Author: PRAGER, EMILY
Title: A Visit from the Footbinder. And Other Stories
Description: London : Chatto & Windus, 1983.. First edition 174 p. SOFTCOVER: (Orig. paperb. Cover with misformed lady's feet. VERY GO0D) ¶ RARE EDITION The story draws most of its facts from Howard S. Levy who describes footbinding as “a vivid symbol of the subjection of women”8. First described by Friar Odoric in 1324, with the first Chinese reference occurring shortly thereafter, footbinding began with the aristocracy and filtered down, eventually lasting more than a thousand years. Its origin was attributed to Li Yu (937-978) the second emperor of the Southern Tong dynasty who supposedly forced his favourite concubine Yao Niang to dance with small bound feet on the golden image of a large lotus flower, and subsequently made a six foot gilded stage in the shape of the lotus9. There were opposition movements over the years. The Manchus conquered China in the 17th century and tried to outlaw it, unsuccessfully (their own women adopted tiny high heels to simulate bound feet); Christian missionaries intensified the challenge; and it was banned officially in 1902, though it still went on until the middle of the 20th century. Even once the practice was abandoned, women with bound feet had to keep them bound, because it was too painful to do otherwise. Footbinding confined woman to the home, the interior, thus preserving her chastity and (in a hot climate) her facial beauty, effectively reducing women to the operative space of the boudoir. It was believed that it led to a teetering, swaying walk which was considered erotic (like modern day high heels), and that the need to compensate for tiny feet by clenching the upper leg led to bigger buttocks and a tighter vagina. Men supposedly wanted to have seks with a bound-foot woman because of the sensation of tightness on intercourse, considered akin to intercourse with a virgin

Keywords: Asia china medicine & psychology Ehnography Anthropology sexuality footbinding