The anti-footbinding movement had one unforeseen consequence: many husbands abandoned their foot bound wives once it was no longer a status symbol to have one. This must have had the poor wives facing destitution and starvation, as the whole point of footbinding was to make wives helpless and dependent on their husbands for survival as a status symbol for their husbands.
I was a bit surprised when the narrator said footbinding didn’t involve breaking bones. There are well-documented reports to say the most extreme and common form did break and even re-break bones. Other forms were more mild and didn’t involve breaking bones. One was the “cucumber feet” (binding feet to make them look slender). Another was not binding feet but wearing shoes to imitate the lotus walk of bound feet.
Is foot binding by breaking bones well documented? Would like to see some sources. The only place I read about it was in fictional works like "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan."
@@lindatisue733 If you search for it you will find "proof". I am sure, that the breaking of bone was not the aim, it just often happened. The mentioning of the fact, that sometimes even the bones broke when women bound their feet is not to humiliate the people who followed this tradition, it is mentioned because it happened. Look at the arch of the forefoot, if one knows anything about basic anatomy than one knows that at this angle some bones were brocken and healed at the wrong angle. Even when sometimes bone was so elastic that they never broke, the end result was the same, the woman was immobile, helpless, hurting and had a high risk for her health her whole life long. This is a phenomenom that can be seen all over the world. Humans are willing to alter their body to make it more attractive. In Africa women still have to face body altering "traditions". Or if one looks at the many people worldwide with tattoos and piercings "we" have not changed that much. Nobody needs to look down on chinese women and families, who did foot binding, in their times it was a means to ensure the attractiveness of their daughters. It is good that people themselves stopped doing it in the end, very successful change.
@@betterhegehogShadow Which is wishful thinking... Look again at the x rays and look at the bones of a healthy foot and then you know that the bones were bound to break, unfortunately. If this was done, when the girls were very young the bones "mended" at an unnatural angle, that is all. Search for the topic on the Internet, enough articles and picture are available on the topic. Chinese people did stop doing it in the end. No reason to be embarassed or to look down upon someone, who did it. It is human nature to try to be more precious than others, that includes body altering measures still going on worldwide. Any plastic surgery is a body altering measurement, people today are still trying to look "better" doing stuff like it.
As you say and the narrator too, that the methods of footbinding through the years changed. It took centuries to develop the methods used in the documented times of the 19th and 20th centuries. At first it was probably binding for shape as adults started doing it for dancing. Then fashions changed and smaller feet were what was desired.
This is similar to banning "Sati" - Widow Burning in India - and the current efforts to stop FGM in Muslim countries. The ending of such cruel practices cannot come too soon.
Thanks for this. I had no idea the role that Christian missionaries played in ending this terrible practice. I had been under the impression that it was the CCP that did it after they came to power in 1949 using pure brute force and violence to stop it as a purging of China's feudal past. Apparently the movement to stop foot binding started much earlier than that.
Footbinding, though ended in urban areas, was still persisting in the rural areas, and that’s where the Communists made the push to stamp it out, and very forcefully. But the villagers resisted and always came up with ways to cheat the anti-footbinding inspectors who came knocking. The last surviving lotus feet women were of that era. The last recorded case was 1958 or so.
I’m running out of videos …. Oh no … here we go ….. from the tech to the economics to the history and random topics I’m reaching the end oh how I love your content. Thank you!
"Women wouldnt stop binding their feet" makes it sound like they were binding their own feet, when instead the choice was taken from them when they were children and they continued a circle of abuse instead
Foot binding is terrible but people of that time would have thought today’s practice of cosmetic surgery (all over the body) is terrible. The only thing that is better about cosmetic surgery is that it is usually not forced at a young age. People’s desires and aspirations do not change (do what the rich and famous do) just what is or is not in fashion even at great pain/cost.
You’re very ignorant. South Korea is the capital of plastic surgery, and it’s very common for families to gift the option of plastic surgery. I’m america, girls under 18 came get their breast enhanced, with parental consent. It’s definitely way worse, because girls and women are pressured and feel an obligation to conform. It’s sad and fucked up.
Another quality video, always looking forward to more content. By the way, have you considered doing a video on the CCP and it's rule on the Mainland right after the Civil War? I've always been intrested to hear how the Communists dealt with firmly establishing themselves after such a conflict.
This video has presented information that I had not heard of. That some of the different peoples did not do it at all. When the statistics of the village where 99% of the women bound there feet, and still 50% were doing this into the 1940s, surprised me. To force women to go through such pain for most of their lives. Perhaps because it was women that suffered, that there was no real desire to change this practice.
I learned that traditional confucians opposed footbinding throughout history as our bodies are a gift from our ancestors, to harm our bodies in anyway represents an insult to our ancestors.This is the same reasoning given to why the culture is intolerant to tattoos or excessive piercings. Despite the protestations of confucian scholars and elders, women continued to do it anyways. Neoconfucians however during the Qing Dynasty encouraged the practice as a sort of tribal marker to differentiate Han from the oppressive Manchu rulers.
4:04 - You mentioned the "palace women" during the Ming did not bind their feet. Are you only referring to the palace maids or does this also include the Empress and all the concubines?
I am not just inferring. It has been estimated that by the 19th century, 40-50% of all Chinese women may have had bound feet, rising to almost 100% in upper-class Chinese women. In poorer families who could not afford the bandages or lack of labour associated with a hobbled woman, footbinding was not done until the girls were older. Rich girls would have their feet bound while the poor would not. That's mainly because the rich had servants to serve them since they couldn't walk. The poor girls needed normal feet in order to work.Additionally, it showed a girl's status because the rich didn't usually need to work. However, foot binding restricted women from going out, leaving them at home to serve the family.
Once again an excellent subject nicely done. In case you are struggling with finding a new subject please let me humbly suggest one. Something that I find fascinating with Taiwanese people is that they seem to have find peace with what at some point could be seen as an outsider harsh and corrupted ruling elite . How did the Taiwanese succeed to accept those "strangers" that came from the continent. I guess it took years and it nécessited symbolic and also political acts. That question arise after visiting the 228 museum. I asked a lady at the counter and she basically told me that interbreeding solved the problem. I feel unsatisfied with her answer. The museum itself is interesting, it tells a the story of Taiwanese society thus creating or reinforcing the Taiwanese identity but at the same time it also put the blame on a part of the kuomintang while at the same time being soft with Japanese. I am sorry for my broken English and I hope that you can understand what I find puzzling about the museum and what it tells about recent Taiwanese history. Basically it's how Taiwanese politics managed to use recent history to a create a Taiwanese identity without alienating the continental Chinese that came along the kuomintang.
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The anti-footbinding movement had one unforeseen consequence: many husbands abandoned their foot bound wives once it was no longer a status symbol to have one. This must have had the poor wives facing destitution and starvation, as the whole point of footbinding was to make wives helpless and dependent on their husbands for survival as a status symbol for their husbands.
They wouldve abandoning them anyway when they economy got rough and everyone had to work in the fields.
I was a bit surprised when the narrator said footbinding didn’t involve breaking bones. There are well-documented reports to say the most extreme and common form did break and even re-break bones. Other forms were more mild and didn’t involve breaking bones. One was the “cucumber feet” (binding feet to make them look slender). Another was not binding feet but wearing shoes to imitate the lotus walk of bound feet.
Is foot binding by breaking bones well documented? Would like to see some sources. The only place I read about it was in fictional works like "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan."
@@lindatisue733 If you search for it you will find "proof". I am sure, that the breaking of bone was not the aim, it just often happened. The mentioning of the fact, that sometimes even the bones broke when women bound their feet is not to humiliate the people who followed this tradition, it is mentioned because it happened.
Look at the arch of the forefoot, if one knows anything about basic anatomy than one knows that at this angle some bones were brocken and healed at the wrong angle.
Even when sometimes bone was so elastic that they never broke, the end result was the same, the woman was immobile, helpless, hurting and had a high risk for her health her whole life long. This is a phenomenom that can be seen all over the world. Humans are willing to alter their body to make it more attractive. In Africa women still have to face body altering "traditions". Or if one looks at the many people worldwide with tattoos and piercings "we" have not changed that much. Nobody needs to look down on chinese women and families, who did foot binding, in their times it was a means to ensure the attractiveness of their daughters. It is good that people themselves stopped doing it in the end, very successful change.
He sid in the video that many did not have broken bones in earlyer times
@@betterhegehogShadow Which is wishful thinking...
Look again at the x rays and look at the bones of a healthy foot and then you know that the bones were bound to break, unfortunately. If this was done, when the girls were very young the bones "mended" at an unnatural angle, that is all.
Search for the topic on the Internet, enough articles and picture are available on the topic. Chinese people did stop doing it in the end. No reason to be embarassed or to look down upon someone, who did it. It is human nature to try to be more precious than others, that includes body altering measures still going on worldwide. Any plastic surgery is a body altering measurement, people today are still trying to look "better" doing stuff like it.
As you say and the narrator too, that the methods of footbinding through the years changed. It took centuries to develop the methods used in the documented times of the 19th and 20th centuries. At first it was probably binding for shape as adults started doing it for dancing. Then fashions changed and smaller feet were what was desired.
This is similar to banning "Sati" - Widow Burning in India - and the current efforts to stop FGM in Muslim countries. The ending of such cruel practices cannot come too soon.
Thanks for this. I had no idea the role that Christian missionaries played in ending this terrible practice. I had been under the impression that it was the CCP that did it after they came to power in 1949 using pure brute force and violence to stop it as a purging of China's feudal past. Apparently the movement to stop foot binding started much earlier than that.
Footbinding, though ended in urban areas, was still persisting in the rural areas, and that’s where the Communists made the push to stamp it out, and very forcefully. But the villagers resisted and always came up with ways to cheat the anti-footbinding inspectors who came knocking. The last surviving lotus feet women were of that era. The last recorded case was 1958 or so.
the qing banned it
@@Goodiesfanful the last surviving lotus feet are alive right now. The 50s was the last newly bound feet.
I’m running out of videos …. Oh no … here we go ….. from the tech to the economics to the history and random topics I’m reaching the end oh how I love your content. Thank you!
"Women wouldnt stop binding their feet" makes it sound like they were binding their own feet, when instead the choice was taken from them when they were children and they continued a circle of abuse instead
They took the Cinderella story way too serious
Wikipedia: In 1999, the last shoe factory making lotus shoes, the Zhiqiang Shoe Factory in Harbin, closed.
In Taiwan, food binding is abolished by Japanese government.
Foot binding is terrible but people of that time would have thought today’s practice of cosmetic surgery (all over the body) is terrible. The only thing that is better about cosmetic surgery is that it is usually not forced at a young age. People’s desires and aspirations do not change (do what the rich and famous do) just what is or is not in fashion even at great pain/cost.
Cosmetic surgery is also not meant to limit your health and mobility forever nor has a 10% death rate.
You’re very ignorant. South Korea is the capital of plastic surgery, and it’s very common for families to gift the option of plastic surgery. I’m america, girls under 18 came get their breast enhanced, with parental consent. It’s definitely way worse, because girls and women are pressured and feel an obligation to conform. It’s sad and fucked up.
There's no shot you actually compared the likes of a nose job to footbinding.
Another quality video, always looking forward to more content. By the way, have you considered doing a video on the CCP and it's rule on the Mainland right after the Civil War? I've always been intrested to hear how the Communists dealt with firmly establishing themselves after such a conflict.
I’ll come to it eventually. But the current focus is to next go back in time to the Qing and Ming dynasties.
actually the bones is broken inorder to for the triangular shape, the bones are broken and then healed but the healed bones are re shaped
Alicia Little was also a noted travel writer.
A fascinating subject. I've heard that the Hakka didn't practice footbinding. Do you know why?
Seems to be because their women needed to work in wet fields.
Too rural/poor probably.
Hakka people tend to be nomads and had to travel around or work in fields.
i suspect that it came from a specific, influential tribe since other countries were willing to adopt the clothing but not the binding
This video has presented information that I had not heard of. That some of the different peoples did not do it at all. When the statistics of the village where 99% of the women bound there feet, and still 50% were doing this into the 1940s, surprised me. To force women to go through such pain for most of their lives. Perhaps because it was women that suffered, that there was no real desire to change this practice.
I learned that traditional confucians opposed footbinding throughout history as our bodies are a gift from our ancestors, to harm our bodies in anyway represents an insult to our ancestors.This is the same reasoning given to why the culture is intolerant to tattoos or excessive piercings. Despite the protestations of confucian scholars and elders, women continued to do it anyways. Neoconfucians however during the Qing Dynasty encouraged the practice as a sort of tribal marker to differentiate Han from the oppressive Manchu rulers.
Did Korea foot bind? I lived there but never heard stories about it in Korea.
The images from this video makes this hard to watch
4:04 - You mentioned the "palace women" during the Ming did not bind their feet. Are you only referring to the palace maids or does this also include the Empress and all the concubines?
The empress and concubines were of high status so they had to get their feet bound.
@@Sasha-af I'm very sorry to ask but do you know this as historical fact are you just saying inferring?
@@chengmunwai I am saying that foot binding was a common thing to show richness so the concubines and empress used to do foot binding.
@@Sasha-af So you are inferring only. You assume their feet are bound because they are rich. You don't actually know this as historical fact.
I am not just inferring. It has been estimated that by the 19th century, 40-50% of all Chinese women may have had bound feet, rising to almost 100% in upper-class Chinese women. In poorer families who could not afford the bandages or lack of labour associated with a hobbled woman, footbinding was not done until the girls were older. Rich girls would have their feet bound while the poor would not. That's mainly because the rich had servants to serve them since they couldn't walk. The poor girls needed normal feet in order to work.Additionally, it showed a girl's status because the rich didn't usually need to work. However, foot binding restricted women from going out, leaving them at home to serve the family.
Once again an excellent subject nicely done. In case you are struggling with finding a new subject please let me humbly suggest one. Something that I find fascinating with Taiwanese people is that they seem to have find peace with what at some point could be seen as an outsider harsh and corrupted ruling elite . How did the Taiwanese succeed to accept those "strangers" that came from the continent. I guess it took years and it nécessited symbolic and also political acts. That question arise after visiting the 228 museum. I asked a lady at the counter and she basically told me that interbreeding solved the problem. I feel unsatisfied with her answer. The museum itself is interesting, it tells a the story of Taiwanese society thus creating or reinforcing the Taiwanese identity but at the same time it also put the blame on a part of the kuomintang while at the same time being soft with Japanese. I am sorry for my broken English and I hope that you can understand what I find puzzling about the museum and what it tells about recent Taiwanese history. Basically it's how Taiwanese politics managed to use recent history to a create a Taiwanese identity without alienating the continental Chinese that came along the kuomintang.
Im here because of my module in history
It's funny how high heel shoes of women today look very close to bound feet.
Once you've had a tiny footed woman, you'll never go back!
Yes, and when her feet are deformed and broken, she won’t be able go to run and walk around. How awesome. 😢
Wheelchair bound cripples can wimp out of work and legal responsibilities.
The hakkas did not practice foot binding
Manchu women didn’t practise it either.