During the thousand years that footbinding was practiced in China, the young girl's mother bound her feet - an excruciating practice that debilitated her, restricted her movement, and grotesquely deformed her. This practice was carried out by the mother but for the father—it ensured that his daughter would be a valuable, marriageable, physically beautiful bride. She was confined, quite literally, by the strictures of an extremely patriarchal society. Though the practice was abolished in the early twentieth century, modern women continue to have their "feet" bound psychologically. Many mold themselves and restrain their true natures in order to earn their father's love and become the kind of obedient, malleable, and decorative "girls" their mothers and society want them to be.
In this lecture and workshop, we will explore the traditional Chinese practice of footbinding and find startling modern parallels, both in Chinese culture and in the West. Friday evening will focus on the history of this practice and the continuing psychological implications in contemporary China. On Saturday, we will explore how the metaphor of footbinding offers us insight into our own experiences of confinement and debilitation by family and social expectation. Case studies, dreams, art, poetry, and personal imagery created in the process of healing and transformation will be presented for discussion. |
