Portrayal of Footbinding in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Anonymous College

In the 19th century China, the custom known as "footbinding" was prevalent; it was traditional that young girls had their feet bound as early as age three and the goal was to achieve a pair of perfectly bound feet, which made a girl more marriageable, since it showed her discipline, obedience to the natal family and the ability to endure pain. However, not every girl survived this procedure, many of them died of an infection. In some respects, there are correlations between known historical facts and textual evidence of footbinding in the novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, where the main character Lily tells us her life story and guides us through the process of her feet being bound.

A custom called footbinding was a practice used on young girls, where the four small toes were twisted underneath the foot’s sole until the bones in them were broken. The arch of the foot was broken as well and pushed as close to the heel as possible. The feet were being bound at least for two years straight in order to prevent them from growing. (Wilson 2013, 18) Still, there is not a lot of knowledge as to how the footbinding began, although as early as late Han Dynasty (847-850) there are textual references where the likeness of the small...