Foot binding

Chinese Foot Binding The ancient and painful practice of Chinese foot binding existed for almost 900 years. It began in the 10th century and ended in the 19th century (Foreman). Foot binding is the practice of breaking and wrapping young girl’s feet in order to create a small, lotus shape. It permanently deformed women’s feet in such a way that doing daily activities or actions was difficult. Chinese foot binding was an unnecessary and painful process that kept women subservient to men. The exact origin of foot binding in China is unknown, but the most common belief is that it originated in the 10th century by a court dancer named Yao Niang. She would bind her feet in the shape of a new moon and then dance on her toes inside of a six foot…

Foot binding was practiced in China from the Sung Dynasty to the 20th century in various forms found throughout different regions. There have been many suggests to the origin of this tradition, that limited the mobility of women and resulted in lifelong disabilities. Women had several reasons for binding their feet despite the pain, because small feet were considered a status symbol and a sign of beauty. In this difficult process, it altered the physical realities of the foot causing extreme…

Tears stream down a young Chinese girl’s face as her feet are literally folded in half and bound in place with cotton bandages by her mother and grandmother. Foot binding has a cloudy origin dating to ancient times, with the aristocrats binding their feet for beauty. It is done to girls at a very young age because it was perceived as beautiful in the time and women were practically unmarriable without it. Today it is only seen in elderly women that were alive at the time of foot binding prime.…

The foot binding of my little Lily is today. I have not been able to get this out of my head. I think about Lily before I go to sleep at night. I think about Lily when I wake in the morning. Why are we binding her beautiful feet? My husband tells me that she will not find a husband if she does not. My feet were never bound; I have such a hard time understanding. The times are changing he says. How could someone in their right mind break their little daughter's feet? I am continually…

Foot binding first became popular during the Song Dynasty in China. It is thought to have originated Emperor Li Yu asked his concubine, Yao Niang to bind her feet and perform a ballet dance for him. The bound feet were to represent the lotus flower. Niang was so graceful on her feet during this dance that people wished to imitate the bound feet in order to be as graceful and as beautiful. This was practiced mostly in Northern China. After the initial appearance, it became common among the…

According to Li Xiu-ying, a bearer of the act of foot binding, “I knew that already because every woman I ever saw had bound feet. Before the Communists came I never even heard of a woman not having bound feet.” Foot binding began in tenth century China and was very popular during the Song and the Qing dynasties. Although it caused many health complications and lifelong disabilities, foot binding became popular by a process of displaying status and also embraced as a symbol of beauty in Chinese…

What is foot binding? Throughout the history, as we all know, women have tried many ways to make themselves more beautiful, attractive and desirable. They have tried to change their bodies to satisfy men, to be superior to the other women in terms of beauty and attractiveness. And, one of the ways for altering their body for the purpose of beauty was foot binding in Chinese history. I would like to give some definition of foot binding. It is “a painful tradition in China of binding young girls’…

The Practice of Chinese Foot Binding For over 1,000 years the practice of bending and breaking young woman's feet was seen as the ultimate symbol of feminine beauty. The tradition known as “foot binding” originated in China's royal court and spread through the lower classes rampantly by the 12th century. By the rise of the Qing Dynasty, all young women were expected to have their feet bound if they wished to marry. The strange practice was eventually outlawed in 1912, but by then over 3…

slave to her stepmother and half-sister. There are a lot of Chinese traditions in this story, which help tell about Xing Xing’s life. Some are very unique and while others are similar to the United States culture. The story starts out with Xing Xing cleaning her family’s house. She has to tend to her half-sister because her foot was just bound. Foot binding is when a women’s foot is bent and broken to make them smaller. Foot binding was a common thing in China until about 60 years ago. Back…

Foot binding started in the Tenth Century after a favourite concubine of the emperor was seen dancing with her feet bound and other concubines mimicked her, wishing to gain favour with emperor. Not long after, foot binding spread to all of the royal court, and then most of China. Originally, bound feet were a sign of social status as only those who did not need their feet to work and had money bound their feet, however small feet were later adopted as a sign of beauty. Tiny feet and the gait…