Suffering for Beauty – Graphic Photos of

Chinese Foot binding

Suffering for Beauty: The Beloved Curse of the High-Heeled Shoe
 The barbaric practice of foot binding in
China began in the 10th century sometime during the Tang Dynasty (618-907)
and ended over a thousand years later. Foot binding was practiced on young girls
usually six years of age and younger. Feet were wrapped in tight bandages and
broken so they couldn’t grow. Foot binding was generally practiced by wealthy
families, as only wealthy families could afford to have the women of the house
not at work. It was a sign of prestige, beauty and wealth.

Eventually, foot binding moved from wealthy city families to women in

the countryside, where women realized they could marry into money by having
these prized three inch feet. For centuries, women suffered terrible pain in the
hopes of having a better future.

Zhou Guizhen, who is 86-years-old, shows one of her bound feet

where the bones in the four small toes were broken and forced underneath the foot over a period
of time, at her home in Liuyi village in China’s southern Yunnan Province, February 2007.
Villages in China where women with bound feet survive are increasingly rare but the
millennium-old practice nevertheless took almost four decades to eradicate after it was initially
banned in 1911. Full story at Wired.
 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 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.

In 1912, the Chinese government ordered the cessation of foot binding. Women were ordered to
unwrap their feet. Failure to do so resulted in heavy fines and in some cases, death. When the
Communists came into power in 1949, they too ordered a nationwide ban on foot binding. This
was especially devastating to women with bound feet because most of them were forced to
perform hard physical labor in the 1950′s.

According to the American author William Rossi, who wrote The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe,
40 percent to 50 percent of Chinese women had bound feet in the 19th century. For the upper
classes, the figure was almost 100 percent.

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.