yuefei's review
I think this is one of the best academic history texts I've read. Resisting the widespread moral condemnation of footbinding, Ko proceeds without judgement to unravel the complexities of the practice in a quiet commemoration of women's lives, their desires, and their bodies (while sustaining its contradictions, leaving a textual openness within her fragmentary history for the reader).
microritual's review against another edition
5.0
The is the first academic text I’ve read since college (~6 years) and I’m glad it’s my reintroduction to academia. This very much feels like a “playful” text in that it’s asking us to play with meaning and meaning-making outside of the ways we usually make and interpret meaning. In the context of footbinding, she’s asking us to suspend any moralistic judgment we may make in order to explore other avenues of meaning. There is much to mine from this text but what I was fixated on was the blurring, or wholesale collapsing, of the private/public dichotomy — how our bodies are often sites where sociopolitical forces play out both in the way we interact with our own bodies but also in the way its viewed by others (which seems especially true for female-socialized folks). It’s sparked my interest in the material history behind various temporal and spatial cultures of beauty, which is a fascinating and often neglected facet of women’s history.
The only drawback is that it’s not particularly accessible. Although it’s not as dense as most academic texts, it definitely isn’t “pop history” in the way that The Cosmic Serpent is “pop anthropology” or The Invisible Gorilla is “pop psychology.” So if you’re looking for accessible “pop history” about or overview of footbinding, this is definitely shouldn’t be your go-to.
The only drawback is that it’s not particularly accessible. Although it’s not as dense as most academic texts, it definitely isn’t “pop history” in the way that The Cosmic Serpent is “pop anthropology” or The Invisible Gorilla is “pop psychology.” So if you’re looking for accessible “pop history” about or overview of footbinding, this is definitely shouldn’t be your go-to.
More...