The Feet Of The Concubine
(Kathryn Harrison)
As westerners, we feel fascinated by the false believe that the bandaged feet of chinese ladies have stopped growing sometime in their childhood. We thus imagine beautiful torn eyed ladies with child's feet. The so called "Golden Lotus foot" was considered to be the most erotic part of a chinese woman's body. A family refusing this tradition regarding their female children's feet would not expect a proper marriage for them. Anyway, a bonded foot is a broken foot, slowly tortured to bone breaking and to muscle incapacity. In order to achieving that, the four little fingers of the foot were folded back towards the heel, and thereby strongly bandaged in the shape of a wedge. Chinese female children had their feet bandaged when they were between five and eight years old, and that was a bandage to be carried about for the rest of their lifes, being a cause of continuous pains and health problems. This was an ordinary practice until 1911, when it was finally abolished. "The Feet of the Concubine" relates Mai's story. Mai has been tortured in this way all along her childhood, in spite of which she will rebel against her fate, searching for a place she will never find in this world. Mai escapes a marriage imposed by her own family, and works at a brothel until she meets Arthur Cohen, an Australian who strives for the abolition of this thousands year long torture. Neverthless he will become erotically obsessed with Mai's feet.
Resumos Relacionados
- The Feet Of The Concubine
- The Feet Of The Concubine
- 23 Minutes In Hell
- Eleven Minutes
- Willow''s Peak
|
|
