Modernised Foot Binding

In China, not too far back in history, women were breaking their bones at young ages in order to bind their feet into a shape that was considered at that time as desirable and fashionable. Having tiny feet was believed to increase a woman's status and chance of marrying into a rich and prestigious family, which then opens the gateway to a more comfortable and worry-free life. 

Yet, the pain endured did not seem to reap the same benefits for those who were living in the era when Communism took over and foot binding was outlawed in 1912. As Yang Yang put it, "These women were shunned by two eras. When they were young, foot binding was already forbidden, so they bound their feet in secret. When the Communist era came, production methods changed. They had to do farming work, and again they were shunned." Not only had their bounded feet become an obstacle to moving ahead with the changing economic demands, as Zhou Guizhen recounts, all her possessions were confiscated by the Communists even though she was born into a rich family and was married into great riches. The comfortable, worry-free and even prestigious life that formed the underlying motivation for this self-inflicted mutilation was, eventually, snatched away, leaving these poor women with no riches and no means to work for their living without them having to struggle hard to get around with their tiny feet.


Today, our bones are not necessarily deliberately broken (though in plastic surgery, they are) and our bodies are not painfully bounded into unusual shapes to fit in to what society defines as attractive and desirable. We do not need foot binding to place us on a high societal standing. In fact, we might even find foot binding stupid, meaningless and even demeaning to the womenfolk. We have, in our era, progressed on to more "sophisticated" ways of defining who we are. We have high-heeled shoes that raise our professionalism at the workplace, lingerie with the maximiser functions to assert our womanhood. We have various symbolic stuck-ons at the front and rear of our cars to affirm the level of our successes, a myriad of alphabets on our handbags and clothes that secures a topic for conversation and a ticket to enter the race for the most fashionable urban dweller. We have examination score sheets that foretell our future and enrichment classes to enrol our kids into to prove our love for them and our dedication as parents to their development. We have our child's straight-As as evidence of our successful parenting. 


We do not have broken bones as a result of such a lifestyle aimed at fitting in to the society we have made for ourselves. What we do have are broken hearts from disappointments, shattered egos from our failures to meet up to expectations, broken families from our dissatisfying pursuits we thought could satisfy, broken self-identities from the betrayal of who we truly are in search for our far-fetched secular ideals. We have disfigured faces beneath the thick layers of paint that masks all the cracks as a result of our brokenness. We have broken relationships from the pain caused by these very cracks of one another. We have broken lives from the meaninglessness of our mundane living, and yes, in this case, we have multiple broken bones from a hopelessness that forces us over the edge of a high-rise flat.  


Then, after we have broken all that can possibly be broken, what will happen to us when we, like those who witnessed the transition to Communism, have to face the eventual transition between health and sickness, between agility and handicap, and most of all, between life and death? When we have to transit from our indifference and enter into the inescapable presence of God standing before us on judgement day? How will we stand firm in the Light of the Eternal Truth, just as those tiny feet cannot possibly stand firm on the uneven grounds of their farmlands? When all that we had worked for and chased after, when the life we had fought hard to secure and the layers of fake gold we had adorned ourselves with begin to fall apart into the nakedness of our creature-hood before our Almighty and Living God? And when our masks have been ripped off, we will, like Adam and Eve, run into hiding in shame of our bareness. But where will we run to? Where can we run to? 


Instead, put on the cloak of our Lord for the journey, the cloak of sincerity, humility, and of openness, which are necessary for the journey less travelled but is nonetheless, the only road that brings us to God, from whom we came and to whom we are invited to return. Put on the armour of prayer that guards our hearts and grounds our faith with wisdom and strength. Follow the Way of Truth and of Life that brings joy, freedom and peace instead of the ways of the world that have proved to distort, destroy, discriminate and disintegrate. 


Let us pray for the graces of courage and wisdom, of sincerity, humility and openness to uncover and acknowledge the aspects of our lives that have been broken, to bring these brokenness to the Lord in prayer and to await in faith the healing grace already given when He emptied Himself on the cross for our sake. Let us reach out our hands to claim this grace by first following His command to seek Him with our whole heart, turning our hearts and lives away from the world and fixing them upon the Lamb, who tenderly calls us to enter into the gift of His loving presence, the King, who has slaughtered the fattened calf in the eager anticipation of our coming to rejoice with Him in His heavenly banquet. 


How have our lives been "bounded" to forcefully fit into the "shoe" of society?
How have we been broken as a result? 


13 October 2011, Thursday
11.17pm