Foot-Binding in China - Essay Example

Foot-binding required that a girl’s feet be tightly bound, beginning around the age of six” (221). Concerning records written about foot binding in China, the first records belong to the Han dynasty. Later records on the practice are believed to have emerged a millennium later during the Song dynasty. Chen however asserts that “though popularized in the Song, legends traced foot binding back to the Shang dynasty” (14).

The Shang dynasty succeeded the Xia dynasty, which is usually associated with the beginning of civilization in China. It is however not clear when the Xia dynasty came to power. The elites who ruled China during the Shang dynasty are believed to have been descendants of the Neolithic peoples of China. Among the myths formulated about foot binding in China, one of them originated from the Shang dynasty. Concerning myths on why foot binding became a national obsession in China, Robertson points out that “one legend attributed its origin to the Shang Dynasty (1700-1027 BC) that one of the daughters of the Emperor was born with a club foot and he decreed that the Court ladies should have their feet bound to reduce their size”(15).

Although myths had it that women had their feet bound to be able to perform the lotus dance well, this was not the real reason behind the practice. The real reason behind the practice was to satisfy the male obsession of getting sexually aroused by a woman who swayed her hips well.  According to Robertson, “the feet were bound to deliberately deform them into the shape of a ball so the woman had no choice but to sway on the deformed ball shape feet” (15). Foot-binding reduced the size of the foot to only 4 inches (Robertson, 15). During bedtime, the deformed feet were covered using special slippers. The erotic arousal that the bound feet gave to the men was similar to that brought about by the breasts.

When foot binding began, it was only practiced by the rich families and the elite in Chinese society (Robertson, 16). This gradually led to a belief that women with bound feet were from the upper classes in Chinese society. However, even the women in lower social classes had begun binding their feet due to the social prestige attached to the practice. Girls from poor families were constantly scorned and called big feet. For foot binding to produce the right foot size, it had to be done at an early age. From the age of five to teenage, most Chinese girls had their feet bound by their mothers (Robertson, 16). During this period, the feet were bound with strips of cloth that remain on the feet day and night to ensure that the toes didn’t grow bigger or longer and that the feet remained thin.

Foot-binding in China is a cultural practice that began thousands of years ago. A lot of literature traces its roots to the Shang dynasty. Over the years, different myths have been formulated to explain why foot binding was practiced in China. The main reason behind the practice, however, was to satisfy the Chinese male obsession with small feet.