Feet = Gross

Mom remembers how her greatgrandmother from her dad's side would unwrap her tiny bound feet, once in awhile to change the binding fabric. I guess the binding fabric acts like a sock, to absorb the moisture of subtropical Taiwan, and to contain these little feet. Pretty much the bone/ligaments are broken so the toes can be rolled under similar to the way we hold our hands in fists. Strangely the distorted shape was not what was considered gross in mom’s memory, it was the SMELL! Mom said the stench increases as the feet were being unswaddled and the yards and yards of fabric was jus marinated in the smell. Wow, how did ANYONE find footbinding hot?

Sadly, none of the shoes are kept in the family. I can imagine those must be pretty darn awesome to have with usually very decorative hand sewn stitching. I just ran a search to find when footbinding was officially banned, 1911? Um well maybe not Taiwan since if my mom saw my great grandmother with her feet still bound then the time frame would be between 1950-mid 1960s. Not so distant after all, as I look at my own sz 5 but wide feet.

Which reminds me when I did a stint at a department store selling kid shoes after college, a family with a toddler was convinced that since I’m Chinese, and my people are responsible for footbinding, I was pushing them to buy the wrong size. Sorry, I’m not an asshole, I hope your kid tripped on the 2 sizes too big shoe he’s trying to learn to walk in. Ef that, we'll never live that one down won't we.