Bound Feet -The Northampton Museum & Art Gallery

Bound Feet

When looking around the Northampton Museum & Art Gallery the shoes that interested me the most were the bound feet shoe.  This was because at a first glance I thought that they were very beautiful shoes...for a child, however after being told that they were for adult women I instantly wanted to find out more about why they were so tiny as I had never seen anything like this before.

The bound feet shoes were worn by Chinese women in the 10th century when the Han Chinese were ruling the country.  Foot binding was a traditional fashion within China and women would bind their feet as it was believed it opened the way to a good marriage.  

Foot binding became particularly popular as men found it very attractive and at this time bound feet were seen as a status symbol and the only way for a woman to marry into money.  Foot binding was first only practised by the upper class but then by the 12th century it had spread throughout the culture so even the poorest women would bind their feet.

Foot binding would begin when Chinese girls were aged 4-7 years old and they would firstly soak their feet in warm water or animal blood and herbs, cut their toe nails and be given a foot massage.  Then all their toes would be broken except from the big toe and then wrapped in binding cloth.  The binding cloth would need to be changed every couple of days until their foot was about 4inches long, to create a "lotus foot". 

Thankfully, the trend of foot binding went out in the 19th century, when many Western people began to move to the country who believed it was wrong and started campaigns to stop this terrible fascination.  However because of this change many of the girls that had their feet bound to make themselves marriageable were abandoned by their husbands because foot binding was no longer fashionable.  

Following from this if women were identified with bound feet in cities some people would catch women and cut off their bindings to be humiliated, so did not show their feet to anyone!  

Although the bound feet shoes were very pretty I was shocked that such a practise took place where the phrase 'no pain no gain' could not be more true!