Synopses & Reviews
When Wang Ping was nine years old, she secretly set about binding her feet with elastic bands. Footbinding had by then been outlawed in China, womens feet “liberated,” but at that young age she desperately wanted the tiny feet her grandmother had-deformed and malodorous as they were. By first examining the root of her own girlhood desire, Wang unleashes a fascinating inquiry into a centuries-old custom.
Aching for Beauty combines Wangs unique perspective and remarkable literary gifts in an award-winning exploration of the history and culture surrounding footbinding. In setting out to demystify this reviled tradition, Wang probes an astonishing range of literary references, addresses the relationship between beauty and pain, and discusses the intense female bonds that footbinding fostered. Her comprehensive examination of the notions of hierarchy, femininity, and fetish bound up in the tradition places footbinding in its proper context in Chinese history and opens a window onto an intriguing culture.
Synopsis
In this award-winning inquiry, Wang Ping offers a fresh perspective on the centuries-old custom of footbinding.
First examining the root of her own girlhood desire for tiny feet -- years after footbinding had been outlawed in China -- Wang then probes an astonishing range of literary references, addresses the relationship between beauty and pain, and discusses the intense female bonds that footbinding fostered in endeavoring to demystify this complex phenomenon. With a comprehensive examination of the notions of hierarchy, femininity, and fetish bound up in the tradition, Aching for Beauty places footbinding in its proper context and opens a window onto an intriguing culture.
About the Author
Wang Pings books include American Visa, a collection of short stories; Foreign Devil, a novel; and Of Flesh and Spirit, a collection of poetry. Born in Shanghai, she holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from New York University and teaches creative writing at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Table of Contents
Three-inch golden lotuses : achieving beauty through violence -- A brief history of footbinding -- Footbinding and the cult of the exemplary woman -- Edible beauty : food and foot fetishes in China -- Silken slippers : footbinding in Chinese erotica -- Binding, weaving, chatting : female bonding and writing -- From golden lotus to Prime Minister : a woman's tale living from mouth to mouth -- The fabric of masquerade.