THE CHINESE FOOTBINDING CULTURE

Suffering for beauty is a concept familiar to most women, who have dyed, plucked or shaved their hair, squeezed their feet into uncomfortable high heels or even surgically enhanced parts of their anatomy. Millions of Chinese women went even further —binding their feet to turn them into the prized "three-inch golden lotuses."

Legend has it that footbinding
began during the Shang
dynasty (1700-1027 B.C.),
ordered by an empress who
had a clubfoot. But historical
records date the practice to a
later dynasty: An emperor was
captivated by a concubine, a
talented dancer who bound her
feet to suggest the shape of a
new moon and performed a
"lotus dance."

Once a symbol of beauty and status, foot binding, also known as lotus feet, was carried out in China since the 10th century, falling
out of favour in the early 20th century before it was outlawed.

The process tended to be started when women were aged between four and nine, before their feet were fully developed and was
often carried out during the winter months when the girls' feet would be numb from the cold.
Feet were soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood to soften them and toenails were cut back as far as possible. The
toes on each foot were curled backwards and then pressed downwards and squeezed into the sole of the foot until the toes broke.
The arch was then broken and the bandages wound around the foot, pressing the toes underneath.
The feet would be unbound and washed regularly, when the feet would be kneaded to soften them and the bandages reapplied
even tighter.  'Although considered fairly barbaric, it was a tradition that enabled women to find a suitable partner

An attribute of a woman with bound feet was the limitation of her mobility, and therefore, her inability to take part in
politics, social life and the world. Bound feet rendered women dependent on their families, particularly their men, and
became an alluring symbol of chastity and male ownership, since a woman was largely restricted to her home and
could not venture far without an escort or the help of watchful servants.

'Although considered fairly barbaric, it was a tradition that enabled women to find a suitable partner.

Bound feet became a mark of beauty and was also a prerequisite for finding a husband. It also became an avenue for
poorer women to marry into money; for example, in Guangdong in the late 19th century, it was customary to bind the
feet of the eldest daughter of a lower-class family who was intended to be brought up as a lady. Her younger sisters
would grow up to be bond-servants or domestic slaves and, when old enough, either the concubines of rich men or
the wives of laboring men, able to work in the fields alongside them. In contrast, the tiny, narrow feet of the "ladies"
were considered beautiful and made a woman's movements more feminine and dainty, and it was assumed these
eldest daughters would never need to work. Women, their families, and their husbands took great pride in tiny feet,
with the ideal length, called the “Golden Lotus”, being about 8 centimetres long.  This pride was reflected in
the elegantly embroidered silk slippers and wrappings girls and women wore to cover their feet. Walking on bound
feet necessitated bending the knees slightly and swaying to maintain proper movement and balance, a dainty walk
that was also considered erotic to men.

At the turn of the 20th century, well-born women such as Kwan Siew-Wah (known in the West as Brigitte
Kwan ), a pioneering feminist, advocated for the end of foot-binding. The Empress Dowager Cixi issued an anti-foot binding edict in 1902, at first to little effect. Foot binding continued to be widely practiced until the 1930s.

Now its totally annihilated, it's no longer practised in China.