Freeing the Feet of Women

*Before reading this text, please note that it may contain unsettling descriptions. It delves into a practice that inflicted considerable harm upon Chinese women and incorporates images that could evoke distressing reactions.*

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Upon returning home to Sweden from China to retire, Olga and Dagny brought back cherished mementos from their life as missionaries. These precious keepsakes were later distributed among their children upon their passing. In my family, certain items found their place in the elegant glass cabinet in he living room of my grandparents, Edna and Rudolf. Every time we visited, I would sit together with my siblings, looking through the glass, wishing we could play with the miniature table that was set with miniature Chinese dishes, the elephant ornaments or the very small woman’s shoe, that looked the size of a baby’s foot.

A cabinet of treasures

We were not really allowed to play with the things, but once in a while, grandmother would open the cabinet and take out the things, one by one, to let us look at them and touch them very carefully.

When my grandmother passed away, the content of the cabinet was shared by her three children. My father kept the actual cabinet, together with some of the keepsakes. When he passed, the cabinet and its content were unfortunately lost from the family. The only memory I have is this blurry photo.

When writing my last post, I mentioned the tradition of footbinding in China, and during the past month I have been thinking about that very small woman’s shoe, that was once such a fascinating part of the cabinet’s content.

Last summer, spending some time at the missionary recreational home Strömsborg, I photographed such a shoe, that was laying around in a cupboard. Holding it very carefully, I pondered the fate of the poor girl, whose foot had been broken, folded and pressed into this very tiny shoe.

This is one tradition that the missionaries tried to convince the Chinese to stop practicing, and both my great grandmothers were dealing with the consequences of the footbinding in their congregations on a daily basis.

For instance, Olga wrote about a girl with bound feet that had such trouble walking she fell and broke her thigh bone. It was only one year after Olga had arrived in China that she was asked to go to the neighbouring province Shansi, to help a woman who had hurt a leg. This is her account of the journey and the people she encountered:

”I rode to the river and took the ferry across at the same place where I had walked over on the ice in January. The boat I boarded was loaded with a large flock of sheep and the men who were tending to them. I had to sit on the boat railing. The current was strong, and we crossed the river swiftly, but it almost ended in disaster. The boatmen lost control of the boat just before reaching the shore. The current took the boat, which crashed into the rocks with a loud noise. The men, the sheep, and I were thrown around violently by the impact. A sheep’s foot ended up next to mine in the same shoe! I was wearing low Chinese shoes. It was uncomfortable, but I was thankful that I didn’t end up with more sheep’s feet on me and that I fell into the boat and not out of it, where I was sitting on the railing. Miss Johnson stood on the shore, having come to meet me, with horror in her eyes as she saw the boat being taken by the current towards the cliff. She feared it would be smashed to pieces. Many boats have been taken by the current and wrecked at this spot.

Then we set off in a carriage, first to the town of Hotsin, where the woman had her home. There, the missionaries had a small outstation where Miss Johnson and I stayed for three weeks while I attended to the injured daily. In addition to this woman, there were several accidents during those weeks.

Among them was a young girl who, with her bound feet, walked and slipped, breaking one thigh bone. Splints had to be procured and crafted, the leg set, and a brace arranged for traction. This girl also had to be attended to every day to ensure the splint remained in place and the bandage was not loosened.”

A painful practice
Olga took care of many women with bound feet. The tradition was one way to keep the women in check and it was the mother who had to bind her daughter’s feet. Olga wrote about a couple of methods to do this.

“One approach was for the mother to first wash the girl’s feet in hot water. Then she took a knife and made several deep cuts along the entire foot. Once this was done, the foot was dipped in nearly boiling water, and then a bandage was applied as tightly as possible. The girl screamed and lamented during the brutal treatment, but it did not help. Often, she could neither eat nor sleep initially. To alleviate the pain somewhat, she had to lie on her back on the bed with her legs tied up against the wall. In this position, blood flowed away from the feet, reducing the pain. Another example was when the feet were soaked in nearly boiling water to soften them. Then the mother took old porcelain or stone vessels, smashed into small pieces, and placed them over the foot, which was then tightly bound. The purpose of the treatment was to soften the muscles so that it would be easier to bend the foot.

Bound feet, Sinims Land.

Over time, women developed problems due to the aftermath of the brutal and debilitating treatment. They then needed qualified medical care, but the husband could decide that no treatment was needed. Alternatively, the woman was subjected to the treatment of incompetent Chinese doctors, which often worsened her condition, sometimes resulting in death.”

A woman’s worth
Women and girls were not highly valued in China at the time. Baby girls were often left to die outside of the village walls. Families that bound the feet of their daughters, were usually wealthy enough both to keep them and to not need them working in the fields. A girl or woman with bound feet could not perform work that involved standing for extended periods of time. Bound feet were considered beautiful, and the families of girls with bound feet were seen as realtively wealthy, why these girls could marry well. This fact even prompted poorer peasant families to bind their daugther’s feet, so that they could attract a wealthy man.

The topic of footbinding was also something that the mission paper Sinims Land wrote about. In one issue from 1906, I found the following article about how western women got involved to put an end to footbidning in China:  

“The Chinese Women’s Feet. The End of a Thousand-Year Torture.
When a few foreign ladies in Shanghai joined forces and formed the “Tim Tm Kuei” (Society for Natural Feet), they became the subject of mockery by many. Did they believe they could reject a thousand-year-old custom? Did they not know that in all countries, there is nothing more dangerous than interfering with social customs? Would they be willing, if necessary, to walk barefoot on the streets of Shanghai to advocate for their cause?

The society members raised funds, offered prizes for essays, had pamphlets printed, and distributed them widely across the vast empire. When tens of thousands of Chinese students gathered for their examinations, bundles of these pamphlets were distributed among them. Meetings were held, officials were interviewed, even vice-kings, and a report was submitted to the dowager empress, printed in gold on white satin and signed by almost every European lady in China. The result has been that one of the greatest reforms in the world is now quietly being carried out in China. Since the abolition of slavery, its counterpart has not existed. Ten years ago, every respectable woman deformed her feet to satisfy men’s tastes and qualify for marriage. For several years, missionaries have tried to educate Christians to abandon this cruel practice, through which, according to Chinese estimates, 10% of girls in China are annually tortured to death, and the rest sentenced to a life of suffering with diminished capacity to work. In the province of Guangdong, several women have to be carried on the backs of others, while in other parts of the country, they have to crawl on their knees.

The Dowager Empress Comes to Aid
Finally, an imperial edict was issued. After that, vice-kings, one by one, issued proclamations against footbinding, usually after an interview or upon receiving a letter from one of the society’s secretaries. And now, feet of natural size are becoming quite common. China is changing rapidly. In Shanghai, wealthy officials have established a school for such girls from good families, who have not yet bound their feet or who have removed the bandages in hopes of becoming teachers. Although the school has just started, it already has 80 students in full board. At the first end of semester, the hall was packed with Chinese gentlemen who wanted to witness the results. The granddaughter of one of the highest officials in Shanghai recited a poem in English, clearly and fluently; some little girls sang a song, also in English. Then everyone sang a song against foot binding, and several pieces of music were performed on the piano. Afterwards, there was a gymnastics display. It is noteworthy that English, music, and gymnastics are entirely new things for the Chinese girls. In this way, the anti-footbinding society’s activities evolves into a movement for higher education.”

A bound foot, the toes folded in underneath. From the book of J.M. Ollén, “Svenska missionsbragder”.

After the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the new nationalist government banned footbinding. It had been done by the dowager empress in 1902, but to no effect. The ban in 1911/1912 had most effect in coastal cities, but was still carried out in the rural areas. After the communist takeover in 1949, the practice was completely banned by Mao Zedong.

Keepsakes carrying meaning
Perhaps the small shoe in my grandparent’s cabinet was an important item to bring back from China, as my great grandmothers had actually been there to liberate many girls and women from the footbinding practice. One very powerful way of doing this was the mission’s girls school. The school offered Chinese families the opportunity to educate their daughters in literacy and the teachings of the Bible. Christian families who enrolled their daughters in the girl school were encouraged not to bind their feet. Olga and Dagny were proud as they observed the natural, unbound feet of the Chinese girls attending their schools, often mentioning this detail in their letters back home.

And just like Olga and Dagny were strong women, who had worked, struggled to educate themselves and finally embarked on this great adventure to a distant land, they were of course happy to be a part of freeing the feet of the Chinese women. It was a true victory for women. This meant that new generations of Chinese girls could now freely walk, run, and begin their journey toward liberation from male dominance as well.

A woman with bound feet, making bread out of tree bark.