BEAUTIFUL BIG FEET

摘要

Little feet/big feet: sustainability and aesthetics in ChinarnFor almost 1,000 years, young Chinese girls were forced to bind their feet so they could marry citified elites, since their natural "big" feet were associated with provincial people and rustic life. At first, foot-binding was the sole privilege of the high class. The practice flourished until the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Respected intellectuals had written poems and created paintings to praise artificial tiny feet that today would be considered grotesque and abused. Painters portrayed classic Chinese beauties with small feet, flat breasts, tiny waists, and white skin, in complete contrast to strong and healthy peasant girls. Fora longtime, in other words, the beautiful has been seen as necessarily unproductive, above the "crude," survival-oriented processes of nature.