Editing Foot binding (section)

=== 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>