Traditions
Traditions
The ancient Chinese had a lot of traditions. Some of them were: The Chinese women had to cover their mouths when laughing for it was rude for women to show their teeth, especially around men. Also, a Chinese women wasn’t allowed to make physical contact with men, so when they got sick, the doctor (which is usually a man) would attach a string to her wrist and use that to feel her pulse.
These traditions all include women. They seem very unfair, but one of the most crude traditions was foot binding. It all started during the Song dynasty. Somewhere in the 960’s to the 170’s BC, there was a prince who had a fetish with tiny feet. This caused families to start binding feet of young girls in their families. “Lily Feet” was a term to describe the tiny feet because they were thought to be very beautiful and was a symbol of gentility and high-class.
The foot binding process began when a girl was about 3-11 years old. First, the inner foot of the girl was washed in hot water and massaged. After that, all the toes except for the first were broken with a stone, turned under and pressed to the bottom of the foot and then bound tightly with cloth strips which kept the feet from growing more than 3 cm or 3.9 inches. Next, arches of foot were broken as the foot was pulled straight with the leg. The pain was is intense that almost always, the girl lost consciousness.
The cloth bandages would be tightly bound around the foot, from the toes to ankle to hold her toes in place. After 2-3 years later, the child’s feet would shrink so much that they could fit shoes that were only 3 inches long! These tiny shoes were called “Lotus Shoes.” They were made of silk and beautifully decorated with embroidery. Women with bound feet had deformed feet which were very painful to walk on. The bound feet kept control over the women because the pain was very intense and they couldn’t even walk without help. In the upper class of China, a good marriage could only take place if the girl had small feet. They painful tradition lasted for over a thousand years, that is, until the Manchu Dynasty was toppled and so, the new Republic was formed and foot binding was stopped.
Women who had bound feet were 38% more likely to suffer from a fall than those who never had their feet bound. It was also discovered that a women with bound feet had a 5.1% hipbone density and a 4.7% lower spine bone density than a women with “regular” feet, putting them at a greater risk of suffering from hip or spine fractions. It’s a good thing this tradition is stopped!
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