![An elderly woman with bound feet on a city sidewalk in Xi'an, 1982. © Patti Isaacs](https://timetravelinchina.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/00027.jpg?w=584)
An elderly woman with bound feet on a city sidewalk in Xi’an, 1982. © Patti Isaacs
Just today a friend posted a short video about foot binding on Facebook. Living in interior, rural China in 1981-82, I often saw elderly women with bound feet; the practice continued longer in the country’s interior than in the big coastal cities of China’s south and east.
In an earlier post, I mentioned elderly women with bound feet who nonetheless made the arduous climb to the top of Mt. Huashan not far from Xi’an. It was a challenging climb for me with my youth and big feet. I was doubly impressed by the women, many in their 70s and 80s, who picked their way up 5000 vertical feet on lotus feet.
View the video here:
Scroll’s Facebook video of bound feet