Chinese author Yang Yang, shows one of the smallest shoes worn by women with traditionally bound feet, in Liuyi village in China's southern Yunnan Province, February 2007. Villages in China where women with bound feet survive are increasingly rare but the millennium-old practice nevertheless took almost four decades to eradicate after it was initially banned in 1911. Mar 17, 2007 Via: Yahoo News
remember reading bout this back in the day..interesting and sad at the same time...tradition...hmph...
yea damn.. poor ol ladies... but I'm surprised the last pic she was smiling.. ; ooh the 3rd pic is too graphic.. >_< I scrolled down fast to avoid lookin at it.. -lol
>< it hurts every time i see the pics, let alone having lily feet!!! I'm glad it was abolished forever!!!!!!!!!!! not attractive at all!
It's a matter of status symbol. Only the people who are rich can let their do-nothing daughter bind their feet. The peasant girls who need to work never bind their feet, and thus never be able to climb the social ladder. Same goes for having extremely long finger nails, having fair skin and having a full-body -- all of which indicate resourcefulness and rich. And family, be it the family of the girl or the family she married into, maintain such tradition to show that they CAN afford to keep someone who is not productive --> again points to resourcefulness. On another note, it was also believed that the shape of the bound feet, when the bandage is off, resemble the female sex organ (with all the folds and such) --> innuendo?
holy shits it took me a minute to realize that it was her toes on the bottom of her feet and not her other hand in the 3rd pic. that is way extreme, i'm glad we dont have that custom anymore
lol wha... you thought it was her hands!?! it's kinda crazy how the whole binding thing makes her feet look like wings... '
Nothing new there about the Chinese footbinding? Was shown on telly years ago and some months ago at National Geographic Channel again? Oh well, what can I add...erm, I would never fit the beauty standards by the ancient chinese if they prefer really tiny tiny feet...
well well she is smiling mainly cause its been like 50 years so she is used to it but then just because the emperor liked small feet dont mean it has to be that small..
