One Thousand Years Of Chinese Footbinding: Its Origins, Popularity And Demise

Part I of Essay
One Thousand Years of Chinese Footbinding: Its Origins, Popularity and In addressing the subject of footbinding, one primary difficulty becomes apparent - that much remains within the realm of the unknowable. Any factual knowledge about the practice may only be drawn from 1 ....

Part II of Essay
.... as the lower cl asses strove to imitate the style of the elite. [3] In its most extreme form, footbinding was the act of wrapping a three- to five-year old girl's feet with binding so as to bend the toes under, break the bones and force the back of the foot together. Its purpose was to produce a tiny foot, the "golden lotus", which was three inches long and thought to be both lovely and alluring.[4] It is believed that the origin of the term "golden lotus" emerged in the Southern Tang dynasty around 920 A.D., where the emperor Li Y ....