Woman's Lotus Shoes, China
Subject
Title
Format
Soles measure 5 inches in length (12.7 cm)
Heels height measures 1½ inches (3.8 cm)
Measurement of the fabric at shoe back is 5 inches (12.7 cm)
Description
Lotus shoes and feet received their name from the foot being bound and taking the shape of a lotus bud, as the heel represented the broad and rounded base of the flower, and the tips of the toes, becoming pointed, represented the flower's petals. Women aimed to bind their feet to the ideal length of 3 inches, known as the golden lotus, with most women having feet between 3 and 5 inches, known as silver lotus feet, by the time their feet were completely re-shaped (Vogelsang, 2018). Lian zu, the concept of 'lotus feet,' became a custom that gained wide acceptance, becoming an essential custom in the lives of Chinese women. The significance of having "flawless" lotus feet as a source of pride and social acceptability is evident in the exquisitely embroidered shoes and coverings that girls and women used to accentuate their tiny feet.
The goal of foot binding is to create the appearance of the most petite foot possible. Only the shaped tip of the foot was placed in the shoe, while bandages or strips of bamboo supported the heel. To hide the heel of the foot from public view, girls wore a series of wrappings, socks, trousers, or leggings.
The University of Rhode Island's Historic Textile and Costume Collection houses a pair of silk embroidered lotus shoes (URI 1962.99.163) purchased in September 1951 at the Tower Hill Antique Shop in Wakefield, Rhode Island by Mary Cecelia Whitlock in 1962. Whitlock was the Head of Textiles and Clothing in the College of Home Economics at the University of Rhode Island from 1951 to 1962, when she retired. Whitlock purchased for, or donated, other Chinese textiles and fashions, including sleeve bands and fan cases.
There are no labels on the shoes. The shoes are in good condition, with light discoloration and soiling. There is significant staining on the heel of .163a.
The lotus shoes in the URI Collection are silk embroidered with flora and fauna motifs (Fig. 1). Cotton fabric lines each shoe. There is no designation of the shoes being either for the left or right foot and each shoe is decorated the same way with only slight color variations in the embroidery. At the front of each shoe, the material is shaped inward and downward to a sharp point, allowing the toes of the wearer to have room to curl under the bottom of the foot. A seam runs down the center front. The main sections are composed of dark orange and light blue-green satin fabrics. The ankle opening is edged with a black band of fabric; beneath this is a narrow band of applied brocade ribbon with a black ground and green and orange-colored threads. The seam between the light blue-green satin and these upper trims is covered by a very narrow gold-colored ribbon, scalloped along the bottom edge. The opening of the shoe measures 3¾ inches wide.
Four rows of very narrow, applied brocade ribbons separate the sections of the upper blue-green and lower orange satin fabrics. The light green area is embroidered with silk threads in a peony floral motif, created in satin stitches. The flowers embroidered on lotus shoes indicated more than just an intricate design. Lotus shoes featured different embroideries for different seasons. Women often wore plum blossom embroideries in the Spring, peony embroideries in the Summer, lotus embroideries in the Autumn, and chrysanthemum embroideries in the Winter. The petals of the flowers are embroidered from satin stitches in the colors of pink and cream, while the leaves of the flowers are green.
The orange satin creates the bottom portion of the shoe. A bat, with a flower, buds and leaves is embroidered on the proper left, and a butterfly with a similar floral design is on the proper right. Pekinese stitches create these butterfly and bat figures in the primary colors of blue, pink, and white. The Pekinese stitch is often seen in the embroidery of lotus shoes, making designs intricate and colorful. This line stitch, consisting of a row of backstitches interlaced with loops, produces a linear pattern which, when closely spaced, creates a textured embroidery.
The bat symbolizes longevity and happiness, while the butterfly symbolizes good luck and health. Surrounding the figures are embroidered Pekinese peonies. When inspecting the embroidery of the Pekinese stitches, it appears that the design was sketched in pencil before being embroidered, as graphite can be seen where the stitches did not conceal the line completely.
These particular shoes are silver lotus shoes as the soles measure 5 inches in length. Each sole is constructed from layered cotton, glued and stitched together. The heels are 1 ½ inches high and probably made with wood covered by thick, rugged cotton. A short piece of brocade ribbon decorates the narrow point at the top of the arch between the sole and the orange satin. Should the sole accidentally be exposed, lotus shoes were often embroidered and decorated with intricate designs on the soles for pleasurable viewing (Tang Teaching Museum). Each of these soles is decorated with hand quilted designs, a butterfly on the bottom of each heel and flowers inside each arch of the shoes.
Many forms of fashionable lotus shoes developed over time. Local and regional styles reflected the development of how the feet were molded. The different provinces in China determined the stylish size, shape and different styles of shoes and coverings. Placing these shoes within the correct time period or geographic location is difficult. Lotus shoes can be generalized into four main regional distinctions: northern western, eastern, and westerns. There are various subdivisions of each of these regional contexts. When analyzing lotus shoes to define their origin, the defining characteristics include the shape of the heels, the type of sole, and the embroidery designs. However, there is no clear distinction between different towns and villages, as many styles overlap and converge. For instance, brides often traveled some distance to purchase their wedding lotus shoes and these new forms and styles often transformed into the “local” style (TRC Leiden, 7; Steele, 1999). The Textile Research Center in Leiden, The Netherlands, (The TRC Leiden) has a pair of lotus shoes that date from the early 20th century and are from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions of eastern China. These shoes are very similar in style to those in the URI collection. The TRC Leiden lotus shoes feature the same pointed toe and heel shape. The fabric has a similar color-blocking pattern and features rows of geometric trimmings.
From a modern perspective, it is easier to look at these shoes and admire the beauty of the embroidery design rather than thinking about the pain and suffering women endured to bind their feet and reach the optimal beauty standards of having tiny feet. The process of foot binding started for girls between the ages of 5 and 8 when the feet were still developing, soft and moldable. An elderly female member of the girl's family or her future mother-in-law performed the initial breaking and the subsequent binding. It was rare for a mother to perform the initial breaking and ongoing binding of her daughter's foot, as a mother might be too sympathetic to their daughter's pain.
The process began by softening the foot in a warm mixture or herbs and animal blood. The young girl's toenails would be cut back as far as possible, or in extreme cases, the removal of toenails altogether. The toes were either bent or broken by being bent downwards with tremendous pressure. The big toes did not endure any breaking, as they were left unaltered to assist with balance. The toes were held tightly against the sole while the foot was pulled straight down in alignment with the leg, causing the arch to forcefully bend forward.
Cotton bandages, as long as 10 feet, applied even more force on the foot, wrapping around in a figure-eight pattern (Malchik, 2020). The bandaging started at the inside of the foot along the instep and then looped over the toes, passed under the foot, and circled across the back of the heel. Each time the bandage would wrap around the foot, the binding cloth tightened, resulting in the foot folding at the arch and the toes pushing further underneath because the ball of the foot and the heel would be compressed closer together.
The young girl's bounded feet required much care and attention, as the feet needed to be unbound regularly. In wealthier families, the unbinding and rebinding process happened daily, while in less affluent or poorer families, the rebandaging only happened two or three times a week. During each bandaging process, the feet of the young girl went through a rigorous cleansing, and the toes were analyzed meticulously for injuries. The feet would then receive a massage to soften the joints and bones and increase flexibility (Malchik, 2020).
There is no denying that the process of foot binding was highly traumatic and caused excruciating pain; it is essential to examine lotus shoes with an awareness of Chinese culture and connection. Dorothy Ko, author and scholar who has written multiple books on lotus shoes and feet, including Every Step a Lotus and Cinderella's Sisters, points out that "a small foot in China was no different from a tiny waist in Victorian England.” This statement exagerates the use of corsets to produce small waists in 19th century England and America, but it reveals a similarity of thought. Corsets and lotus shoes were an interaction of gender relations in a society where female virtue existed at the intersection of domesticity and confining textiles.
Foot binding became a signifier in the gender differentiation of young boys and girls in China, as only girls would have their feet bound. The practice of foot binding influenced the societal, gendered roles of men and women in Chinese society. Lotus feet were considered aesthetically beautiful by both men and women, with their innate symbolism of femininity. There is little debate between scholars and historians that every aspect of bound feet became sexualized and fetishized by men, from the tiny feet to the lotus gait, prioritizing male notions of beauty over a woman's health and well-being. The lotus gait resulted from the limited mobility of bound feet, as women had to walk with a swaying movement (Vogelsang, 2018). The gait held significance for a young girl to find a suitable husband, as the tinier the foot, the more attractive a girl became and the more likely she would marry a man of status and enhance her family's social standing. The family took great pride in the tiny shape of a girl's bound foot.
The limited mobility of bound feet resulted in a literal dependency on women to move with the help of their husbands, families, or, in the case of wealth, the family's household staff. Men chose their wives based on the size of their feet and the quality of their needlework, especially for their footwear. Girls would often embroider a pair of shoes to send to the homes of prospective husbands to be judged by the man's family. As the practice of bound feet and lotus shoes became a sign of self-discipline, endurance, and resilience, reflecting the ability to run a household, man's family determined a girl's marriageability based on how tiny the shoe was and the intricacy of the embroidery design (Foreman, 2015).
In recent years, scholars have set forth another argument for why women would bind their feet. Harvard professor Melissa Brown's study in 2012 suggests that the woman's family may have economically motivated the practice. Brown conducted interviews with women in the rural countryside of China, where foot binding persisted until the 1950s, and proposed the idea that the families would bind the feet of their young daughters to keep them engaged in the household business of spinning thread and weaving cloth, contributing to the family's income of producing and selling textiles.
By the turn of the 20th century, attitudes towards foot-binding had begun to change, with many Chinese and Western reformers viewing the practice as a symbol of China's backwardness or arguing that it undermined the nation's economic strength. Brown noted, "The areas where we interviewed women were inland, rural areas. One site I visited was a two-day walk from the nearest textile mill during the 1930s, and it was situated in the mountains, without a nearby railroad. Machine-produced cloth and thread had to be transported in by people, often on their backs or shoulder poles. Machine-produced cloth was more expensive than hand-spun cloth in rural China, making it economically viable for people to have their daughters spin thread or weave cloth." Girls who engaged in handicraft production for sale or exchange were more likely to have undergone foot-binding compared to those who did not. Brown suggests that the cessation of foot-binding in rural areas was not primarily due to social pressure but the construction of roads or railroads which facilitated the distribution of cheaper, machine-produced goods, sold at lower prices than handmade items (Reuell, 2018).
References
Arthur, L. B. (2003). Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet (review). China Review International, 10(1), 195–196. https://doi.org/10.1353/cri.2004.0003.
Cahill, S., & Ko, D. (2001). Every step a lotus: shoes for bound feet. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA55657391.
Chinese symbolism | China Collection. (n.d.). https://china.lu/en/symbolism-34.
Foreman, A. (2015, January 21). Why footbinding persisted in China for a millennium. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-footbinding-persisted-china-millennium-180953971/.
Lotus Shoes: Stories between Stitches - Tang Teaching Museum. (Sept. 9 – Dec. 4, 2022). Tang Teaching Museum. Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. https://tang.skidmore.edu/exhibitions/444-lotus-shoes-stories-between-stitches.
Malchik, A. (2020, February 14). The medical consequences of Foot-Binding. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/02/lasting-damage-foot-binding/606439/.
Reuell, P. (2018, October 24). Study: Foot-binding was driven by economics, not sex and beauty. Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/10/study-foot-binding-was-driven-by-economics-not-sex-and-beauty/.
Steele, V., & Major, J. S. (1999). China Chic: East Meets West. Yale University Press.
The Textile Research Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands. Chinese Lotus Shoes. https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-digital-exhibition/index.php/chinese-lotus-shoes/item/141-introduction.
West, D. H. (2022). A stitch in time: Pekinese and Chinese knot stitches. PieceWork. https://pieceworkmagazine.com/a-stitch-in-time-pekinese-and-chinese-knot-stitches/#:~:text=The%20Pekinese%20(Chinese)%20stitch%20is,stitch%20family%20of%20embroidery%20stitches.
Source
Whitlock Collection