Artefact of Empire 1890s - Adrian, Kevin, and Shelbi

Chinese Foot Binding

• Started around beginning of the Song Dynasty up until 20th century. (960-1912)
• At one time it was just for wealthy but then became a norm among all social classes.
• Seen as a barbaric, radical practice by Westerners (mostly Christian missionaries)
• Girls started at a very young age
• In 1911 the new Republic of China government banned foot binding.
• Women were told to unwrap their feet lest they be fined, or worse.
• Today it is considered a form of child abuse and to this day a minority of elderly Chinese women are still living with the consequences of bound feet.

The Process

1. First the process started by binding the four toes under the foot (not including pinky)
2. Repeat step one until foot is at desired length 
3. Women did this for decades and decades, constantly breaking, setting and rebreaking their foot.

Social Darwinism

• Charles Darwin, an English naturalist and geologist contributed heavily to the theory of evolution by means of introducing the theory of Natural Selection, which was used by thinkers such as Herbert Spencer to describe the “survival of the fittest.”
• Some social Darwinists argue that their should be little government involvement in human competition, opposing actions such as regulating the economy and helping alleviate poverty. They instead push for a “laissez-faire” political and economic system which favors competition within society. 
• In a very basic sense, social Darwinism seems to justify imbalances between individuals, races, and nations because some are more “fit to survive.” 
• Social Darwinism was initially accepted because it answered a lot of questions that researchers had at the time. 
• During the 1890’s, another strain of social Darwinism was introduced that supported the expansion (Imperialism) overseas, which found support with many political scientists, sociologists, and military strategists. 
• In America, military strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan and historian John Fiske took ideas from social Darwinism to support expansion overseas and the establishment of a stronger military. 
• Social Darwinism can be found throughout big businesses and corporations. It can be seen in competition for jobs and resources. 
• People who were seen as the “fittest” were people who had the ability to get a job, maintain that job, and earn enough money to support their families . They had social and economic advantages that people of a “lower standing” did not. 
• This imbalance was supported by social Darwinism because people who were better suited for survival persevered. There was thus an incentive to work hard to overcome others in competition, and so become successful by making oneself the “fittest.”
• American Big Businesses were operating on a “laissez-faire” basis that allowed them to be in competition with each other without regulation or much control from the state.
• However, social Darwinism in effect opposes equality. 
• Introduces the idea that if you have more money or a bigger home or better living conditions, you are a “better” human than people of a lower class. 
• In a Darwinian society, you should be able to support yourself without help from anyone but your friends or family. 
• Current examples of things social Darwinism would oppose include welfare, charity, or support for homeless or elderly.

Social Darwinism and Foot Binding in China

• From a social Darwinian standpoint, foot binding in Chinese culture in the late nineteenth century put women at a disadvantage. 
• Not only were they suffering from the severe amount of pain they had to endure, but they were also made weaker. 
• Social Darwinists believed that these weak women would produce weak sons, making the country weaker as a whole, which was why China’s military had been incapable of fending off European imperialism.

Parallels between Foot Binding and Suttee

• “Though the number of Suttees in India is not so great as to preclude the possibility of the abolition of the practice, yet it is so considerable as to call aloud for Britain to stretch forth her hand, and save those who are ‘drawn unto death and ready to be slain.’” (India’s Cries to British Humanity p.9)
• “The interference of Government is well understood to be the Christian wish of humanity.” (Ibid. p.64)
• “Christian organizations had been key players in the diffusion of progressive social ideas, such as the anti-foot-binding movement, which began with a group of sixty Christian women in Xiamen in 1874 … In addition, these ideas were advocated by missionaries such as Timothy Richard, who considered that Christianity could lead to the equality of the sexes, and enthusiastically supported by Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei, who were avid readers of Richard’s works and personally acquainted with him.” (The Religious Question in Modern China p.70)

Suttee in Jane Eyre

• Present foremost in her relationship with St. John
• “as his wife - at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked - forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital - this would be unendurable.” (Jane Eyre p.507)
• Jane can save herself; Indian (savage) women need to be saved

• Bertha’s death

Questions

• What does studying examples such as foot binding and suttee mean for other, still existent cultural practices that may be seen as human rights issues? Take for example female genital mutilation in parts of Africa. How should the world react to this issue? Should the world react?
• What does it mean that the plights of non-Western women are so often used to justify imperialism? For example, suttee, foot binding, hijab/burqa/niqab/etc.
• Can you think of examples where so-called human rights issues have been ‘resolved’ by people themselves within a specific society, rather than as a result of some form of Western intervention? Think particularly in relation to non-Western women.
• In what ways can mainstream feminism itself be an imperialist mechanism?

Sources

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard Nemesvari. 1st edition. Peterborough, Ont. ; Orchard    

Park, NY: Broadview Press, 1999. Print.

“Foot Binding.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 31 Mar. 2016. Wikipedia. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.

Goossaert, Vincent, and David A. Palmer. The Religious Question in Modern China. University of

Chicago Press, 2011. Print.

James Peggs. India’s Cries to British Humanity: Relative to Suttee, Infanticide, British ... N.p., 1830.

Internet Archive. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.

Shemo, Connie A. The Chinese Medical Ministries of Kang Cheng and Shi Meiyu, 1872-1937: On

a Cross-Cultural Frontier of Gender, Race, and Nation. Bethlehem: Lehigh University Press,

2011. Print.