bamboo-shoots [the toes] rise toward heaven, and pointed feet look flat." Such
profound observation on the details of an idle life is always characteristic of the
Chinese genius.
VIII. EMANCIPATION
The seclusion of women has now gone. It has gone so fast that people who left China
ten years ago find, on coming back, a change in the whole physical and mental
outlook of Chinese girls so vast as to shake their most profound convictions. The girls of the present generation differ in temperament, grace, bearing and spirit of
independence from the "modern" girls of ten or twelve years ago. Myriad influences
are at work, causing this change. In general, they may be called the Western
influences.
Specifically they are: the change from monarchy to republic in 1911, admitting sexual
equality; the Renaissance started in 1916-17, headed by Dr. Hu Shih and Ch'enTuhsiu,
denouncing the "chaste widowhood" of the "man-eating religion" (Confucianism) and
the double sex standard; the May Fourth Movement or Student Movement of 1919,
brought about by the secret selling of China by the Allies at the Versailles Conference,
and precipitating the active part taken in politics by boy
VII. FOOTBINDING
The nature and origin of footbinding has been greatly misunderstood. Somehow it has
stood as a symbol of the seclusion and suppression of women, and very suitably so.
The great Confucian scholar Ghu Hsi of the Sung Dynasty was also enthusiastic in
introducing footbinding in southern Fukien as a means of spreading Chinese culture
and teaching the separation of men and women. But if it had been regarded only as a
symbol of the suppression of women, mothers would not have been so enthusiastic in
binding the feet of their young daughters. Actually, footbinding was sexual in its
nature throughout. Its origin was undoubtedly in the courts of licentious kings, its
popularity with men was based on the worship of women's feet and shoes as a
love-fetish and on the feminine gait which naturally followed, and its popularity with
women was based on their desire to curry men's favour.
The time of origin of this institution is subject to debate, which is somewhat
unnecessary, since it would be more proper to speak of its "evolution." The only
proper definition of footbinding is the binding of the feet by long yards of binding
cloth and the discarding of the socks, and this seemed to be first definitely mentioned
in connection with Nant'ang Houchu, in the first part of the tenth century, or before
the Sung Dynasty. Yang Kweifei (T'ang Dynasty) still wore socks, for one of her
socks was picked up by her amah and shown to the public after her death, at the
admission rate of a hundred cash a person. Rapturous praise of women's small feet
and their "bow-shoes" had become a fashion in the T'ang Dynasty. The c'bow-shoes,"
with upturned heads like the bow of a Roman galley, were the beginnings or
rudimentary forms of footbinding* These were used by the dancing gir ls of the court,
and in this luxurious atmosphere of female dancing and court perfume and beaded
curtains and rare incense, it was natural that a creative mind should have appeared and
put the last finishing touch to this sensual sophistication. This creat ive mind belonged
to the ruler of Nant'ang (Southern T'ang, a short- lived dynasty), who was an exquisite
poet besides. One of his girls with bound feet was made to dance with light tiptoe
steps on a golden lily six feet high, hung all over with jewels and pearls and golden threads. Thereafter, the fashion was set and imitated by the public, and the bound feet
were euphuistically called "golden lilies" or "fragrant lilies," which enabled them to
pass into poetry. The word "fragrant" is significant, for it suggests the voluptuous
atmosphere of the rich Chinese, whose chambers were filled with rare and fine
perfume on which whole volumes have been written.
That women were not only willing but actually glad to be fashionable and d la mode
at the expense of bodily comfort is nothing peculiarly Chinese. As late as 1824,
English girls were willing to lie on the floor while their mothers by foot and hand
were helping to squeeze their bodies inside the whale-bones.1 These whale-bones
must have greatly assisted the eighteenthcentury and early nineteenth-century
European women in fainting at the proper moment. Women may be frail in China, but
it has never been the fashion to faint. The tiptoe dancing of the Russian ballet is but
another example of the beauty of human torture which may be honoured with the
name of an art.
The small feet of Chinese women are not only pleasing in men's eyes but in a strange
and subtle way they influence the whole carriage and walking gait of the women,
throwing the hips backward, somewhat like the modern high-heeled shoes, and
effecting an extremely gingerly gait, the body "shimmying" all over and ready to fall
at the slightest touch. Looking at a woman with bound feet walking is like looking at
a ropedancer, tantalizing to the highest degree. The bound foot is indeed the highest
sophistication of the Chinese sensual imagination.
Then, entirely apart from the feminine gait, men had come to worship and play with
and admire and sing about the small feet as a love- fetish. From now on, night shoes
were to occupy an important place in all sensual poetry. The cult of the "golden lily"
belonged undoubtedly to the realm of sexual psychopathology. As much artistic
finesse was exercised in the appreciation of different types of bound feet as was ever
expended over the criticism of T'ang poetry. When one remembers that really small
and well- shaped feet were rare, perhaps less than ten in a city, it is easy to understand
how men could be moved by them as they might be moved by exquisite poetry. Fang
Hsien of the Manchu Dynasty wrote an entire book devoted to this art, classifying the
bound feet into five main divisions and eighteen types. Moreover, a bound foot should
be (A) Fat, (B) Soft and (G) Elegant; so says Fang:
1A fashion journal of the time says: "When lacing the new stays, the young lady
should He face downwards on her bedroom floor, and her mother should place her
foot in the small of her daughter's back in order to obtain good purchase. There should
be then no difficulty in making the stays meet."
Thin feet are cold, and muscular feet are hard. Such feet are incurably vulgar. Hence
fat feet are full and smooth to the touch, soft feet are gentle and pleasing to the eye,
and elegant feet are refined and beautiful. But fatness does not depend on the flesh, softness does not depend on the binding, and elegance does not depend on the shoes.
Moreover, you may judge its fatness and softness by its form, but you may appreciate
its elegance only by the eye of the mind.
All those who understand the power of fashion over women will understand the
persistence of this institution. It is curious to note that the decree of the Manchu
Emperor K'anghsi to stop footbinding among the Chinese was rescinded \vithin a few
years, and Manchu girls were soon imitating Chinese girls in this fashion until
Emperor Ch' ienlung issued an edict and forbade them. Mothers who wanted their girls
to grow up into ladies and marry into good homes had to bind their feet young as a
measure of parental foresight, and a bride who was praised for her small feet had a
feeling analogous to filial gratitude. For next to a good face, a woman was
immeasurably proud of her small feet, as modern women are proud of their small
ankles, for these feet gave her an immediate distinction in any social gathering. Her
bound feet were painful, unmercifully painful, during the time of growing youth, but
if she had a well-shaped pair, it was her pride for life.
This monstrous and perverse institution was condemned by at least three scholars, Li
Juchen (author of a feminist novel, Ckinghuajfuant written in 1825), Ytian Mei
(1716-1799), and
Yti Ghenghsieh (1775-1840), all scholars of independent minds and considerable
influence. But the custom was not abolished until the Christian missionaries led the
crusade, a debt for which Chinese women ought to be grateful. But in this the
missionaries have been fortunately helped by the force of circumstances, for Chinese
women have found in the modern high-heeled shoes a tolerable substitute. They
enhance the women's figures, develop a mincing gait and create the illusion that the
feet are smaller than they really are. Li Liweng's profound observation in his essays
on the art of living is still true: "I have seen feet of three inches without heeled shoes
and feet of four or five inches on heeled shoes stand on the same place, and felt that
the three- inch feet are bigger than the four- or five- inch feet. Because with heels, the
toes point downwards, the flat feet seem pointed, while without heels, the jade
bamboo-shoots [the toes] rise toward heaven, and pointed feet look flat." Such
profound observation on the details of an idle life is always characteristic of the
Chinese genius.
VIII. EMANCIPATION
The seclusion of women has now gone. It has gone so fast that people who left China
ten years ago find, on coming back, a change in the whole physical and mental
outlook of Chinese girls so vast as to shake their most profound convictions. The girls
of the present generation differ in temperament, grace, bearing and spirit of
independence from the "modern" girls of ten or twelve years ago. Myriad influences are at work, causing this change. In general, they may be called the Western
influences.
Specifically they are: the change from monarchy to republic in 1911, admitting sexual
equality; the Renaissance started in 1916-17, headed by Dr. Hu Shih and Ch'en Tuhsiu,
denouncing the "chaste widowhood" of the "man-eating religion" (Confucianism) and
the double sex standard; the May Fourth Movement or Student Movement of 1919,
brought about by the secret selling of China by the Allies at the Versailles Conference,
and precipitating the active part taken in politics by boy and girl students;
the first admittance of girl students to the Peking National University in the
autumn of 1919, followed by co-education in almost all colleges; the
continued interest taken in national politics by boy and girl students, leading to the
National Revolution of 1926-7, which was largely the work of the students, under the
combined leadership and encouragement of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party,
and in which Chinese girls figured prominently as party workers and nurses and even
as soldiers; the continued position of girl Kuomintang members in the party
headquarters after the founding of the government of Nanking; the sudden
prominence of girl civil service servants in all official bureaux of the government after
1927; the promulgation by the Nanking Government of the law entitling
daughters and sons to equal inheritance; the progressive disappearance
of concubinage; the prevalence of girls' schools; the great popularity of athletics for
girls after 1930, and in particular swimming for girls in 1934; the vogue for nude
pictures^ to be seen every day in newspapers and magazines; the coming of Margaret
Sanger to China in 1922, and the general spread of birth-control and sex education;
the introduction of contraceptive appliances (which alone must precipitate a
revolution in ethics); the publication of weekly "women's supplements" in most big
papeis, devoted to the discussion of women's problems; the publication of Sex
Histories (rather degenerating) by Chang Chingsheng, a
French-returned student; the influence of Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Mae West, and
Chinese movie stars, and the popularity of movie magazines, of which there are
several; the great spread of dancing cabarets which came over China about 1928, and
in which the Chinese girls gave everybody a surprise by their ready adaptability; the
permanent wave, English high-heeled shoes, Parisian perfumes and American silk
stockings, the new high-slit flowing gowns, the brassiere (in place of the former
chest-binding jacket), and the one-piece female bathing suit.
From bound feet to one-piece bathing suit is indeed a far cry, and these changes,
superficial as they seem, are nevertheless profound. For life is made up of such
superficialities, and by altering them we alter the whole outlook of life.
Modern girls are subjected to current ridicule in Chinese magazines for their
superficialities, their love of luxury, and their loss of industry and other domestic
virtues. For apparently the influence of Mae West is greater than that of Mary
Wollstonecraft. The fact is, there are two types of girls: those who figure so prominently in city life, and the more seriousminded and intellectual ones who are not
in such prominence and who disappear into good homes. Some of the politically
prominent women who court publicity are the worst scoundrels of their sex; they
