Foot binding

Foot binding
A Chinese woman showing her foot, image by Lai Afong, c. 1870s
Traditional Chinese	纏足
Simplified Chinese	缠足
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin chánzú Wade–Giles ch'an2-tsu2 IPA [ʈʂʰǎn.tsǔ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization chìhn-jūk Jyutping cin4-zuk1 IPA [tsʰiːn˩.tsok̚˥]
Alternative (Min) Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	裹腳
Simplified Chinese	裹脚
Transcriptions

Foot binding (simplified Chinese: 缠足; traditional Chinese: 纏足; pinyin: chánzú), or footbinding, was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls to change their shape and size. Feet altered by footbinding were known as lotus feet and the shoes made for them were known as lotus shoes. In late imperial China, bound feet were considered a status symbol and a mark of feminine beauty. However, footbinding was a painful practice that limited the mobility of women and resulted in lifelong disabilities.

The prevalence and practice of footbinding varied over time and by region and social class.^[1] The practice may have originated among court dancers during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in 10th-century China and gradually became popular among the elite during the Song dynasty. Footbinding eventually spread to lower social classes by the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Manchu emperors attempted to ban the practice in the 17th century but failed.^[2] In some areas, footbinding raised marriage prospects. It has been estimated that by the 19th century 40–50% of all Chinese women may have had bound feet, rising to almost 100% in upper-class Han Chinese women.^[3]

In the late 19th century, Christian missionaries and Chinese reformers challenged the practice but it was not until the early 20th century that the practice began to die out, following the efforts of anti-footbinding campaigns. Additionally, upper-class and urban women dropped the practice of footbinding sooner than poorer rural women.^[4] By 2007, only a small handful of elderly Chinese women whose feet had been bound were still alive.