Friday, 19 February 2016

FOOT BINDING

An ideal of chinese beauty which lasted until the first term of the 20th centurie was the foot binding. 
It was the custom of applying painfully tight binding to the feet of young girls to prevent further growth. The practice possibly originated among upper-class court dancers during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in Imperial China (10th or 11th century), then became popular during the Song dynasty and eventually spread to all social classes. Foot binding became popular as a means of displaying status (women from wealthy families, who did not need their feet to work, could afford to have them bound) and was correspondingly adopted as a symbol of beauty in Chinese culture. Its prevalence and practice however varied in different parts of the country.
The Manchu Kangxi Emperor tried to ban foot binding in 1664 but failed. In the later part of the 19th century, Chinese reformers challenged the practice but it was not until the early 20th century that foot binding began to die out as a result of anti-foot binding campaigns. Foot-binding resulted in lielong disabilities for most of its subjects, and a few elderly Chinese women still survive today with disabilities related to their bound feet.


8 comments:

  1. It´s curious how fashions could damage the people, and how people could do everything to be beaty

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    1. That is totally true! When will come the day when we can be ourselves without having to follow the instructions of a minority?

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  2. Do you know that this is true currently?

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    1. No, as it's said in the post this horrible thing ended in the 20th Century.

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  3. If you were in that place, would you do it?

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    1. No, we would never do such a thing. We think it attempts the integrity of a person. Fashions can be hurtful, this is one of the best examples.

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  4. In my point of view,according to the text,it is very damaged to their body,but ,for example,in china,they must have their foot small by the culture,because,if they do not have it,they could not married.

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