Test 1:
Snowflower and the Secret Fan:
Why did the Chinese use foot binding and what did it look like?
The virtual museum of Sanfrancisco states:
Pictures of the process can be found here:
http://www.lisasee.com/images/footbinding/footbinding.htm
The process of foot binding became popular after the foot became a source of erotica. There were many superstitions that influenced the process.
Reasons for foot binding:
“Liu-hsien’s Seven Reasons (Smith 2010)
In the 17th century, an author named Liu-hsien (sometimes called P’u Sung-hing), supported foot binding with these reasons:
First: If a girl’s feet are not bound, people say she is not like a woman but like a man and they laugh at her, call her names, and her parents are ashamed of her.
Second: Girls are like flowers, like the willow. It is very important that their feet be bound short so that they will walk beautifully, with mincing steps, swaying gracefully, thus showing they are persons of respectability. People praise them. If not bound short, they say the mother has not trained her daughter carefully. She goes from house to house with noisy steps and is called names. Therefore careful persons bind short.
Third: One of good family does not wish to marry a woman with long feet. She is commiserated because her feet are not perfect. If betrothed, and the size of her feet is not discovered until after her marriage, her husband and her mother-in-law are displeased, her sisters-in-law laugh at her and she herself is sad.
Fourth: The large-footed has to do rough work, does not sit in a sedan chair when she goes out, walks in the street barefooted, has no red clothes, does not eat the best food. She is wetted by the rain, tanned by the sun, blown upon by the wind. If unwilling to do all the rough work of the house, she is called gormandising and lazy. To escape all this, her parents bind her feet.
Fifth: There are those with unbound feet who do no heavy work, wear gay clothing, ride in a sedan chair, call others to wait upon them. Although so fine, they are low and mean. If a girl’s feet are unbound, she cannot be distinguished from one of these.
Sixth: Girls are like gold, like gems. They ought to stay in their own house. If their feet are not bound, they go here and there with unfitting associates. They have no good name. They are the defective gems that are rejected.
Seventh: Parents are covetous. They think small feet are pleasing and will command a high price for a bride.
- From Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by P’u Sung-hing (commonly known as Liu-hsien) translated by Herbert A. Giles, 188″
“The custom was more than just a sexual one though. It was certain that a woman with bound feet had gone through a lot of suffering, and having gone through this, a woman was supposed to be more civilized – more disciplined and dutiful, less materialistic, and stronger than she’d be in her natural state. These concepts were seen to be very important qualities for any person to have, female or male.
A saying of the times was that an ugly face is bad luck, but big feet are due to neglect. This attitude, combined with all the benefits that binding was said to have, made it necessary for a female Chinese child in footbinding areas to have bound feet. Without them, it was very hard for her to find her place in the world.
People didn’t like real feet on a feminine form – it may have looked as weird as breasts on a man would look to us. And like our insult of ‘manboobs’ for men who’s chests are a little too plump, the Chinese called a foot over three inches a ‘silver lotus’. A natural foot would be dubbed with the unpleasant epithet of ‘iron lotus’. ” (Smith 2010)
“Chinese foot binding embraced several modern principles of brace treatment. It was initiated in childhood while the foot was cartilaginous and moldable. Culturally, the practice attempted to shape the foot into a pointed lotus flower. The resultant cavus foot deformity was dysfunctional and crippling. This curious custom, outlawed by the Communist party, is ironically analogous in some ways to high-heel shoe wear.” (Berg, 1995)
Conclusion:
Footbinding was a way for Chinese mothers to give their daughters a better life. This is demonstrated in Lee’s Snowflower and the Secret fan. The bound foot has all the toes of the foot tucked in under except for the big toe which is left out. They did this to make to foot look like a lotus. Women approved of the process because if your feet were correctly bound your life would be one of much higher status of the larger foot individuals. As stated as the fifth reason, “There are those with unbound feet who do no heavy work, wear gay clothing, ride in a sedan chair, call others to wait upon them. Although so fine, they are low and mean. If a girl’s feet are unbound, she cannot be distinguished from one of these.” (Smith 2010)
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