my feet would swell, and the pus would drip. Mother
criticized me for placing pressure on the heel in walking, saying that my feet would never assume a pretty shape. Mother would remove the bindings and wipe
the blood and pus which dripped from my feet. She
told me that only with the removal o f the flesh could
my feet become slender. If I mistakenly punctured a
sore, the blood gushed like a stream. My somewhat
fleshy big toes were bound with small pieces o f cloth and
forced upwards, to assume a new moon shape.
Every two weeks, I changed to new shoes. Each
new pair was one- to two-tenths o f an inch smaller than
the previous one. The shoes were unyielding, and it
took pressure to get into them. Though I wanted to
sit passively by the K’ang, Mother forced me to move
Gynocide: Chinese Footbinding
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around. After changing more than ten pairs of shoes,
my feet were reduced to a little over four inches. I
had been in binding for a month when my younger
sister started; when no one was around, we would
weep together. In summer, my feet smelled offensively because of pus and blood; in winter, my feet felt cold because of lack of circulation and hurt if
they got too near the K'ang and were struck by warm
air currents. Four of the toes were curled in like so
many dead caterpillars; no outsider would ever have
believed that they belonged to a human being. It took
two years to achieve the three-inch model. My toenails pressed against the flesh like thin paper. The heavily-creased plantar couldn't be scratched when it
itched or soothed when it ached. My shanks were thin,
my feet became humped, ugly, and odiferous; how I
envied the natural-footed! 5
Bound feet were crippled and excruciatingly painful. T h e woman was actually “walking” on the outside o f toes which had been bent under into the sole o f the
foot. T he heel and instep o f the foot resembled the sole
and heel o f a high-heeled boot. Hard callouses formed;
toenails grew into the skin; the feet were pus-filled and
bloody; circulation was virtually stopped. T h e foot-
bound woman hobbled along, leaning on a cane, against
a wall, against a servant. T o keep her balance she took
very short steps. She was actually falling with every
step and catching herself with the next. Walking required tremendous exertion.
Footbinding also distorted the natural lines o f the
female body. It caused the thighs and buttocks, which
were always in a state o f tension, to become somewhat swollen (which men called “voluptuous”). A cu
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