Unbound feet: the changing status of Chinese women, c. 1890-1950

Confucius Institute

Providing Chinese language teaching and cultural classes and events to the North East Scotland community

Unbound feet: the changing status of Chinese women, c. 1890-1950
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This is a past event

Public lecture on unbound feet

For almost one thousand years, 90 per cent of Chinese women had their feet bound to achieve an artificial smallness that corresponded to an ideal of beauty, but restricted movement and caused immense pain and suffering. The eradication of this practice in the early twentieth century was a huge achievement and stands as a symbol of both female emancipation and the end of the old imperial order with the fall of the last dynasty in 1911. But it was just one among many changes in the status of Chinese women, which fluctuated with the political movements of the period. This lecture will trace these changes, from the decline in footbinding, through the social developments in early twentieth-century cities like Shanghai, to the implementation of the 1950 Marriage Law passed in the young People’s Republic. Developments in the fashion of women’s clothes and shoes provide a striking visual record of these changes in Chinese women’s lives.

Speaker
Dr Isabella Jackson
Hosted by
Confucius Institute
Venue
King's College Conference Centre
Contact

Admission free, booking required.

Isabel Seidel, telephone 01224 273209 or email confucius@abdn.ac.uk