I am fascinated by the articles on foot binding. Specifically, I am intrigued about how the society of Hunan had to actually make their own mini-society to set up a system where women without bound feet could find men that were willing to marry them. They also had to set in place a system of rules where the marriages, although still arranged, could not be done through coercion or intimidation. The rules of this society also say that they encourage men to send their daughters to marry far away (I assume to encourage the spread of non-bound feet) and to do away with most of the ritual of marriage (except a few things so that they still fit in with the general public).
To me, it is interesting about how it seems it would be nearly impossible for individuals or even a small group to start a tradition of non-binding within the society at large without making a special large scale group. To try to take small steps and try to get someone to accept your view of non-bound women seems like it would have been futile, so they had to make a complete change, almost like the mentality of a modern commune that feels it cannot make small changes to the world without creating its own separate system. Over the next few days I know I will start to think of parallels to other cultures, including my own, that had to create these mini-societies within a society to accomplish their goals. Once I know more, this might be a real good article for me to use on my anthropology students, where they can find parallels in other major cultures and in small sub cultures that similarly make mini-societies, like punk rock, or K-pop, or surfing, or cliques at school, or…
I would like to know:
1) How successfully was this (and other) non-bound society in reaching its goals?
2) Were they subject to persecution or ridicule or pressure by traditional societies?
3) Were they influential in changing Chinese culture’s view of foot binding?
4) Was this society of Hunan created before or after the pro-women address by Qui Jin?
edited by rlaunius on 3/5/2013
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