Foot Binding

Painful tradition in China of binding young girls feet to keep them from growing, and maintain small sized feet. In extreme cases, foot binding was done by breaking the toes in several places and folding the broken toes under the sole of the foot, then breaking the arches of the feet, effectively snapping the feet in half. This was of course intensely painful for the girls who had it done to their feet. Once the feet had been broken they would be bound, by wrapping in a cloth strip ten feet long and two inches wide. The binding cloth was wound repeatedly around the feet, at each pass being pulled tighter, bringing the ball of the foot and the heel gradually closer together. At the end of the binding the cloth would be pulled very tight, by this time the girl's toes would be almost touching her heels.