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For personal use only; all rights reserved

JUNE, 1973

MANDARIN FEET
By NI. F. MOTTRAM, M.D., and I. ROGER PYLE, M.B., F.F.R.
SAX FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

E YEN though San Francisco has the regarding the practice of binding:
largest Chinese population outside the “riie appliances for binding include no iron
cities of Asia, there are only a few elderly or wooden shoe. Only long strips of firm, flexible
women remaining here with Mandarin cloth are used. The bandages used in misshap-
Feet. They can hobble around with dif- ing the feet are woven ill small hand looms, and
ficultv and wear special shoes wllich have are about two inches wide and ten feet long.
a wooden heel or platform which supports One end of the bandage is laid on the inside of
the body weight. There is a “pocket” for the instep; thence it is carried over tile four
small toes, drawing them down upon the sole;
the toes made out of leather or cloth.
then it passes under the foot, over the instep,
The practice of binding was instituted in
and around the heel, drawing the heel and toe
China about 1,000 to 1,200 years ago. The
nearer together, making a bulge on the instep
origins of tile custom are obscure. Lin and a deep niche in the sole underneath; thence
Yutang in his book “My Country and My it follows its former course until the bandage is
People” indicates that it represented beauty all applied, and the last end is sewed down
and was a love fetish. Others have con- firmly n tile underlying cloth.
sidered it a sign of wealth, although in rural “Once a month, or oftener, tile feet, with the
areas the feet were also bound, so tllat this bandages upon them, are put into a bucket of
was the prime
not consideration. Perhaps hot water and soaked. Then tile bandages are
the most useful contribution to the psycho- removed, the dead skiii is rubbed off, tile foot is
social implications of feet binding is given kneaded more fully into tile desired shape, pul-
by Chan.’ Dr. Chan considers many of the verized alum is laid on, and clean bandages
quickly affixed. If the bandages are long left off,
alternative theories of the origins of the
the blood again circulates in the feet, and tile
practice and concludes that, although it
rebinding is very painful. The pain is least when
was associated mainly with wealth and the feet are so firmly and so constantly bound
leisure, its aim was unmistakably to en- as to be benunibed by the pressure of the
hance the sexual attractiveness of the bandages.
woman. Tile earliest foot binding was “It not unfrequently happens that the flesh
practiced by the dancers and courtesans becomes putrescent during the process of bind-
at the court in order to make their feet ing, and portions off from slough
tile sole.
appear more dainty and small. However, Sometimes drops
a toe off. In this case
or more
the exaggerated motion of the hips brought the feet are much smaller than they could else
about b walking with this deformity was be made, and elegance is secured at the cost of
months of suflering. The dolor ordinarily con-
apparently much appreciated by the male
tillues about a year, then gradually diminishes,
sex, and the practice became imitated by
till at tile end of two years tile feet are dead and
the ladies of the court themselves. In the
painless.”
centuries that followed, China was swept
by what amounted to a national foot fetish. L. Miltner’ further describes a process of
The practice led to seclusion and limited binding in 2 the four
stages. outer First
activity of these women for hundreds of toes were flexed upon the sole and the
years. Many edicts were issued in an at- metatarsals firmly pressed together. After
tempt to abolish binding, but it continued each molding the bandages were tightly
until 1911, when it was declared illegal and applied. Walking helped to restore circula-
the practice is 110W obsolete. tion. Following this stage, which was about
I 1uote froni a pamphlet published by a year ill duration, the foot was manipu-
tile Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society2 lated so that the forefoot was plantar

318
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Vou.. uS, No. 2 Mandarin Feet 319

flexed and ileld ill position with figure of

eight bandages. This second stage often
lasted 2 to 3 years. After several years the
feet were said to be “painless,” but band-
ages were usually re(luired because the
unbound feet would become painful due to
strain and soft tissue swelling. During
binding
often
putting
tile
the

the
child
knees
pain
could
on
W5
only
2
considerable

stools
move
and
about
shifting
and
by ‘4
weigilt so that tile feet were not used.
ihe appearance of tile bound feet can
be judged from the roentgenogranis silown
in Figures 1 and 2. The phalanges and meta-
tarsals are grossly misshaped; many of
tile pilalallges are rotated, subluxed and/or ./1
eroded. The longitudinal arch is extremely
iligh and short and the tarsal bones are con- /
sequently moulded. There are flexion de-
formities of the toes and the great toe is also
rotated. There is associated soft tissue
atrophy of the foot and of the lower leg.
The degree of deformity, of course, de-
pends upon the age at which binding was
initiated, on the skill and perseverance of
the binder and the cooperation of the
\‘oung girl. FIG. 2. Lateral roentgenogram of a fully
The fact that many of tile cases seen in developed foot.
San Francisco at the present time are only
partially deformed, however, suggests that tillue binding their feet when it became
many women were quite ready to discon- socially acceptable to do so.

SUMMARY

A brief outline of the origins and Illetil-

ods of the production of acquired deform i-

ties of the foot practiced in China and
known as Mandarin Feet is described.
Roentgenograms of a full deformed
foot are presented.

M. F. Mottram, NI.D.
450 Sutter Street
San Francisco, California 94108

RERENCES

I. CHAN, L. M. loot binding in Chinese women-its

psychosocial implications. C’anad. Psychiat.
A. 7., I7o, /5, 229-231.
2. A. Woman’s
FIELDE, Foreign Missionary Society
Pamphlet. Boston, Massachusetts. Undated.
FIG. i. Anteroposterior roentgenogram of the fully 3. MILTNER,L. Bound feetinChina.7. Bone&7oint
developed feet. Surg., 1937, /9, 314-319.