The National Museum of History's (
The exhibition details the different shoe styles prevalent in different regions of China and Taiwan. All have in common delicate handiwork, beautiful patterns and bold color schemes. Some were clearly articles of high fashion in their days. The details of the embroidery reveal the social conditions of the region of origin. Some bow shoes from Taiwan have wooden heels, an influence of Japanese colonization.
Ke's X-ray photo of a bound foot hung next to one of a normal female foot helps viewers understand the physical aspect of the cultural practice. There are also detailed illustrations of how to bind feet correctly using a wide range of tools. If bound correctly, a woman's foot could fit into 5cm wide shoes, the smallest in the exhibition, which comes from southern Taiwan.
The origin of foot binding has not yet been pinned down, although most historical documents show the practice started during the Tang Dynasty. The trend took off in the Sung Dynasty, when a delicate physique was viewed as the basis for female beauty. In the Yuan Dynasty, bound feet were compared to a "golden lotus" and in Ming society they were an indication of high social class. Ching dynasty parents competed to have their sons marry women with the smallest possible feet.
Bound feet may seem a deformity today but for ancient Chinese it served many purposes. Apart from keeping woman in the home, a Confucian idea, people also believed that it improved a couple's sex life. As a woman with bound feet had to carry more weight with her hips and thighs, this was supposed to improve the function of her external sexual organs and enable her to give her husband greater sexual pleasure.
The transformation of women's lower body due to feet binding, Ke said, changed the sexual behavior of both sexes.
Ke bought his first pair of small shoes when he was 18. Over the last 28 years, he has collected 1,500 pairs of small shoes and 5,000, paraphernalia and historical documents, related to the practice. The director of a hospital in Taipei County, Ke has also published two books on bound feet.
He is currently working on a three-part trilogy on the artifacts, culture and sexual practices related to bound feet.
Ke's small shoes collection has toured in the US, Canada and Germany. Here his collection has been shown in many public galleries around Taiwan.
"A Thousand Years of Bound Feet" will run until Sept. 14 at the National Museum of History, 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei (台北市南海路49號).
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