The Sad Truth About Footbinding

Foot binding was a Chinese custom of wrapping up young girls' feet to change their shape. A small foot in China, similar to a tiny waist in Victorian England, represented the height of female refinement. The practice of foot binding caused permanent and major health problems for the women who practiced it. But sadly, the practice persisted. Welcome to Crazy Histories, where we bring you the craziest and weirdest facts from human history. Some of the things discussed in this video may be offensive or disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised. How did foot binding begin? Foot binding was allegedly inspired by a 10th-century court dancer named Ye You Niang. Trying to appear pretty and unique, she bound her feet into the shape of a new moon. She entranced Emperor Li Yu by dancing on her toes inside a six-foot golden lotus that was decorated with beautiful ribbons and precious stones. She was successful. That is to say that it's where the practice of foot binding originated from. From then on, other court ladies who had time and money took up foot binding, turning it into a status symbol among the elite. Some Chinese legends say people started binding women's feet as early as the Shang Dynasty. However, writings say that foot binding began at the court of the Song Dynasty, which was from 960 to 1279 CE. It lasted until the early 20th century, and then it was banned by the People's Republic of China. What are the legends of how it started? Early evidence of it was found in the tomb of Lady Huang Sheng, the wife of an imperial clansman who died in 1243. Archaeologists found tiny, misshapen feet that had been wrapped in gauze and then put inside specifically made lotus shoes, symbolizing her elite status. Smaller feet required especially dainty shoes, and these, made of silk or cotton and often very beautiful, many have been found in the tombs of Chinese upper-class women. For elite families with eligible daughters, foot size became a status symbol and a way of gaining a higher status through a profitable marriage match. The most desirable bride would have possessed a three-inch foot, which became known as a golden lotus. For foot binding to be effective, the process had to begin in childhood, when a girl was around five or six. Why Lotus Feet Kept Happening? Once foot binding became such a big part of the culture, it was impossible to stop. Bound feet became the norm. Unbound feet were seen as freakish, weird, and ugly. And while mothers must have hated to inflict pain on their daughters, leaving their feet unbound was never considered. If a mother didn't bind her daughter's feet, her daughter would be ridiculed and humiliated by other women and would almost assuredly never find a good husband. A young girl could be lifted out of poverty if her feet were small and perfectly curved, because that was more important to men than her social status. It was a very odd beauty standard, don't you think? But it persevered because the effect of binding was more than skin deep. It signaled an extreme form of self-improvement and mastery. Some of the weirder habits of people who loved lotus feet at the time included drinking water that the feet had been washed in, or placing food between the toes and nibbling them out. How were they able to do that? They bound young girls' feet by plunging them into hot water and clipping their toenails. After that, all the toes except the big toes were broken and bound flat against the sole, turning them into a triangle shape. Finally, the feet were bound in place using a silk strip measuring 10 feet long and 2 inches wide. These wrappings were very briefly removed only every two days to stop blood and pus from infecting the foot. Sometimes extra skin was cut away or encouraged to rot. It's hard for one to imagine the extreme amount of pain and torture that these girls underwent. Attempting to change the shape of the foot by defying the basic laws of anatomy can never be easy, and it wasn't. During this lengthy process, many things could go wrong. If a girl's toenails hadn't been trimmed enough, they could cut into the bottom of her feet and cause an infection. Gangrene was also a concern. It could quickly set in if the bindings were too tight. Even if everything was done right, it was common for bound feet to become swollen and pus-filled, then break open causing even more pain, plus a horrible smell. The girls were then forced to walk long distances to speed the process of the breaking of their arches. Over a long period, the wrappings became tighter and the shoes smaller as the heel and sole were crushed together. After two years, the process was complete. When they were eventually done, the nasty state of the bandages and the gross state of the feet can only be imagined, especially in hot water. Once a foot had been crushed and bound, the shape could not be reversed without a woman having to go through the same pain all over again. Foot-bound feet were also known as lotus feet. If it was so horrible, why did it last for so long? The practice of foot binding persisted for so long for another reason, because it was a way to make sure young girls sat still and help make goods like yarn, cloth, mats, shoes, and fishing nets that families depended upon for income. Foot binding endured longest in areas where it made economic sense to make goods like cloth at home and began to decline only when cheaper factory-made alternatives became available in those regions. Their diminished mobility also meant that they couldn't have extramarital affairs or run away to escape a beating when their husbands were unhappy. On a slightly more positive note, foot binding also created strong bonds among the women. Since they did all the binding together, women were proud of their tiny feet. They regularly got together to sew their shoes, which were a major fashion statement. What finally put an end to the torture? In the second half of the 19th century, Western missionaries and Chinese feminists started to demand an end to foot binding. Lotus feet began to go out of fashion during the Qing Dynasty, when China was beginning to be colonized by Western people. When the Manchuria created the Qing Dynasty, the Manchurian emperors wrote many laws banning foot binding. However, the new laws did not work very well. In 1874, the first anti-foot binding committee was held in Shanghai by a British priest. After the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the Republican government kept trying to stop foot binding. They tried giving fines to women who still had their feet bound after 1915. During the early 20th century, Western fashion was affecting China more and more. The People's Republic of China eventually outlawed foot binding, although this was not very successful in actually ending the practice. The colonists viewed women with lotus feet as suffering and being tortured by the practice. Western women who had come to China took particular interest and had many concerns for the lotus feet women, many of them opening shelters to help support those whose feet had been damaged by the practice. Throughout this time, Chinese intellectuals who'd studied abroad in Western countries returned to China with disgusted opinions on the act of foot binding. The Manchu Empress Dowager Cixi outlawed the practice in 1902, but the ban was soon repealed. When the Qing Dynasty fell in 1911 and 1912, the new nationalist government banned foot binding again. The ban was reasonably effective in the coastal cities, but foot binding continued in many areas of the countryside. The practice wasn't more or less completely ended until the communists won the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Mao Zedong and his government treated women as much more equal partners in the revolution and immediately outlawed foot binding throughout the country because it diminished women's value as workers and was considered by them to be a forced disability. Zedong had a lot of respect for these women since several women with bound feet had made the long march with the communist troops, walking 4,000 miles through rugged terrain and rivers with their deformed three-inch long feet. It was an amazing feat. Do you think it's something you'd be able to do even without bound feet? In spite of the brutality behind the tradition, there is still a message of hope, survival, and grit. In Chinese society, it was the only way forward for women, says photographer and historian Joe Farrell. They did it because they thought it would give them a better future, a better life. 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