Taiwan collector
sees footbinding as forerunner to modern fashion
TAIPEI, June 4, 2009 (AFP) - A Taiwanese doctor who collects
artefacts of the ancient Chinese practice of footbinding has drawn
criticism from feminists who say he is romanticising a tradition
that suppressed women for a thousand years.
David Ko has spent the past 30 years collecting the tiny colourful
shoes that Chinese women wore during the 1,000 years they were
forced to have their feet broken and bent in half for the sake of
fashion, beauty and sex.
He insists the practice -- which inflicted a lifetime of pain --
was a romantic fashion that continues to inspire modern trends.
"I think of footbinding as a form of fashion in ancient China, with
the lavishly embroidered shoes and accessories," he told AFP,
calling the results "sexy".
"The French and Italians debate about who invented high-heeled
shoes but I believe they originated in China to support women with
bound feet," he said.
To promote his ideas about footbinding Ko has published three books
on the topic and has exhibited some of his vast collection in
Taiwan, China, Canada and at the National Museum of Natural History
in Washington.
Perhaps not surprisingly he has also drawn criticism from some
women who regard his fascination as something of a sick fetish, and
see the binding of girls' feet as little less than torture and the
perhaps the most extreme example of a fashion fad.
"I agree that footbinding should be preserved like any piece of
history but it's flimsy to promote it as a beauty and fashion
concept in our time," said Wang Ping, secretary-general of Taiwan's
Gender/Sexuality Rights Association.
"Footbinding limited women's movements to satisfy men's desires in
a patriarchal society when women didn't have an equal status.
"This notion of beauty was based on suppression," she said.
The practice, which deformed women's feet into a shape known as a
"three-inch lotus," endured until early last century, when the
imperial era ended and China became a republic.
It was only completely eradicated after the civil war victory of
the communists in 1949, yet even today, elderly women in remote
areas of the country such as southwestern Yunnan province can still
be seen tottering painfully on bound feet.
Ko has 5,000 pairs of the tiny shoes worn by women with bound feet.
Many of them are delicately embroidered as they were meant to
attract attention to what was the main female erogenous zone -- and
the smaller a women's feet, the more beautiful, and marriageable,
she was considered.
He also has around 10,000 accessories, including stockings,
buckles, cases, drawings and shoe-shaped wine glasses, all
carefully stored in his private hospital in Taipei county.
For his books he interviewed 300 elderly women who had their feet
bound as children, and describes the practice as a "cultural
legacy" and an inspiration for modern fashion.
Ko said that contrary to the generally negative view of footbinding
among scholars and historians, he wants it to be seen more
positively, as an important aspect of China's cultural
heritage.
He backs his claim that the three-inch shoes are the prototype of
latter-day high heels by pointing to the tiny platforms sewn to the
heels of many pairs in his collection.
"I still remember when I first saw a woman with bound feet when I
was six years old, I was fascinated by how small her feet were,"
said the 54-year-old surgeon.
That fascination eventually inspired him to create what must be one
of the most extensive collections of "lotus" paraphernalia and
become one of the foremost experts on the subject.
"I would probably have become a historian if it weren't for
financial and family reasons," said Ko, who was raised in a family
of doctors.
Theories on the origin of footbinding vary, but it is generally
believed that small feet became fashionable around the 10th
century, after an emperor admired the tiny feet of a dancer who
performed for him with colourful ribbons tied around her
ankles.
Over the years, footbinding became a symbol of beauty, grace and
class, and as the practice became universal, writers and poets
eulogised the "golden lotus," and broken and bound feet became the
symbol of female sexuality.
Eventually, bound feet became so normal that without them a woman
could not marry. They were never shown to any male except a husband
or lover.
Usually a girl was subject to the painful ritual from early
childhood when her feet were literally bent in half -- often by her
mother or another female relative.
They were then wrapped in long strips of cloth -- which themselves
became fetishised -- ensuring a life of agony and high maintenance.
Because the rotting flesh stank, the feet were powdered to mask the
smell.
Yet so erotic were the feet considered that men were known to eat
crushed almonds and even sip wine from between the deformed toes,
and the sight of the bindings was said to be enough to stir
libidinous passions.
"The richer a woman was the smaller her feet were bound, and for
some matchmakers their first question was about the size of the
feet of prospective brides," Ko said.
While footbinding forced women to walk in an unnatural way,
tottering from side to side as they struggled to maintain balance,
Ko said he believes it made them more attractive and sexy.
Indeed, he compares lotus feet to the tightly-laced corsets popular
in Western Europe during the 18th century -- despite the fact that
Western women chose as adults to wear the corsets, whereas Chinese
women had their feet mutilated as children.by Amber Wang