This is my presentation on Foot Binding and its definition as an economic crutch.

1. Autumn Flickinger
Foot Binding:
Labour & Economic Crutch

2. Foot binding was a
source of labour &
economic stability in
pre-Industrial China.

3. 3
An Introduction to Foot Binding
A practice that affected millions of Chinese women
and girls.
Binding cloth would be wrapped around the feet of a
girl between the ages of 4 and 9.
The toes except for the big toe were bent under the
sole of the foot and the foot was bound tightly.
Unbound & rebound
When the feet were in their final form, they would be
narrowed to a point, the four toes and the tendon in
the arch would be broken; “Lotus Feet”.
Extremely debilitating.

4. 4
Foot Binding Origins
Foot binding was mentioned in the Tang
dynasty by Emperor Li Yu (931-975 CE).
Elite women started binding their feet as a
symbol of status.
Gaining a following in the Song dynasty
(960-1279 CE).
Most important duty of women was
producing heirs.
Less civically involved.

5. 5
Confucianism & Women
Gender was more than physical anatomy.
Unbound feet were impermissible.
Confucian segregation; household inner and outer roles.
No public affairs.
More work to do at home.
Foot binding was a major push in
economic production.

6. 6
The Expectations of Girls & Women
Golden, Silver, & Iron Lotuses.
3 or 4 no more.
Proposal of a good life.
Promotion and mental training:
Future family to create.
Marriage
Current family to support.
Income

7. 7
Bound Feet & Daily Labour
Commodity items in China: silk, hemp, and cotton.
“Men plow, women weave”
Boys did work too.
All houses had a wooden loom
Weavers specifically targeted girls
Less play and more work
In one day, a girl/woman could produce 9in wide and 18-20ft long bundle of yarn.
The hand-woven yarn would be used to produce things like baskets,
shoes, mats, and ropes
These things were not used in the home
Cash, grain, oil, cotton

8. 8
Mother’s Reasons Behind Foot Binding
Mother’s were responsible for binding their daughter’s feet.
Burden of motherhood
High amount of children ≅ 6.0
Hardship of daily chores
Expectation-blame
A mother’s helper
Less field work, more house work
More salable items
Girls could do basic work
More income

9. 9

10. 10
Decrease in Foot Binding & Commercialized
Labour
Cotton and handmade items were the main produced items
and source of income for China.
Chinese Industrialization
Increased factories and automatic spinning wheels
Foot binding was before pre-Industrial China
Decrease in foot binding when China became industrialized in
rural areas.
Less income made off salable items.
Still taught to do traditional weaving; “past-time”.
No incentive to bind.

11. 11
Bibliography
Bossen, Laurel, and Hill Gates. Bound Feet, Young Hands: Tracking the Demise of Footbinding in
Village China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017.
Bossen, Laurel, Wang Xurui, Melissa J. Brown, and Hill Gates. "Feet and Fabrication: Footbinding
and Early Twentieth-Century Rural Women's Labor in Shaanxi." Modern China 37, no. 4 (2011): 347-83.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23053328.
“Foot-Binding.” ReadWorks. Accessed October 31, 2019.
https://www.readworks.org/article/Foot-Binding/dacbe2e9-c28e-435b-850c-15a32eb20eb1.
Blake, C. Fred. “Foot-Binding in Neo-Confucian China and the Appropriation of Female Labor.”
Chicago Journals. The University of Chicago Press. Accessed October 31, 2019.
Ebrey, Patricia. “Women in Traditional China.” Asia Society. Accessed October 31, 2019.
https://asiasociety.org/education/women-traditional-china.
Foreman, Amanda. “Why Footbinding Persisted in China for a Millennium.” Smithsonian.com.
Smithsonian Institution, February 1, 2015.