Chinese culture has been a long-standing and enduring interest of mine for over 25 years. I find great inspiration in many aspects of the culture, including what they find beautiful and fashionable. It makes my heart beat faster or skip a beat with excitement.
As I was perusing my Pinterest page, I came across my board, and that prompted me in a "timed" moment to pin more pins. In that moment, I thought to write an article about Louts and Manchu slippers. I started to research only to find an article I had already written! Hummm....so here it is!
Reprint from April 2015
I was recently given these tiny Chinese Lotus Slippers by a very dear friend...
This prompted me to share with you my limited knowledge about these shoes...I have studied the Chinese Children's Hats for over 15 years, and I'm starting to understand them. Chinese culture is varied and has considerable depth. You could spend a lifetime on just one subject.
In today's world, we are very sensitive to the suffering of others. We care deeply for others and their welfare. This is a wonderful thing... There is a carefully negotiated balance. Although our deep caring can bring judgment, which may cloud our understanding, especially of times that are now part of our distant past or our culture...
Lotus Feet
During this period, women did not have a voice, and the only way to make their mark on the world was to marry well, thereby bringing honor to their family.
The generally accepted theory credits Prince Li Yu, who ruled one of the ten kingdoms in southern China. It is said that he had a favourite concubine, who was a superb dancer. “Precious Thing” toe danced inside a six-foot-high platform shaped like a lotus flower made of gold. Chinese women resorted to permanent disfigurement to execute the choreography. When the women of the concubine started to bind their feet to copy Precious Thing, the bindings were likely very loose in comparison to what they would become.
Lotus feet were a critical, life-demanding necessity among Chinese women (mostly Han). This showed they did not need to work and was a symbol of aristocracy and wealth in a patriarchal society. Many families that were not of the aristocracy would groom their oldest daughter for this position in life. The custom was outlawed and finally followed through on in 1912.
Women from wealthy and noble families focused their fine artistic creativity and energy on footwear for their tiny bound feet, racing to achieve uniqueness and beauty and distinguish themselves from others.
We can examine the darker side of this custom, which lasted for 1,000 years.
We can also examine the beauty that contradicts that period...
Lotus Slippers
silk
These tiny little masterpieces were mainly made from silk in the cities. In villages and poorer sections of the country, cotton was used because it was less expensive and more durable.
cotton
Embroidery
The embroidery on the shoes was hand-sewn by the women who were to wear them, though younger girls often enlisted the help of their mothers and sisters. Commercial patterns were available, but many women created their own designs, tailored to their region and personality. This was the only time in a Chinese woman’s life when creativity was encouraged.
Sole shot of a black silk lotus shoe with elaborately
embroidered sole featuring fish,
lotus flowers, roots, and seed pods.
The lotus flower, a symbol of summer, purity, and fruitfulness, was the most popular. Chinese characters, leaves, animals, fish, and flowers were also incorporated into embroidered decorations. The bottom of the shoes could also be embroidered. As many wealthy women spent their days sitting with their feet up, the bottom of the shoes needed to be just as attractive as the sides.
Shanxi-style lotus shoes, silk with silk
and cotton embroidery.
Denver Art Museum; Neusteter Textile Collection:
Gift of Miss Louise Iliff.
This lotus shoe from Shanghai features a complex
embroidered motif expressing a bride's desire
for her husband's career success.
Bata Shoe Museum
Red silk wedding shoes with red soles
showing
caked dirt and signs of wear.
Bata Shoe Museum
More slippers
Unable to find credits for these
a well-loved and worn pair
Unbound Feet
Manchu women did not bind their feet was in part because it they were ordered not to by the Emperor and other men, who saw their feet as a marker (the marker) of ethnic difference. They were also able to gain all the benefits of footbinding, a visible symbol of their refinement and culture, without having to bind their feet.
“Those who imitate the clothes of another country or order their women to bind their feet, [they] have their bodies in our dynasty but their hearts in another country.”
Manchu women were forbidden to bind their feet by an edict from the Emperor after the Manchu started their rule of China in 1644. However, few complied with the edict. As its prevalence increased, the Manchus, wanting to emulate the particular gait that bound feet necessitated, invented their own type of shoe that caused them to walk in a similar swaying manner. These "flower bowl" shoes were typically placed on a high platform, generally made of wood, or had a small central pedestal. Bound feet became a significant distinguishing marker between Manchu and Han women.
A Manchu girl shows off the typical dress
of the ruling Qing dynasty.
The picture is from the mid-nineteenth-
century collection of William Lockhart
more Manchu Shoes
My hope is that it gives you a glimpse into the Chinese culture and their thought process of that time in history!
I love art, and I love history,
but it is living art and
living history that I love...
Wm Morris
