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| Lily endures excuriating pain in order to have her feet bound, what do you think about this practice and the reasons given for this dangerous practice? |
| Posted by Kyleen on 05/18/2008 07:28 PM
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I thought that it was a terrible thing to do to a woman, a form of mutilation that basically renders a woman almost helpless to run or walk very far. Even nowadays, there are things done to women in other countries that supposedly make them beautiful but are really to make them slaves and to take away their identity. I thought the reasons for foot binding were geared to men.
Donna |
| posted by donna on 05/19/2008 06:47 AM
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I didn't read the book (largely because of the negative reviews on Amazon, but I thought this excerpt of a review on there is relevent to the topic here so I thought I would share it:
"We Chinese feel this story is like a Chinese Stir Fry Hamburger cooked by McDonalds, and then be called "Chinese Food". Poor farm girl could never marry up regardless of her feet! Marriage was dominanted by social status at that time, "Bamboo Door To Bamboo Door", "Wooden Door to Wooden Door" were the undefying rules for arranged marriages, which was never to be violated!!! Well-to-do Chinese Han (Majority Ethnic Chinese) families bounded their daughters' feet so they didn't have to marry down!!! There are many other stupid and laughable things in the story I don't have enough space here to name all!! Powerful, Royal and Rich Ruling Manchurians and a lot of other ethnic groups and poor Han Chinese didn't bind their women's feet!!! Qing Dynasty actually had an imperial ban for feet binding, but was unable to enforce it like the way they enforced the men's dress code!! Han Chinese did it also as a defiance against the ruling Manchurians, because it was the only victory they could hold after China was occupied by a non-Han Chinese ethnic group!"
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| posted by Indigo Ottyr on 05/19/2008 09:54 AM
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| I do see that foot binding is very painful. But in their cultre it told what social standing you were in. The girls that bound their feet and had all the broken bones would marry well, the girls that bounded their feet only for a little while were still abole to walk and work with their husbands, and the girls that did not bind their feet were either servants or given to familes to carry children. |
| posted by Jessica on 05/20/2008 11:39 PM
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