THE GOLDEN LOTUS

The Paul Marshall Prentice Collection of Chinese Bound Feet Shoes

For almost a thousand years, successive generations of Chinese women endured the painful body modification of footbinding, when as young girls, they suffered through a procedure in which their mothers systematically compressed and inhibited the natural growth of their feet, by binding them in constricting cotton bandages. The resultant esthetically altered feet, -miniscule, tapering and pointed, were reputed to resemble the closed blossom of a water lily or lotus flower, and so given the appellation, “lily” or “lotus” feet.  Believed to be an enhancement, lotus feet were considered to be a highly valued attribute for a woman to possess, with the most coveted lotus foot, the absolute prized feminine adornment, determined to be an adult woman’s foot reduced to just three inches, -or less, in length…..a “golden lotus.”

Almost 800 years since footbinding first intrigued Western wayfarers to China, it has remained perpetually secured in the popular imagination as a bizarre cultural phenomena, and continues to fascinate, -and likewise, perplex. Viewed from a distance of time and cultural misunderstanding, footbinding to our Western eyes appears irrational, -looking somewhat like deranged behavior,-  and so seems exotic and inexplicable. As one of the more extreme and persistent forms of body modification that any culture has devised to cosmetically alter the natural human form, footbinding has consistently baffled those looking for a motivation behind the practice, resulting in a multitude of theories. The most prevalent imputation, formulated in the 19th Century European Colonial discourse, has long been cast upon an ostensible Confucian patriarchal oppression of women. This theory asserts that women, subjected to the gender injustice of Confucianism were literally made lame, -by men’s inducement, -in order to attain their subjugation, and further, that the bound foot functioned as a coercive apparatus by which men controlled and exploited women’s sexuality. Some Western feminists have embraced this interpretation of footbinding and have characterized it as the worst oppression inflicted by Chinese patriarchy. In fact, footbinding has been so thoroughly co-opted by 20th Century feminist writers that ‘bound feet’ and ‘female oppression’ are considered by many to be almost synonymous. This assumption, however, begs the question: if Chinese women felt in any way oppressed by footbinding why did generations of women adhere to the practice century after century, and then, subsequently impel their own daughters to bind? For the demonstrable truth of the matter, ....however much it may arouse the indignation of some, ……is that women were footbinding’s originators, instigators, supervisors, and perpetuators. 

In order to actually understand footbinding, one needs to know something of Chinese culture and history; it cannot be abstracted from its socio-cultural environment. Gender hierarchy was a fundamental component in the construction of Chinese culture, with the ideology of separate spheres, male and female, believed to be a natural product of biology. This social construction of gender was largely dictated by economic factors far different from those we experience today. Men and women were assigned different duties with the understanding that both sets of activities were necessary for the success of the family. Men were thought to be Yang; Positive, light, hard, outer, while women were understood to be Yin; negative, dark, weak, inner. The rise of footbinding among the gentry during the course of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), in limiting mobility and giving women’s bodies the appearance of being enervated, and fragile, re-enforced this spatial segregation of outer/inner. The bound foot was fundamental in the construction of this conception of femininity, in time becoming a symbol of elegance and enhanced social status. By the 18th Century, when footbinding was beginning to be emulated by the lower classes, the bound foot had been established as an aesthetic beauty standard that was a desirable and natural corporal state of being female, essential to the construction of feminine identity. Bound feet were not considered to be an infliction or deformity, but an embellishment, that amplified one’s cultural currency. Women were not helpless victims of footbinding, but were active agents who used the bound foot in an enactment of those beliefs. In binding their feet, women could be socially assertive. A failure to bind, could be social suicide.

 At the time of footbinding’s eminence Chinese women were by and large silent on the subject, as the feet were considered to be an element of personal feminine hygiene and thus an intimate concern. The feet themselves remained concealed, the public exhibition of possessing lotus feet was restricted to the display of the ornamental shoes. Despite the limited Chinese textual sources that have survived, the search for footbindings ascendancy can be augmented by the material evidence provided by cultural artifacts. To this end, this personal collection acquired from numerous expeditions to China over a period of thirty-five years, began with an objective of rescuing, or salvaging what remained of footbinding culture. Artifacts speak, and are perhaps the most reliable evidence available, if one knows how to read them. By using these tangible items of material culture affiliated with footbinding it is possible to illuminate the aspects of the practice that were abstract, including the ideas, beliefs, values, ideologies and rituals central to Chinese women’s assumption of the custom. Presented here is a glimpse into this unparalleled personal collection of Chinese artworks associated with this practice, covering an expansive span of time stretching from the end of the Ming dynasty, around 1600, through to the collapse of Republican Era China in 1949. Included in the collection are period photographs, oil paintings, watercolors, ivory carvings, ceramics, ephemera, erotica, and over 600 pair of ‘lotus shoes,’ the exquisite works of textile folk art worn on the bound feet. Arresting in their workmanship, beauty, and seemingly impossible diminutiveness, lotus shoes are objects of wonder that have captivated observers for centuries. Using this material evidence, that refutes the reliability of the accepted historical record, is a way to ensure that the forthcoming narrative of footbinding reliably captures the human beings who really inhabited and enacted its history -putting the lived lives of Chinese women back into the chronicle of footbinding, and further, substantiating the tyranny of fashion and fear of ostracization that incentivized the bizarre custom for a millennium- compelling generations of Chinese mothers to bind their own daughter’s feet.

A late 19th century Chinese eglomise painting of a beautiful courtesan sitting on the alcove to her

bed draws attention to her diminutive foot in a tasseled and embroidered red lotus shoe.