Chinese Soft Power

Shocking pictures show the residents of China's Bound Feet Women Village -- where more than 100 pensioners suffer the agonizing effects of the 1,000-year-old practice

The process involves breaking bones and toes in feet and then tightly wrapping them with material.
It began in the early 600s and was a sign of wealth and high status in the country for centuries.
By JOSEPH CURTIS

These are the shocking images that show pensioners in China suffering the painful effects of the 1,000-year-old practice of foot binding.
More than 100 women aged 70 and older partake in the custom in the village of Liuyi in the Yunnan Province, with the location dubbed the 'Bound Feet Women Village' as a result.
The custom involves tightly wrapping the feet of young girls to change their shape and was popular among wealthy women who did not have to work, and therefore 'did not need to use their feet'.
It also became a sign of beauty and affected limbs became known as lotus feet in the country.

These images show the horrific effects of the ancient Chinese tradition of footbinding, when girls aged four to nine would have their toes and bones broken before their feet were tightly bound in material in a process that was supposed to show wealth and high status. Pictured is a woman's foot in Liuyi Village, where more than 100 elderly women who have undergone the process live

This bound foot shows dry and cracked skin and toes mashed together. It belongs to 100-year-old Luo Pu, who lives in Liuyi, known as Bound Feet Women Village due to the high proportion of women who live their who have experienced the process, which dates to the early 600s and was banned in 1912.

But the images suggest the feet are anything but, with toes shown contorted around each other while the skin itself appears dry and cracked.
Binding was often performed on girls aged between four and nine during winters, when the cold temperatures were more likely to numb feet against pain.
It involved breaking and mutilating toes and bones, while toenails were also cut very short before the bandages were applied.
The custom is believed to have started sometime in the 600s, although the exact origin remains unknown.

Several origin stories exist for the process, with many involving dancing. Women who have undergone foot binding continue to dance, with women in Liuyi wearing 'Three Cuns Golden Lotus' shoes for their Bound Feet Women Dancing Team. Bound feet were often called lotus feet

The Bound Feet Women Dancing Team are pictured here practicing martial arts as part of their routine, with each wearing their special lotus shoes

One explanation offered is that a Chinese emperor fell in love with a dancer whose feet were bound with silk, while another claims an emperor's favourite concubine had a clubfoot and so asked him to make foot binding compulsory for all girls so her feet would not be considered ugly.
Dancing appears to be part and parcel of the process, as women in Liuyi who have had foot binding performed have formed their own dancing teams.

The process was carried out on young girls, usually during winter when their feet were supposedly more numb to the pain due to the cold weather. Three youngsters are pictured here with bound feet in Imperial China before the practice was outlawed.