The oldest kind of shoe ornamentation
The movement to eliminate footbinding in Taiwan was closely identified with the Japanese occupation. From the start, Japanese officials and intellectuals were critical of the Chinese habits of opium smoking, wearing pigtails, and footbinding. Colonial authorities felt that these customs were obstacles in the way of efficient rule. Opium smoking was injurious to the health and adversely influenced work output; pigtails and bound feet were looked down upon as ugly and unsanitary. But the Japanese also realized that they were just settling down in Taiwan, with their troops still busily engaged in putting down local rebellions. They knew that customs which had been practiced for centuries could not be eradicated overnight and were afraid that sudden implementation of a policy of total abolition might endanger their control of the native population. Unlike the mainland, anti-footbinding in Taiwan was not part of an indigenous revolutionary movement to extend women’s rights but was imposed from above by foreign colonials.
The Japanese first adopted a policy of non-interference, shown in the way they allowed the wearing of pigtails. This custom was an old one, shared by the Hsienpi, Turk, Jurched and Mongol peoples. In the early twelfth century, Chin ruler T’ai-tsung ordered all Chinese to adopt the queue, but the edict proved only partially successful and was later discontinued. The Manchus who conquered China enforced the wearing of the queue as a proof of subjugation among inhabitants of occupied areas. Those who refused to obey were threatened with execution for disloyalty. This method succeeded, and in little more than a decade the policy of having Chinese men wear the queue had been enforced throughout the empire.
The Japanese ridiculed the Taiwanese by calling them “pigtail Chinese,” while the Taiwanese called their conquerors “opium heads,” referring to the brisk opium trade which had been carried on before the official prohibition. About the turn of the century, a few Taiwanese advocated cutting off the pigtail because it was inappropriate for the modern age, but without effect. On January 1, 1902, a newspaper article in Taiwan noted that, fully eight years after the occupation, only twenty-eight men had cut off their queues out of a Taipei population of several tens of thousands. There was a small rebel uprising in the south in October, 1901, during which Japanese subjugation forces conscripted able-bodied Taiwanese and persuaded them to cut off their pigtails so that they could be more easily distinguished from the rebels. Later they forced the rebel leader and the five thousand men who surrendered with him to remove their queues. But in the early occupation phase some officials still felt that coercion was improper. On September 29, 1902, the Civil Affairs Chief issued a notification which advised subordinates to be cautious in interfering with this custom, since it was correct to have queues removed only if the masses acquiesced.
Some cut off their pigtails to avoid being mistaken for anti-Japanese rebels, but were looked down on by fellow Taiwanese. As on the mainland, influence towards change was exerted through the educational system, even though it was colonially controlled. This had increasing effect on Taiwanese youth attending Japanese language curriculum schools; by 1910, about half had given up the practice. The success of the Chinese Revolution in the following year, with its call for eliminating the queue and footbinding, also had its effect on changing the psychological outlook of mainland-oriented Taiwanese. Many intellectuals favored reform, and a society was organized for cutting off pigtails while retaining traditional dress. The society came into existence in 1911, not to commemorate the overthrow of the Manchus, but to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of Japan. Its leader, Huang Yu-chieh, made this statement during his inaugural address:
Tientsin foot apparel
Law-abiding citizens must realize that after the Meiji Restoration all Japanese, including the Emperor himself, cut off their long locks. We Taiwanese bound our hair during the Ming dynasty and adopted the pigtail during the Ch’ing dynasty. But Taiwan is now a part of Japan; it should therefore adopt Japanese customs. The Japanese are much more benevolent than were the severe Manchus. Though we are really Japanese, it is difficult for us to enjoy first-class treatment as citizens of Japan because we look like Manchus when we go abroad. Many peoples, like the Koreans, have recently cut off their pigtails. And compared with Korea, we enjoy the relationship of an elder brother to a younger brother. So it is hard to understand why the Taiwanese are still unwilling to abandon the pigtail. Some say: “Cut the pigtail and change the dress,” but this is not economically feasible. The Japanese who cut their hair in the Meiji era kept their old dress; we should do the same until our clothes wear out. The Manchus have already cut their hair, so the fate of the queue is sealed. This custom, which affects our personalities and our cultural response, is unsanitary and inconvenient.
The society stressed in its regulations that its sole objective was removal of the queue. At each meeting, any number of participants in excess of ten could have their queues cut off together. The underlying aim was to enable Taiwan to become as one culturally with Japan, its mother country. Official encouragement was given, and as an honor the name of each new member was listed in the local press. Several hundred people attended the first meeting. Among the speakers was a high official from the office of the Taiwan Governor-General, who publicly attacked pigtails as being unnatural, inconvenient, uneconomic, and unsanitary. According to the official, since seventeen years had passed with Taiwan under Japanese rule, it was really time for the old customs to give way to new ones. “The opposition to footbinding and pigtails is therefore not a creation of official government pressure but is rather due to the exigencies of the present. To be successful, changes in custom should not only be effected externally but should take place because of inner conviction.”
During this meeting, eight barbers cut off the pigtails of more than a hundred members. Some were so emotionally affected by the removal that they put the pigtail in paper and took it home as a remembrance. Others had photographs taken “before and after.” This event of 1911 was imitated elsewhere in Taipei, which led the rest of the island in organization and procedure. Within a few months, hair-cutting ceremonies had taken place throughout Taiwan. In September, 1913, 2,500 out of 4,200 men in a village near Taichung cut off their pigtails, and by November of the next year only thirty-eight boys of a total of 9,800 in Taichung public schools still kept their queues. But adults and elders from the villages did not take to this liberalization quite so readily. In 1915, the twentieth year of the occupation, the Japanese authorities decided to order that pigtails be removed, with official action to be taken by the seventeenth of June. Without waiting for the deadline, almost one and a third million Taiwanese cut off their queues, leaving only a die-hard remnant estimated at eighty thousand.
The drive against footbinding was launched earlier than the moves against the queue, with similar leadership. Huang Yu-chieh, mentioned earlier in connection with anti-queue organization, was the first Taiwanese in Taipei to advocate publicly that footbinding be eliminated. Huang, a practitioner of Chinese medicine, often said that the bound-footedness of Taiwanese women was unnatural. About the turn of the century, Huang and his friends organized a natural-foot society and applied to the Taipei County Office for formal registration.