Off-campus CWU users: To download documents with restricted access, please use your Wildcat Connection username and password to log in after clicking on the link below.

Login to Proxy Server

Non-CWU users: Please contact Brooks Library to request access to restricted materials.

Campus where you would like to present

SURC Room 271

Start Date

15-5-2014

End Date

15-5-2014

Keywords

Empowerment, Women, and Patriarchy

Abstract

People know the practice of footbinding in Chinese history through the lens of the anti-footbinding discourse that began in the late 19th century. Since modern elites in China and western missionaries problematized the practice for weakening women’s bodies and the Chinese national body, footbinding lost its history and became a representation of oppressive and exotic antiquity. This presentation attempts to introduce the overshadowed history of footbinding, by looking at its various methods and analyzing the meanings of individual practices. It will argue that footbinding, despite its notoriety, actually served to empower women within Chinese society.

Faculty Mentor(s)

Ahn, Chong Eun

Additional Mentoring Department

History

Share

COinS
 
May 15th, 10:40 AM May 15th, 11:00 AM

Beautiful and Bound

SURC Room 271

People know the practice of footbinding in Chinese history through the lens of the anti-footbinding discourse that began in the late 19th century. Since modern elites in China and western missionaries problematized the practice for weakening women’s bodies and the Chinese national body, footbinding lost its history and became a representation of oppressive and exotic antiquity. This presentation attempts to introduce the overshadowed history of footbinding, by looking at its various methods and analyzing the meanings of individual practices. It will argue that footbinding, despite its notoriety, actually served to empower women within Chinese society.