adamjames's review
5.0
A delightful and insightful look into the material culture of foot-binding. Ko masterfully presents foot-binding not just as a physical and painful experience, but one which had great emotional meaning and significance in the eyes of the women who perpetuated it. The book itself originates from a museum exhibition Ko arranged, and that inheritance is evident in the clear and beginner-friendly presentation.
To quote from the book: ‘For a woman, the body was her only gateway to a better future. To do textile work and to give birth – to attain value and meaning for herself, she could not do without the body. As a mother readied the training shoes and cloth binders for her daughter, both fruits of female labour, these thoughts might have raced through her head. Our bodies and labour make us women, she might have said to her daughter, and our bodies and labour are the ties that bind us in a female kinship that no men can undo’
To quote from the book: ‘For a woman, the body was her only gateway to a better future. To do textile work and to give birth – to attain value and meaning for herself, she could not do without the body. As a mother readied the training shoes and cloth binders for her daughter, both fruits of female labour, these thoughts might have raced through her head. Our bodies and labour make us women, she might have said to her daughter, and our bodies and labour are the ties that bind us in a female kinship that no men can undo’
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