Footbinding: Domination or Choice?

There is no clear reason, or we are determined to be responsible for a binding birth, but there are several theories. Deformed foot caught in the last queen of the Shang dynasty. Some of them said that she had club feet, trying to derive beauty from malformations, "I persuaded my spouse to push my legs on a young girl" (Levy, 37). Another situation is that the Mongolians are trying to weaken the health of Chinese women to weaken the Chinese.

Historians have many different, sometimes contradictory theories about why foot restraint begins and continues as a cultural practice.

Historian Dorothy suggests that the dressing may be an expression of Confucian civilization and cultural ideals in correct costumes and body decorations, and this combination is seen as an essential part of feminization and civilization I will. Foot combinations in China's encyclopedia are often classified as clothing or body decoration rather than funeralism; for example, since 1591, some of the "female decorations", including hair, powder, ear holes, It was placed. According to Ko, a binding idea as a civilized practice is found in the Ming Dynasty, and the description states a proposal "to attract civilization habits by encouraging women to become binding." . This practice is also done by girls against girls. This will help highlight the differences between men and women who have been around since they were children.

Reform conscious Chinese intellectuals are beginning to consider binding force as an aspect of their culture and need to be eliminated. In 1883, Kang Youwei established an anti-restrictive association near Guangzhou to confront this custom, an anti-restrained society appeared nationwide, and the number of members of the campaign reached 300,000. However, the opposition party's campaigning movement emphasizes the reasons for pragmatism and patriotism, not feminism, and believes that abolition of footsteps leads to better health and more effective workforce. A reformist like Liang Qichao who was influenced by social Darwinism also thought that weakened the country because weak women were said to produce weak sons. At the turn of the 20th century, early feminists such as Qiu Jin called for stopping bondage. Many members of the anti-restraint group do not promise to not detain their daughter's feet, and to allow their sons to marry a woman with a foot.