Mrs. Shih’s (11) husband, born in 1890, was questioned briefly on the same day as his wife. He said that when he was a child men liked to smoke opium. But, in the late Meiji period, the Japanese forced those who had not started the habit to stay away from it and limited opium consumption by addicts. In this way, the opium habit was gradually eliminated. In his youth, Mr. Shih grew a long pigtail, but cut it off when the Japanese prohibited both it and footbinding. He was then about thirty years of age, living in an age when only a woman with bound feet was considered beautiful.
Nagao Ryuzo, the Japanese sociologist in China for about forty years, knew of no special footbinding festival. However, at the start parents might place the picture of a god of footbinding on the wall, after which a ceremony was held. Nagao first saw bound feet in Shanghai about 1900 and remarked on their extreme smallness. The woman sometimes could not walk unaided, but either had to ask for assistance or cling to furniture or walls. These were usually the women of the rich. Women of workers and farmers had bound feet, but they were large enough to permit walking. Rich children might start binding at three, farmers’ children at four or five years of age. Nagao believed that the so-called “three-inch golden lotus” did not refer to the actual foot size, but rather to the shoe size. The shoe covered the toe area, while the heel was concealed by the trousers.
According to Nagao, the way in which the foot was rubbed as a prelude to sexual intercourse was determined by one’s social rank. High-class ladies wore special silk socks in the bedroom, and these were rubbed by the man. However, lower-class men were so fond of this practice that they might force the ladies to remove the socks as well so that the bare foot could be rubbed.
Japanese visitors to China felt strange when they first saw bound feet, but as they got used to the idea thought them attractive and more seductive than natural feet. Nagao personally was not interested in such Chinese women, but liked their feminine weakness in appearance and walk. This view was formerly widely held by his Chinese contemporaries and influenced even the Manchus. Manchu women wore shoes in which only a white contrivance in the center showed beneath the trouser, in order to give the illusion that they were tiny-footed.
Nagao concluded that the Chinese relinquished the practice not because of foreign ridicule, but because of the changed mental outlook caused by the inroads of Western civilization.
The traditional male attitude was given in two interviews, first involving a mainlander and then a Taiwanese. T’ung Hui-ch’uan, the husband of Mrs. T’ung (4), was born in 1894 in I-ts’ang, Hupei, the same city as his wife. He was two years her senior. Here is our recorded interview:
1. Did your wife have bound feet?
Yes, but not too small. They are now a little more than five inches.
2. What was your wedding ceremony like?
My wife and I were engaged in childhood but did not see one another until marriage. The wedding feast lasted three days, and we were afraid that the guests would indulge in the sort of rough horse-play which was permitted at the wedding. So both of us were very shy and dared not cast a look at one another. I did not look at her until three days after our marriage. This was not like modern couples, who do exactly as they please.
3. At that time did you think that bound feet were beautiful?
Of course bound feet are more elegant and graceful. This was especially so when wearing the ancient skirt and sash, swaying with every step.
4. Which do you now think more beautiful, small or natural feet?
Women now all have large feet. They jump and run when walking and fail to give the onlooker a gracious feeling. I think that small feet are more beautiful, but for those who have them work is not as convenient as if they had natural feet.
5. Was another person’s support needed when walking?
The “three-inch lotus” was extremely rare. Ordinary women had to work at home, so they usually had feet of about five inches. They could not only walk fast, but could also carry water. To indicate some aesthetic feeling, they were, however, supported when getting in and out of sedan chairs. The wealthy had maid servants to support them when they went out walking,, but the poor did not.
6. When were the feet let out?
In 1913, the [Kuomintang] revolutionary forces issued a command against footbinding. When it was issued, women felt happy because they would be relieved from the pain of bound feet. Men made no objection; for beautiful as bound feet were, they were inconvenient for work. Many women were afraid to let their feet out, through fear that the revolutionary army might not succeed. If it failed bound feet might still be fashionable, but once the bandage was loosened small feet could never be as small as before.
7. What was the good point of bound feet?
They were beautiful, and, besides, bound feet could limit a woman’s movements.
8. Was this custom widespread?
The custom of bound feet has been handed down from ancient times. Whether rich or poor, women all had their feet bound, for otherwise they would be laughed at and could not get married easily. But women of poor families, for the sake of working convenience, usually did not bind their feet to as small a degree as did the rich.
We were also able to discuss footbinding with Madam Liang’s (9) son, born in Taiwan in 1896, the father of four children:
1. When did your wife bind her feet and when did she let them out?
She must have been ten when she started and sixteen when she gave it up, because the Japanese sent down an order forbidding it. She is now sixty-three years old.
2. Did your mother bind her feet?
Yes, and they are tiny, about three inches long. She is now eighty-nine and very healthy, living in Chang-hua County [Taiwan].
3. Did your mother have to be supported in her youth when she walked?
No, and neither did women in general, except those who were too fat.
4. Did women still bind their feet when you married?
I married at twenty-five [1921], and by that time no one did any more.
5. Did your mother work in the fields in her youth?
No woman with tiny feet worked in the fields, because of the inconvenience caused by the water there. But they could do household tasks such as cooking, washing clothes, and drawing water. Mother did all of those things in her youth.
6. What kind of shoes does your mother wear?
They are all high-heeled shoes, because she can’t walk on shoes with a flat heel.
7. Were tiny-footed women often seen in the streets?
Women with three-inch feet could not walk long distances.
When they left their homes, most of them rode in sedan chairs. But poor women had to go out to the streets to work. Their feet were often five to six inches long, the so-called semi-large tiny foot.
8. What kind of women had the tiniest feet?
Women of wealthy families or prostitutes; in other words, those who did no manual labor.
9. When and how did the Japanese prohibit footbinding?
They did this more than forty years ago. There were ten families in each chia grouping. The chia leader was held responsible for seeing to it that each woman in the ten families let out her feet. Those who disobeyed were fined two yen, with which one could then buy six piculs of rice. But no one disobeyed the order. Most of the women so affected cried, feeling that it was a pity to have to let out their feet.
10. Why didn’t your mother let out her feet when the anti-binding Japanese order was issued?
The objects of the Japanese decree were the children who were just starting to bind their feet and young ladies. But Mother was then over forty and had bound her feet for tens of years. If she suddenly let them out, she wouldn’t have been able to walk. So her petition to retain this practice was approved by the local Japanese police office.