Horrible Cultural Practices - No.1:Feet-binding

(Source: The 10 Horrible Cultural Practices in the World
Fascinating Cultural Anthropology -
English Text Provided by courtesy of Mrs Stella Lee for friends overseas.)

This started as a custom in China in the 10th century and stopped in the early 20th century. Girls’ From 6 years of age or younger, girls' feet were bound inwards to inhibit regular growth. Bones, would later be crushed so the feet could be reshaped. Consequently, bound feet were supposed to eventually be not more than 4-6 inches or 10-15 cm. This is the main reason for the disability (inability to walk) amongst very old Chinese women today.

Procedures:
1) soak feet in a mixture of Chinese herbal medicine and animal blood, relaxing the muscles and rendering them easily shaped.
2) Remove toe nails to avoid subsequent infections. All these are preparatory steps for the real foot binding.
3) To shape the feet, a silk or cotton bandage, 2 inches wide and 10 feet long, was soaked in the same mixture as in a) above
4) Feet are bound in these bandages, which were gradually tightened until they could be pulled to the heel of the foot.
5) Shoes were custom made to fit these small feet.

My comments:

This reminds me of my late grandmother who came from China. She was a tea-picker there and could walk just like a normal person, though it seemed awkward to others not used to it.

For few years before she died in the early '60s, she had to use a rattan chair to move around because of a fall, in her eagerness to see what was happening to my elder brother.

I can still remember her looking out of her room to look at our rose garden. For replacement of wooden soles for her shoes, she was ever grateful to our workshop carpenter.
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