Bound Feet Women in Sibu

My interest in bound feet women started from my early days with my bound feet Great Grandmother.

She was actually my paternal Grandfather's step mother and the beloved mother of my one and only Goo Poh or Grand Aunt, Chang Yuk Ging.

Photo. Pinterest

My mother, as a young bride came to the family and got along well with Dui Mah (name for Great Grandmother in Foochow).

Bound feet were at one time considered a status symbol as well as a mark of beauty. Yet, foot binding was a painful practice and significantly limited the mobility of women, resulting in lifelong disabilities for most of its subjects. Feet altered by binding were called lotus feet, some were as small as only 3 inches.

Many of the brides brought out by the early Sibu Foochow migrants had bound feet and these ladies found it hard to walk around the muddy fields. Most could not do much work.

"Foot-binding is said to have been inspired by a tenth-century court dancer named Yao Niang who bound her feet into the shape of a new moon. She entranced Emperor Li Yu by dancing on her toes inside a six-foot golden lotus festooned with ribbons and precious stones. In addition to altering the shape of the foot, the practice also produced a particular sort of gait that relied on the thigh and buttock muscles for support. From the start, foot-binding was imbued with erotic overtones. Gradually, other court ladies—with money, time and a void to fill—took up foot-binding, making it a status symbol among the elite.

A small foot in China, no different from a tiny waist in Victorian England, represented the height of female refinement. For families with marriageable daughters, foot size translated into its own form of currency and a means of achieving upward mobility. The most desirable bride possessed a three-inch foot, known as a “golden lotus.” It was respectable to have four-inch feet—a silver lotus—but feet five inches or longer were dismissed as iron lotuses. The marriage prospects for such a girl were dim indeed. (Re : Amanda Foreman)