China Chic East Meets West Summary

The essay “China Chic: East meets West” by Valerie Steele and John S. Major is immensely about the practice of foot binding in China. Foot binding is described as when a girl’s toes are tightly bandaged together under the soles of their feet. This leaves only the big toe visible at the beginning of the feet and this practice also breaks the arch of their foot. Foot binding began towards the end of the Tang Dynasty and did not begin to disappear until the middle of the twentieth century. This practice is said to have begun with dancers and professional female entertainers, but during the Song Dynasty it became familiar with those who lived in palaces and the elite. Within a few years it was carried out by almost the entirety of the Chinese population.

Although the text, described it as “barbaric” from a western missionary view; I do believe that it is quite similar to wearing a corset. This is also a point made in the essay by the authors at the beginning of paragraph 15. It should be evident that both practices displayed the insecurities of women of that culture/ society—Chinese women wanted smaller feet and to have a more successful chance at marriage and western women believed that a small waist was more attractive. I would not say that the practice was ‘barbaric’ because in a strange way the families were doing it for the betterment of their daughters’ life. The girls and their families knew what they were doing and trying to achieve by doing so. It can absolutely be agreed upon that it is an extreme form of body modification when compared to other forms. Dorothy Ko, a scholar, loosely suggested that foot binding was not an uncomfortable ritual that every woman in each dynasty went through, but more of a “amorphous” practice that varies from situation to situation. I agree with Ko; the practice went from being associated with the wealthy (most likely those who could afford such a practice and the complications that came along with it) to everyday people (most likely those where trying to achieve the status of wealth). It started as a trend (innovative and new) and became a ritual (mothers and daughters seemed to have bonded over this