Chinese custom of applying tight binding to the feet of young girls to modify the shape and size of their feet as a status symbol and mark of beauty, practised from 10th to early 20th centuries

concept

Foot of a Chinese woman, showing the effect of foot-binding. Photograph by (?) E.P. Minett, 192-.

Feet of a Chinese woman, showing the effect of foot-binding. Photograph, 19--.

Amoy (Xiamen), Fukien province, China: bound and unbound feet of two Amoy women. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

A deformed foot: X-ray. Photograph.

Bound feet of a Chinese lady compared with the unbound feet of a working Chinese woman. Photograph by Underwood & Underwood.

Every step a lotus : shoes for bound feet / Dorothy Ko.

Qian zai jin lian feng hua : chan zu wen wu zhan = A thousand years of bound feet / [Ke jisheng zhu].

M0007965: A bound foot demonstrating the Chinese custom of foot binding

[Chinese footbinding] / J.C. Dagnall.

A pair of Chinese shoes for bound 'lily' feet

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Every step a lotus : shoes for bound feet / Dorothy Ko.

Qian zai jin lian feng hua : chan zu wen wu zhan = A thousand years of bound feet / [Ke jisheng zhu].

M0007965: A bound foot demonstrating the Chinese custom of foot binding

[Chinese footbinding] / J.C. Dagnall.

A pair of Chinese shoes for bound 'lily' feet