The Last Women who followed China's 1000-year old HORRIBLE tradition

“I can’t dance, I can’t move properly. I regret it a lot."

A symbol of beauty and high social status, the practice began in the 10th century

British photographer, Jo Farrell has been travelling to remote provinces in China to find and track down the last surviving women with bound feet.

The foot binding was more than 100 years when it was banned in China. But there are still some of the living women who were manipulated to the practice as children.

Jo has been doing the documentary for almost 9 years. She found 50 survivors of the foot binding in China.

A tradition that started in the Song Dynasty, it was originally banned in 1911

According to Jo, she got the idea from the cab driver she was riding last 2005.

“He mentioned that his grandmother had bound feet,” Jo recalls. “Most people told me that it was such an old tradition, there were no women left. I went to the village of the cab driver’s grandmother, in the Shandong province, and met Zang Yun Ying. She became the first woman in my project.”

Zhang Yun Ying was the first woman Jo Farrell photographed, in 2006. She was the oldest with the age of 103-years-old.

Zhang Yun Ying 103-years-old

“I can’t dance, I can’t move properly. I regret it a lot. But at the time, if you didn’t bind your feet, no one would marry you,” Zhang Yun Ying said.

A symbol of beauty and high social status, the practice began in the 10th century and was banned only in 1912, almost one thousand years later. It was also known as ' lotus feet'.

Foot-binding in China was believed to create a more beautiful foot and promote obedience.

It was outlawed in China 103 years ago, following almost 10 decades of the practice. But the last factory producing “lotus shoes” – the triangular embroidered platforms used to showcase the women’s minuscule pointy feet – closed just six years ago.

According to the survivors, millions of young women in there time crushed their feet in a bid to marry well. To attain the coveted “three-inch golden lotuses” one needed to start early.

“Young bones are soft, and break more easily," a survivor of the practice said. “Because I bound my own feet, I could manipulate them more gently until the bones were broken.”

The pictures of women, now aged in their 80s and 90s after foot binding continued in rural areas until around 1939.

Su Xi Rong, 75-year-old, revealed her feet to British photographer Jo Farrell. She was seven years old when her feet was so small that she had been renowned for their beauty.

Su Xi Rong 75-year-old

Jo met more than 50 of them over an eight-year period, and says she was surprised to find stories of pride and empowerment.

Five of them were still completely bound and in hiding, but most had released their binds.

"Although considered fairly barbaric, it was a tradition that enabled women to find a suitable partner. Match-makers or mother-in-laws required their son's betrothed to have bound feet as a sign that she would be a good wife , she would be subservient and without complaint," Jo explained.

Si Yin Zhin 90-years-old

"A tradition that started in the Song Dynasty, it was originally banned in 1911. It continued in rural areas until around 1939 whereupon women with bound feet had the bindings forcibly removed by government decree," she added.

The standard length of the Lotus Feet was 3 inches. That explains how much bone-crushing would be required in order to get the desired results.

The standard length of the Lotus Feet was 3 inches

“Young bones are soft, and break more easily,"

Their toes were strapped under their feet and would break over time. The arch would lift so that a woman's heel would almost touch the metatarsals, creating a cavern.

"In the past year alone, three of the women I have been documenting have died and I feel it is now imperative to focus on recording their lives before it is too late," Jo Farrell said. "This project documents and celebrates the lives of the last remaining women in China with bound feet."

Jo Farrell’s photo book Living History: Bound Feet Women of China, contains close-up portraits of the severe deformity they suffered.


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