China: 'Lotus Shoes' for women with bound feet. The ideal length for a bound foot...

Print and/or digital. Single use, any size, inside only. Single language only. Single territory rights for trade books; worldwide rights for academic books. Print run up to 5000. 7 years. (excludes advertising)

$175.00

Editorial (Books, magazines and newspaper) - standard

Print and/or digital. Single use, any size, inside only. Single language only. Single territory rights for trade books; worldwide rights for academic books. Print run up to 1500. 7 years. (excludes advertising)

$100.00

Corporate website, social media or presentation/talk

Web display, social media, apps or blogs. Not for advertising. All languages. 1 year + archival rights

$190.00

Personal website, social media or presentation/talk

Web display, social media, apps, or blogs. Use in academic and non-commercial presentations/talks included. Not for commercial use or advertising. All languages. 5 years

$50.00

Personal products

Personal Prints, Cards, Gifts, Reference. 5 year term. Not for commercial use, not for public display, not for resale. example: For use on birthday cards sent to family members.

$25.00

Add to cart Buy now & download

Largest available format 5000 × 3553 px 5 MB

	Dimension [pixels]	Dimension in 300dpi [mm]	File size [MB]	Online Purchase
Large	5000 × 3553 px	423 × 301 mm	5.3 MB
Medium	1024 × 728 px	87 × 62 mm	524 KB

Taxes may apply to prices shown

Licensing FAQ

IMAGE number

PFH3085620

Image title

China: 'Lotus Shoes' for women with bound feet. The ideal length for a bound foot was 10cm or around 4 inches in size. 18th-19th century

Auto-translated text View Original Source

Date

C18th AD - C19th AD

Image description

Foot binding (pinyin: chanzu, literally 'bound feet') was a custom practiced on young girls and women for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the first half of 20th century. There is little evidence for the custom prior to the court of the Southern Tang dynasty in Nanjing, which celebrated the fame of its dancing girls, renowned for their tiny feet and beautiful bow shoes. What is clear is that foot binding was first practised among the elite and only in the wealthiest parts of China, which suggests that binding the feet of well-born girls represented their freedom from manual labor and, at the same time, the ability of their husbands to afford wives who did not need to work, who existed solely to serve their men and direct household servants while performing no labor themselves. Bound feet were considered intensely erotic in traditional Chinese culture. Qing Dynasty sex manuals listed 48 different ways of playing with women's bound feet. Some men preferred never to see a woman's bound feet, so they were always concealed within tiny 'lotus shoes' and wrappings. Feng Xun is recorded as stating, 'If you remove the shoes and bindings, the aesthetic feeling will be destroyed forever' - an indication that men understood that the symbolic erotic fantasy of bound feet did not correspond to its unpleasant physical reality, which was therefore to be kept hidden. For men, the primary erotic effect was a function of the lotus gait, the tiny steps and swaying walk of a woman whose feet had been bound. Editor: Vassil

Photo credit

Pictures from History/Vassil / Bridgeman Images

Asset - Rights information

Show Hide

No Additional Copyright

Largest available format 5000 × 3553 px 5 MB View all formats

	Dimension [pixels]	Dimension in 300dpi [mm]	File size [MB]	Online Purchase
Large	5000 × 3553 px	423 × 301 mm	5.3 MB
Medium	1024 × 728 px	87 × 62 mm	524 KB

Field	Search term	Example
Asset title	title:	title:pony
Asset title and keywords	~	~pony
Asset description text	description:	description:london
Agency prefix	prfx: or $	prfx:lal or $LAL
Asset id	imageid: or #	imageid:250297 or imageid:[2500 TO 4000] or #1551
Agency name	coll:	coll:history
Medium	medium:	medium:oil
Century	century:	century:20th
Keywords	kw:	kw:dog
Artist name	artist: or ?	artist:monet or ?monet
Artist nationality	nat:	nat:French
Creator ID	creatorid:	creatorid:37
Location	loc: or @	loc:exeter or @exeter
Classification	class:	class:57 or #57. Use # for unclassified assets
Year	year:	year:1850 or year:[1700 TO 1800]

Contact us for further help

High res file dimension

Search for more high res images or videos

China: 'Lotus Shoes' for women with bound feet. The ideal length for a bound foot...

Add to cart

Contact us for other Usage Options

Similar Images

Art. Culture. History.

Simple. Fast. Reliable.

Discover millions of images and videos for your creative projects.

Navigation

Contact

Legal