bandage, about two inches wide and ten feet long, was
Gynocide: Chinese Footbinding
99
wrapped in the following way. One end was placed on
the inside of the instep, and from there it was carried
over the small toes so as to force the toes in and towards the sole. The large toe was left unbound. The bandage was then wrapped around the heel so forcefully that heel and toes were drawn closer together.
The process was then repeated from the beginning
until the entire bandage had been applied. The foot of
the young child was subjected to a coercive and unremitting pressure, for the object was not merely to confine the foot but to make the toes bend under and
into the sole and bring the heel and sole as close together as physically possible. 3
A C h ris tia n m is s io n a ry o b s e rve d :
The flesh often became putrescent during the binding
and portions sloughed off from the sole; sometimes
one or more toes dropped off. 4
A n e ld e rly C h in e s e w o m a n , as late as 1934, re m e m b e re d v iv id ly h e r c h ild h o o d e x p e rie n c e : Born into an old-fashioned family at P’ing-hsi, I was
inflicted with the pain of footbinding when I was seven
years old. I was an active child who liked to jump about,
but from then on my free and optimistic nature vanished. Elder Sister endured the process from six to eight years of age [this means that it took Elder Sister two years to attain the 3-inch foot]. It was in the first lunar month of my seventh year that my ears were
pierced and fitted with gold earrings. I was told that a
girl had to suffer twice, through ear piercing and footbinding. Binding started in the second lunar month; mother consulted references in order to select an
auspicious day for it. I wept and hid in a neighbor’s
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Woman Hating
home, but Mother found me, scolded me, and dragged
me home. She shut the bedroom door, boiled water,
and from a box withdrew binding, shoes, knife, needle,
and thread. I begged for a one-day postponement, but
Mother refused: “Today is a lucky day, ” she said. “ If
bound today, your feet will never hurt; if bound tomorrow they will. ” She washed and placed alum on my feet and cut the toenails. She then bent my toes toward
the plantar with a binding cloth ten feet long and two
inches wide, doing the right foot first and then the
left. She finished binding and ordered me to walk,
but when I did the pain proved unbearable.
That night, Mother wouldn’t let me remove the
shoes. My feet felt on fire and I couldn’t sleep; Mother
struck me for crying. On the following days, I tried
to hide but was forced to walk on my feet. Mother hit
me on my hands and feet for resisting. Beatings and
curses were my lot for covertly loosening the wrappings. The feet were washed and rebound after three or four days, with alum added. After several months,
all toes but the big one were pressed against the inner
surface. Whenever I ate f ish or freshly killed meat,
