"The truth, no matter how unpalatable, is that foot-binding was experienced, perpetuated and administered by women. Though utterly rejected in China now—the last shoe factory making lotus shoes closed in 1999—it survived for a thousand years in part because of women’s emotional investment in the practice. The lotus shoe is a reminder that the history of women did not follow a straight line from misery to progress, nor is it merely a scroll of patriarchy writ large. Shangguan, Li and Liang had few peers in Europe in their own time. But with the advent of foot-binding, their spiritual descendants were in the West. Meanwhile, for the next 1,000 years, Chinese women directed their energies and talents toward achieving a three-inch version of physical perfection."
~ Amanda Foreman
"'Why Footbinding Persisted in China for a Millennium'
Despite the pain, millions of Chinese women stood firm in their devotion to the tradition"
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-footbinding-persisted-china-millennium-180953971/
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