Editing Foot binding (section)

== History ==
=== Origin ===
[[File:Yaoniang binding feet.jpg|thumb|200px|alt=A black and white stylised illustration of a seated woman, one foot resting on top of her left thigh, wrapping and binding her right foot.|18th-century illustration showing Yao Niang binding her own feet]]
There are a number of stories about the origin of foot binding before its establishment during the [[Song dynasty]]. One of these accounts is of [[Pan Yunu]], a favourite consort of the [[Southern Qi]] Emperor [[Xiao Baojuan]]. In the story, Pan Yunu, renowned for having delicate feet, performed a dance barefoot on a floor decorated with the design of a golden lotus. The Emperor, expressing admiration, said that "lotus springs from her every step!" ({{transliteration|zh|bù bù shēng lián}} {{lang|zh|歩歩生蓮}}), a reference to the [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] legend of Padmavati, under whose feet lotus springs forth. This story may have given rise to the terms 'golden lotus' or 'lotus feet' used to describe bound feet; there is no evidence, however, that Consort Pan ever bound her feet.{{sfn|Ko|2002|pp=32–34}}

The general view is that the practice is likely to have originated during the reign of the 10th-century Emperor [[Li Yu (Southern Tang)|Li Yu]] of the [[Southern Tang]], just before the Song dynasty.<ref name="bbc">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ptop/alabaster/A1155872 |title=Chinese Foot Binding |publisher=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131118153249/https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ptop/alabaster/A1155872 |archive-date=2013-11-18 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Li Yu created a {{convert|6|ft|m|1|order=flip|adj=mid|-tall|sp=us}} golden lotus decorated with precious stones and pearls and asked his concubine Yao Niang {{lang|zh|(窅娘)}} to bind her feet in white silk into the shape of the crescent moon. She then performed a dance on the points of her bound feet on the lotus.<ref name="bbc"/> Yao Niang's dance was said to be so graceful that others sought to imitate her.{{sfn|Ko|2002|pp=42}} The binding of feet was then replicated by other upper-class women and the practice spread.<ref name="pitts-taylor">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=66u24WAyO_YC&pg=PA203 |title=Cultural Encyclopedia of the Body |page=203 |editor=Victoria Pitts-Taylor |publisher=Greenwood |date=2008 |isbn=978-0-313-34145-8}}</ref>

Some of the earliest possible references to foot binding appear around 1100, when a couple of poems seemed to allude to the practice.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/index.php/component/k2/item/10758-han-chinese-footbinding |title=Han Chinese Footbinding |work=Textile Research Centre}}</ref><ref>Xu Ji 徐積 《詠蔡家婦》： 「但知勒四支，不知裹两足。」(translation: "knowing about arranging the four limbs, but not about binding her two feet); [[Su Shi]] 蘇軾 《菩薩蠻》：「塗香莫惜蓮承步，長愁羅襪凌波去；只見舞回風，都無行處踪。偷穿宮樣穩，並立雙趺困，纖妙說應難，須從掌上看。」</ref><ref name="ebrey 1">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xjoLCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 |title=The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period |author=Patricia Buckley Ebrey |pages=37–39 |isbn=9780520913486 |publisher=University of California Press |date=1 December 1993}}</ref><ref name="Morris2011"/> Soon after 1148,<ref name="Morris2011"/> in the earliest extant discourse on the practice of foot binding, scholar {{Interlanguage link|Zhang Bangji|zh|3=張邦基}} wrote that a bound foot should be arch shaped and small.{{sfn|Ko|2005|p=111–115}}<ref>{{cite web |url= http://wenxian.fanren8.com/08/05/5/8.htm |title= 墨庄漫录-宋-张邦基 8-卷八 |access-date= 2015-02-21 |archive-date= 2015-02-21 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150221045249/http://wenxian.fanren8.com/08/05/5/8.htm |url-status= dead }}</ref> He observed that "women's foot binding began in recent times; it was not mentioned in any books from previous eras."<ref name="Morris2011">{{cite book |last=Morris |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Morris (historian) |title=Why the West Rules - For Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qNVrfoSubmIC&pg=PA424 |date=2011 |publisher=McClelland & Stewart |isbn=978-1-55199-581-6 |page=424}}</ref> In the 13th&nbsp;century, scholar {{Interlanguage link|Che Ruoshui|zh|3=车若水}} wrote the first known criticism of the practice: "Little girls not yet four or five years old, who have done nothing wrong, nevertheless are made to suffer unlimited pain to bind [their feet] small. I do not know what use this is."<ref name="Morris2011"/><ref name="china chic">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lw1_yKwk_XkC&pg=PA38 |pages=38–40 |title=China Chic: East Meets West |author1=Valerie Steele |author2=John S. Major |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-300-07931-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=694711&remap=gb |title=脚气集 |author=车若水}} Original text: 妇人纒脚不知起于何时，小儿未四五岁，无罪无辜而使之受无限之苦，纒得小来不知何用。</ref>
[[File:雜劇人物圖.jpg|thumb|[[Southern Song]] ''[[zaju]]'' actresses with a form of footbinding of the period<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chnmus.net/ch/collection/appraise/details.html?id=512157774779383594|title=绿绸绣花鞋 |work=Henan Museum }}</ref>]]
The earliest archeological evidence for foot binding dates to the tombs of Huang Sheng, who died in 1243 at the age of 17, and Madame Zhou, who died in 1274. Each woman's remains showed feet bound with gauze strips measuring {{convert|6|ft|m|1|order=flip|abbr=on}} in length. Zhou's skeleton, particularly well preserved, showed that her feet fit into the narrow, pointed slippers that were buried with her.<ref name="Morris2011"/> The style of bound feet found in Song dynasty tombs, where the big toe was bent upwards, appears to be different from 'the 'three-inch golden lotus' of later eras. The more severe form of footbinding may have developed in the 16th&nbsp;century.{{sfn|Ko|2005|pp=187–191}}{{sfn|Ko|2002|pp=21–24}}

===Later eras===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 116-127-075, China, Tsingtau-Chinesin.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|Small bound feet were once considered beautiful while large unbound feet were judged as crude.]]

At the end of the [[Song dynasty]], men would drink from a special shoe, the heel of which contained a small cup. During the [[Yuan dynasty]] some would also drink directly from the shoe itself. This practice was called 'toast to the golden lotus' and lasted until the late [[Qing dynasty]].<ref name="shoe">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Ifj9h4Z4YQC&pg=PA164 |title=The Art of the Shoe |author=Marie-Josèphe Bossan |page=164 |publisher=Parkstone Press Ltd |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-85995-803-2}}</ref>

The first European to mention foot binding was the Italian missionary [[Odoric of Pordenone]] in the 14th&nbsp;century, during the Yuan dynasty.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iL2AAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA196 |title=Women and the Family in Chinese History |first=Patricia |last=Ebrey |page=196 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134442935 |date=2003-09-02}}</ref> However no other foreign visitors to Yuan China mentioned the practice, including [[Ibn Battuta]] and [[Marco Polo]] (who nevertheless noted the dainty walk of Chinese women, who took very small steps), perhaps an indication that it was not a widespread or extreme practice at that time.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA55 |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |first=Stephen G. |last=Haw |pages=55–56 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134275427 |date=2006-11-22}}</ref> The Mongols themselves did not practice footbinding but it was permitted for their Chinese subjects.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2UAlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA218 |title=Encyclopedia of Chinese History |date=2016 |page=218 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781317817161}}</ref><ref name="pitts-taylor"/> The practice became increasingly common among the gentry families, later spreading to the general populace, as commoners and theatre actors alike adopted foot binding. By the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] period the practice was no longer the preserve of the gentry but it was considered a status symbol.<ref name="Rosenlee2012">{{cite book |author=Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee |title=Confucianism and Women: A Philosophical Interpretation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTvLQbaH81wC&pg=PA141 |date=1 February 2012 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-8179-0 |pages=141–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lw1_yKwk_XkC&pg=PA37 |page=37 |title=China Chic: East Meets West |author1=Valerie Steele |author2=John S. Major |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-300-07931-9}}</ref><ref name="Wang2000">{{cite book |author=Ping Wang |title=Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cVY_cVZ9rKIC&q=mongols |year=2000 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-3605-1 |pages=32–}}</ref> As foot binding restricted the movement of a woman, one side effect of its rising popularity was the corresponding decline of the [[history of Chinese dance|art of women's dance in China]], and it became increasingly rare to hear about beauties and courtesans who were also great dancers after the Song era.<ref name="hansson">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Ibp1RTW0AoC&pg=PA46 |title=Chinese Outcasts: Discrimination and Emancipation in Late Imperial China |author=Anders Hansson |page=46 |publisher=Brill |year=1996 |isbn=978-9004105966}}</ref>{{sfn|van Gulik|1961|p=222}}

[[File:Chaussure chinoise Saverne 02 05 2012 1.jpg|thumb|230px|A lotus shoe for bound feet, [[Municipal Museum (Saverne)|Louise Weiss collection, Saverne]]]]

The [[Manchu people|Manchus]] issued a number of edicts to ban the practice, first in 1636 when the Manchu leader [[Hong Taiji]] declared the founding of the new Qing dynasty, then in 1638, and another in 1664 by the Kangxi Emperor.<ref name="Rosenlee2012"/> Few Han Chinese complied with the edicts, and Kangxi eventually abandoned the effort in 1668. By the 19th&nbsp;century, it was estimated that 40–50% of Chinese women had bound feet. Among upper class Han Chinese women, the figure was almost 100%.<ref name="lim"/> Bound feet became a mark of beauty and were also a prerequisite for finding a husband. They also became an avenue for poorer women to [[hypergamy|marry up]] in some areas, such as Sichuan.{{sfn|Brown|Bossen|Gates|Satterthwaite-Phillips|2012|pp=1035–1067}} In late 19th century Guangdong it was customary to bind the feet of the eldest daughter of a lower-class family who was intended to be brought up as a lady. Her younger sisters would grow up to be bond-servants or domestic slaves and be able to work in the fields, but the eldest daughter would be assumed never to have the need to work. Women, their families and their husbands took great pride in tiny feet, with the ideal length, called the 'Golden Lotus', being about three [[Cun (unit)|Chinese inches]] ({{lang|zh|寸}}) long—around {{convert|11|cm|in|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Gates|2014|p=8}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Manning |first=Mary Ellen |title=China's "Golden Lotus Feet" - Foot-binding Practice |url=http://travel.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474976997081 |access-date=29 January 2012 |date=10 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928031927/http://travel.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474976997081 |archive-date=28 September 2013}}</ref> This pride was reflected in the elegantly embroidered silk slippers and wrappings girls and women wore to cover their feet. Handmade shoes served to exhibit the embroidery skill of the wearer as well.<ref name="bossen brown gates">{{Cite journal|last1=Bossen|first1=Laurel|last2=Xurui|first2=Wang|last3=Brown|first3=Melissa J.|last4=Gates|first4=Hill|date=2011|title=Feet and Fabrication: Footbinding and Early Twentieth-Century Rural Women's Labor in Shaanxi|journal=Modern China|volume=37|issue=4|pages=347–383|doi=10.1177/0097700411403265|jstor=23053328|pmid=21966702|s2cid=44529240|issn=0097-7004}}</ref> These shoes also served as support, as some women with bound feet might not have been able to walk without the support of their shoes and would have been severely limited in their mobility.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NieEnuWegkoC&pg=PA302 |title=Film Review — ''Footbinding: Search for the Three Inch Golden Lotus'' |journal=Anthropologica |date=2004 |volume=48 |issue=2 |first=Laurel |last=Bossen |pages=301–303 |doi=10.2307/25606208 |jstor=25606208|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Contrary to missionary writings, many women with bound feet were able to walk and work in the fields, albeit with greater limitations than their non-bound counterparts.{{sfn|Hershatter|2018|p=66}}

In the 19th and early 20th&nbsp;centuries, there were dancers with bound feet as well as circus performers who stood on prancing or running horses. Women with bound feet in one village in [[Yunnan]] Province formed a regional dance troupe to perform for tourists in the late 20th&nbsp;century, though age has since forced the group to retire.<ref name=wsj/> In other areas, women in their 70s and 80s assisted in the rice fields (albeit in a limited capacity) even into the early 21st&nbsp;century.<ref name="lim"/>

=== Decline ===
Opposition to foot binding had been raised by some Chinese writers in the 18th century. In the mid-19th century, many of the leaders of the [[Taiping Rebellion]] were men of [[Hakka]] background whose women did not bind their feet, and they outlawed foot binding in areas under their control.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYjGN4UM1mMC&pg=PA226 |pages=27–29 |title=The Taiping Ideology: Its Sources, Interpretations, and Influences |author1=Vincent Yu-Chung Shih |author2=Yu-chung Shi |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=1968 |isbn=978-0-295-73957-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UBqr_MEn4m4C&pg=PA57 |title=For Our Daughters: How Outstanding Women Worldwide Have Balanced Home and Career |author=Olivia Cox-Fill |page=57 |publisher=Praeger Publishers |year=1996|isbn=978-0-275-95199-3}}</ref> However the rebellion failed and Christian missionaries, who had provided education for girls and actively discouraged what they considered a barbaric practice that had deleterious social effect on women,{{sfn|Hershatter|2018|p=46}} then played a part in changing elite opinion on foot binding through education, [[pamphleteering]] and lobbying of the Qing court,<ref name="blake 1"/><ref name=edwards>{{cite book |title=The Cross-cultural Study of Women: A Comprehensive Guide |author= Mary I. Edwards |url=https://archive.org/details/crossculturalstu00dule |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/crossculturalstu00dule/page/255 255]–256 |publisher=Feminist Press at The City University of New York |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-935312-02-7}}</ref> as no other culture in the world practised the custom of foot binding.<ref name=mackie />

The earliest-known Western anti-foot binding society was formed in Amoy ([[Xiamen]]) in 1874. 60–70 Christian women in Xiamen attended a meeting presided over by a missionary, John MacGowan, and formed the Natural Foot Society ({{transliteration|zh|Tianzu Hui}} {{lang|zh|(天足会)}}, literally [[Heavenly Foot Society]]).{{sfn|Ko|2005|p=14–17}}<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last=Whitefield |first=Brent |date=2008 |title=The Tian Zu Hui (Natural Foot Society): Christian Women in China and the Fight against Footbinding |url=http://www.uky.edu/Centers/Asia/SECAAS/Seras/2008/25_Whitefield_2008.pdf |journal=Southeast Review of Asian Studies |volume=30 |pages=203–12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418235159/http://www.uky.edu/Centers/Asia/SECAAS/Seras/2008/25_Whitefield_2008.pdf |archive-date =18 April 2016}}</ref> MacGowan held the view that foot binding was a serious problem that called into doubt the whole of Chinese civilization; he felt that "the nefarious civilization interferes with Divine Nature."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Secularizing the Pain of Footbinding in China: Missionary and Medical Stagings of the Universal Body |first=Angela|last= Zito|journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume= 75|number= 1 |date=March 2007|pages= 1–24|doi=10.1093/jaarel/lfl062 |jstor=4139836 |pmid=20681094 }}</ref> Members of the Heavenly Foot Society vowed not to bind their daughters' feet.<ref name=mackie>{{Cite journal|last=Mackie|first=Gerry|date=1996|title=Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account|journal=American Sociological Review|volume=61|issue=6|pages=999–1017|doi=10.2307/2096305|jstor=2096305|issn=0003-1224}}</ref>{{sfn|Hershatter|2018|p=46}} In 1895, Christian women in [[Shanghai]] led by [[Alicia Little]], also formed a [[The Tian Zu Hui|Natural Foot Society]].<ref name=":0"/>{{sfn|Ko|2005|p=14–16}} It was also championed by the Woman's Christian Temperance Movement founded in 1883 and advocated by [[Mission (Christian)|missionaries]] including [[Timothy Richard]], who thought that Christianity could promote [[Christian feminism|equality between the sexes]].<ref name="GoossaertPalmer2011">{{cite book |author1=Vincent Goossaert |author2=David A. Palmer |title=The Religious Question in Modern China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bx83dlLMPdMC&pg=PA70 |access-date=31 July 2012 |date=15 April 2011 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-30416-8 |pages=70–}}</ref> This missionary-led opposition had stronger impacts than earlier Han or Manchu opposition.<ref name=drucker>Drucker, "The Influence of Western Women on the Anti-Footbinding Movement 1840-1911", in ''Historical Reflections'' (1981), 182.</ref> Western missionaries established the first schools for girls, and encouraged women to end the practice of foot binding.<ref>Rachel Keeling. "The Anti-Footbinding Movement, 1872-1922: A Cause for China Rather Than Chinese Women", in ''Social and Political Movements'' 1 (2008), 12.</ref> Christian missionaries did not conceal their shock and disgust either when explaining the process of foot binding to Western peers and their descriptions shocked their audience back home.<ref name=drucker />

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Reform-minded Chinese intellectuals began to consider foot binding to be an aspect of their culture that needed to be eliminated.<ref name="Levy">{{cite book |last=Levy |first=Howard S. |title=The Lotus Lovers: The Complete History of the Curious Erotic Tradition of Foot Binding in China |year=1991 |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=New York |page=322}}</ref> In 1883, [[Kang Youwei]] founded the [[Foot Emancipation Society|Anti-footbinding Society]] near [[Guangzhou|Canton]] to combat the practice, and anti-foot binding societies appeared across the country, with membership for the movement claimed to reach 300,000.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5agGK-l369UC&pg=PA257 |title=American Doctors in Canton: Modernization in China, 1835–1935 |author=Guangqiu Xu |publisher=Transaction Publishers |date= 2011 |page=257 |isbn=978-1-4128-1829-2}}</ref>{{sfn|Hershatter|2018|p=67}} The anti-foot binding movement stressed pragmatic and patriotic reasons rather than feminist ones, arguing that abolition of foot binding would lead to better health and more efficient labour. Kang Youwei submitted a petition to the throne commenting on the fact that China had become a joke to foreigners and that "footbinding was the primary object of such ridicule."<ref name="Keeling. 2008">Keeling. "The Anti-Footbinding Movement, 1872-1922: A Cause for China Rather Than Chinese Women", in ''Social and Political Movements'' 1 (2008), 14.</ref>

Reformers such as [[Liang Qichao]], influenced by [[Social Darwinism]], also argued that it weakened the nation, since enfeebled women supposedly produced weak sons.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zohVoj_Xq5MC&pg=PA51 |title=The Chinese Medical Ministries of Kang Cheng and Shi Meiyu, 1872–1937 |author=Connie A. Shemo |page=51 |publisher=Lehigh University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-61146-086-5}}</ref> In his "On Women's Education", Liang Qichao asserts that the root cause of national weakness inevitably lies the lack of education for women. Qichao connected education for women and foot binding: "As long as foot binding remains in practice, women's education can never flourish."<ref>Liang Qichao. "On Women's Education", in The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory, by Lydia He Liu, Rebecca E. Karl and Dorothy Ko (Columbia University Press, 2013), 202.</ref> Qichao was also disappointed that foreigners had opened the first schools as he thought that the Chinese should be teaching Chinese women.<ref name="Keeling. 2008"/> At the turn of the 20th century, early [[feminist]]s, such as [[Qiu Jin]], called for the end of foot binding.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qQ5VtyB0EgsC&pg=PA63 |title=Chinese Women in Christian Ministry |author=Mary Keng Mun Chung |publisher=Peter Lang |date=1 May 2005 |isbn=978-0-8204-5198-5}}</ref><ref name="qiu jin">{{cite web |url=http://www.executedtoday.com/2011/07/15/1907-qiu-jin-chinese-feminist-and-revolutionary/ |title=1907: Qiu Jin, Chinese feminist and revolutionary |date=July 15, 2011 |work=ExecutedToday.com}}</ref> In 1906, Zhao Zhiqian wrote in ''Beijing Women's News'' to blame women with bound feet for being a national weakness in the eyes of other nations.{{sfn|Hershatter|2018|pp=67-68}} Many members of anti-foot binding groups pledged to not bind their daughters' feet nor to allow their sons to marry women with bound feet.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/magazine/24FOB-Footbinding-t.html |title=The Art of Social Change: Campaigns against foot-binding and genital mutilation |last=Appiah |first=Kwame Anthony |date=2010-10-22 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2017-09-03 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In 1902, [[Empress Dowager Cixi]] issued an anti-foot binding edict, but it was soon rescinded.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

In 1912 the new [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]] government banned foot binding, though the ban was not actively implemented,{{sfn|Ko|2005|p=50–63}} and leading intellectuals of the [[May Fourth Movement]] saw foot binding as a major symbol of China's backwardness.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EisnZHAMbqkC&pg=PA8 |title=Science and Football III |editor1-first=Thomas |editor1-last=Reilly |editor2-first=Jens |editor2-last=Bangsbo |editor3-first=A. Mark |editor3-last=Williams |author=Wang Ke-wen |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year= 1996 |page=8 |isbn=978-0-419-22160-9}}</ref> Provincial leaders, such as [[Yan Xishan]] in Shanxi, engaged in their own sustained campaign against foot binding with foot inspectors and fines for those who continued the practice,{{sfn|Ko|2005|p=50–63}} while regional governments of the later [[Nanjing decade|Nanjing regime]] also enforced the ban.<ref name="blake 1"/> The campaign against foot binding was successful in some regions. In one province, a 1929 survey showed that, while only 2.3% of girls born before 1910 had unbound feet, 95% of those born after were not bound.<ref name=end>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ac2UAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA427 |title=Ordinary Violence: Everyday Assaults against Women Worldwide |author=Mary White Stewart |pages=4237–428 |publisher=Praeger |date=27 January 2014 |isbn=978-1-4408-2937-6}}</ref> In a region south of [[Beijing]], [[Dingzhou|Dingxian]], where over 99% of women once had bound feet, no new cases were found among those born after 1919.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JSF8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 |title=Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics |first1=Margaret E.|last1=Keck |first2=Kathryn |last2=Sikkink |pages=64–65 |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8014-8456-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |jstor=2770363 |title=The Disappearance of Foot-Binding in Tinghsien |first=Sidney D. |last=Gamble |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=49 |issue=2 |date=September 1943 |pages=181–183 |doi=10.1086/219351 |s2cid=72732576}}</ref> In Taiwan, the practice was also discouraged by the ruling Japanese from the beginning of [[Taiwan under Japanese rule|Japanese rule]], and from 1911 to 1915 it was gradually made illegal.<ref>Hu, Alex. "The Influence of Western Women on the Anti-Footbinding Movement". ''Historical Reflections'', Vol. 8, No. 3, Women in China: Current Directions in Historical Scholarship, Fall 1981, pp. 179–199. "Besides improvements in civil engineering, progress was made in social areas as well. The traditional Chinese practice of foot binding was widespread in Taiwan's early years. Traditional Chinese society perceived women with smaller feet as being more beautiful. Women would bind their feet with long bandages to stunt growth; housemaids were divided into those with bound feet and those without. The former served the daughters of the house, while the latter were assigned heavier work. This practice was later regarded as barbaric. In the early years of the Japanese colonial period, the Foot-binding Liberation Society was established to promote the idea of natural feet, but its influence was limited. The fact that women suffered higher casualties in the 1906 Meishan quake with 551 men and 700 women dead and 1,099 men and 1,334 women injured—very different from the situation in Japan—raised public concern. Foot binding was blamed and this gave impetus to the drive to stamp out the practice."</ref> The practice lingered on in some regions in China. In 1928, a census in rural [[Shanxi]] found that 18% of women had bound feet,<ref name=wsj>{{cite web |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125800116737444883 |title=Bound by History: The Last of China's 'Lotus-Feet' Ladies |author=Simon Montlake |date=November 13, 2009 |work=Wall Street Journal}}</ref> while in some remote rural areas, such as Yunnan Province, it continued to be practiced until the 1950s.<ref>Favazza, Armando R. (2011), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xmdKklZM9-kC&q=foot+binding+1902 Bodies under Siege: Self-mutilation, Nonsuicidal Self-injury, and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry]'', p. 118.</ref><ref>Gillet, Kit (16 April 2012). [https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2012-apr-16-la-fg-china-bound-feet-20120416-story.html "In China, foot binding slowly slips into history"]. ''The Los Angeles Times''.</ref> In most parts of China the practice had virtually disappeared by 1949.<ref name=end/> The practice was also stigmatized in Communist China, and the last vestiges of foot binding were stamped out, with the last new case of foot binding reported in 1957.<ref>Li Xiu-ying. [http://exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/clothes/lady_bound/ "Women with Bound Feet in China: Cessation of Bound Feet during the Communist Era"]. University of Virginia. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731081735/http://exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/clothes/lady_bound/|date=2020-07-31}}. Excerpts from ''When I was a girl in China'', stories collected by Joseph Rupp.</ref>{{sfn|Ko|2005|p=4}} By the 21st&nbsp;century, only a few elderly women in China still had bound feet.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/jun/15/unbound-chinas-last-lotus-feet-in-pictures |title=Unbound: China's last 'lotus feet' – in pictures |date=15 June 2015 |work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2015/05/21/jo_farrell_the_photographer_travels_across_china_to_document_women_who_had.html |title=Traveling Across China to Tell the Story of a Generation of Women With Bound Feet |date=May 21, 2015 |first=David |last=Rosenberg |work=Slate}}</ref> In 1999, the last shoe factory making lotus shoes, the Zhiqian Shoe Factory in [[Harbin]], closed.{{sfn|Ko|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UIaIP0jyBPAC&pg=PA9 9]}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=X |date=2002-04-08 |title=The Shoes Fit, but Feet Grow Rare |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-08-mn-36773-story.html |access-date=2024-08-03 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>