Bound feet, young hands : tracking the demise of footbinding in village China / Laurel Bossen and Hill Gates.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bossen, Laurel, 1945- author.

Gates, Hill, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Footbinding--China.

Footbinding.

Footbinding--Economic aspects--China.

Rural girls--Employment--China.

Rural girls.

Rural women--Employment--China.

Rural women.

Handicraft industries--China.

Handicraft industries.

Rural girls--China--Social life and customs.

Rural women--China--Social life and customs.

Manners and customs.

Rural women--Employment.

Rural girls--Employment.

Footbinding--Economic aspects.

China--Rural conditions.

China.

Rural conditions.

Physical Description:

xv, 247 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2017]

Summary:

In this groundbreaking work, Laurel Bossen and Hill Gates upend the popular view of footbinding as a status, or even sexual, symbol by showing that it was an undeniably effective way to get even very young girls to sit still and work with their hands. Interviews with 1,800 elderly women, many with bound feet, reveal the reality of girls' hand labor across the North China Plain, Northwest China, and Southwest China. As binding reshaped their feet, mothers disciplined girls to spin, weave, and do other handwork because many village families depended on selling such goods. When factories eliminated the economic value of handwork, footbinding died out. As the last generation of footbound women passes away, Bound Feet, Young Hands presents a data-driven examination of the social and economic aspects of this misunderstood custom. Book jacket.

Contents:

Questions about footbinding

Seeking answers : research methods and fieldwork

The North China Plain

Northwest China

Southwest China

Bound feet across China.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804799553

0804799555

OCLC:

948961187