CHINESE FOOTBINDING

By Vivian Gutierrez

The custom of footbinding lasted in China for over one thousand years. From the age of between three to seven, a young girl's feet were cloth bound forcing her four toes toward the heel to prevent growth-preferably allowing the foot to grow to only three-and-a-half inches. Known for its erotic implications and representation of male domination, in a culture strongly influenced by symbolism, including dress as status, footbinding also represented civility and political resistance. What we know of footbinding through historical archives leans toward the bias of anti-footbinding societies. The resurgence of interest in body art and embellishments allows us to review alien practices and their social and political implications under a new light. This pathfinder provides a guide to English language resources on a vanished social custom.

Classic Texts

Subject Headings

General References

Call Numbers for Browsing

Recommended Books

Journals

World Wide Web

---

Classic Texts

Levy, Howard. Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom. New York: Bell Publishing Co, 1967. (GN 161.L4)

Feng, Chi-Tsai. The Three-Inch Golden Lotus. Feng, Jicai. Translation by David Wakefield. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1994. (PL2857.E516S2613)

---

Subject Headings for use with UHCARL

FOOTBINDING
FOOTBINDING CHINA FICTION
WOMEN CHINA SOCIAL ASPECTS
COSTUME CHINA HISTORY 20TH CENTURY
SHOES HISTORY 20TH CENTURY

---

General References

The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. 1996 ed. By Patricia Ebrey Buckley. (ASIA DS706.E37)

Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: The Qing Period (1644-1911). 1998. (ASIA HQ1767.5.A3B56)

Cheng, Lucie., Charlotte Furth, and Hon-ming Yip. Women in China. Bibliography of Available English Language Materials. IIAS. Berkeley: University of California Berkeley, 1984. (HQ 1767.C444)


---




Call numbers for Browsing (books located on 2nd Floor)

GN 161 Anthropology - Physical


GT 1555 Anthropology - Costume, Dress, Fashion


HQ 1767 Social Sciences - Women, Feminism


NK 4783 Fine Arts - Other Arts and Crafts Industries



Back to top

---




Recommended Books

Garrett, Valery M. Chinese Clothing: An Illustrated Guide. Hong Kong; New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. (GT1555.G36)


Ko, Dorothy. Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-century China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994. (ASIA HQ1767.K6)


Rossi, William A. The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe. New York: Saturday Review Press, 1976. (HQ64.R68)


Scott, Adolphe Clarence. Chinese Costume in Transition. Singapore: Donald Moore. 1958, (GT1555.S3)


Vollmer, John. Five Colours of the Universe: Symbolism in Clothes and Fabrics of the Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1911). Edmonton: The Edmonton Art Gallery, 1980. (NK 4783.A1 V639)


Yung, Judy. Chinese Women of America: A Pictorial History. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986. (E184.C Y86)



Back to top

---


Journals
Blake, Fred. "Foot Binding in Neo-Confucian China and the Appropriation of Female Labor." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 19:3. Spring 1994.


Gamble, Sidney David. "The Disappearance of Footbinding in Tinghsien (Hebie)." Amer. J. of Sociology 49(Sept. 1943):181-83.



---


World Wide Web
Bodyart: Australian Museum Website at http://www.austmus.gov.au/bodyart/shaping/footbinding.htm[30 Sept 2000]
Char, Sherie Lynn. Footbinding: A Painful Tradition at http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/academics/stud_pubs/horizons/horizons99/footbinding2.html[30 Sept 2000]


Fan Hong & J.A. Mangan. "From Chinese Cripples to Chinese Champions. Footbinding, Freedom and Femininity" Winter 1997. Internet on-line. Available from http://www.iias.nl/kreeft/IIASNONLINE/Newsletters/Newsletter11/Regional/11CEAE05.html[30 Sept 2000]


Ko, Dorothy. "The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeenth-Century China." Winter 1997. Internet on-line. Available from http://iupjournals.org/jwh/jwh8-4.html[30 Sept 2000]


Shoe Trades Publishing; Online. Footwear at http://www.shoetrades.com/FootwearBooks.html[30 Sept 2000]


Shoeworld at http://www.shoeworld.co.uk/sw_consumer/fetish_binding.html[20 Sept 2000]


University of Iowa Health Care: The Cultural Body: Alterations, Footbinding at http://www.uihealthcare.com/PatientsVisitors/MedMuseum/WallExhibits/Body/Alterations/Footbinding.html[30 Sept 2000]


Vento, Marie: One Thousand Years of Footbinding: Its Origin and Demise at http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/studpages/vento.html[30 Sept 2000]



---




The University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Hamilton Library
2550 The Mall, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA
Website: www.hawaii.edu/lib
Telephone: 808 956-7204
Building Hours: August 20 - December 17, 2000
Monday through Thursday, 8:00 am - 11:00pm
Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Satuday 9:00 am - 5:00pm
Sunday Noon - 9:00 pm


This pathfinder was created as a project for LIS 601 Introduction to Reference & Information Services, Fall 2000. This page was last updated: October 1, 2000.
Comments may be sent by email to: V Gutierrez.