Chinese+Fashion+Through+the+Ages-+Footbinding

 ** Footbinding **

Footbinding started in the Sung Dynasty and continued for many, many years. When a girl was between the ages 3 and 11, she started the long process of binding the foot. Here are the steps:  This made the foot extremely painful to even walk on it, and a lot of times the toes would fall off! Click here to go back to my main page. 
 * 1)   The young girls foot was cleansed in tub of hot water, then relaxed by a massage.
 * 2)   All of her toes (except the big toe) were broken and turned under, then they got wrapped with strips of cloth underneath her foot.
 * 3)   This kept the foot from growing big and masculine.
 * 4)   After a few years, the girls foot shrank so much that it could fit in a very tiny shoe (about 3-4 inches long!).

