translated by David Wakefield. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.

Freud, Sigmund. “Fetishism,” On Sexuality: Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality and Other Works. Edited by Angela Richards. Translated by James Strachey. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.

Fan, Hong. Footbinding, Feminism, and Freedom: The Liberation of Women's Bodies in Modern China. New York: Frank Cass, 1997

Gates, Hill. Footbinding and Women’s Labor in Sichuan. London: Routledge, 2015. Harrison, Kathryn. The Binding Chair: A Visit from the Foot Emancipation Society. New York: Random House, 2000.

Jackson, Beverly. Splendid Slippers: A Thousand Years of Erotic Tradition. Berkley: Ten Speed Press, 1997.

Ko, Dorothy. Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet. Berkley: University of California Press, 2001.

Ko, Dorothy. Cinderella's Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding. Berkley: University of California Press, 2005. Levy, Howard S. Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom. New York: Bell Publishing, 1967. Ma, Shirley See Yan. “Footbinding: A Jungian Engagement with Chinese Culture and Psychology,” Asian Pacific Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 2009. Ping, Wang. Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China. New York: Anchor Books, 2000. Shepard, John R. Footbinding as Fashion: Ethnicity, Labor, and Status in Traditional China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018. See, Lisa. Snow flower and the Secret Fan. New York: Random House, 2005.