In the village of "bound feet" the last living Chinese women suffering from the ancient brutal tradition

In the women's village, "bound feet" in China there are over 100 women who are suffering from the consequences of the ancient custom when the girls in the childhood were broken and bandaged the foot. This practice appeared in China allegedly in the X century. Small feet about a thousand years was in the country a sign of wealth and high status. In the early twentieth century, society considered this tradition backward and banned it, but she's not gone immediately.

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The village of Luyi in Yunnan province is also called the Village women with bandaged feet. It is home to over 100 women from 70 years, which in childhood have tight bandaged legs. Girls tightly tied to the foot on all toes, except big to change its shape. It was popular in wealthy families where the heirs did not have to work and, as a consequence, though there was no need to use feet. Mutilated legs in the country, called "Golden lotuses".

Bandaged the feet of girls aged four to nine years. It was done in the winter to low temperatures dulled the pain and reduced the risk of infection. During the procedure the girls as possible in short clipped nails, then bent foot with such force that his fingers pressed into the sole of the foot and broke, and then bandaged.

Tiny bandaged feet women was a symbol of the wealth of her husband, because he could afford to keep a wife in idleness. For girls from poor families bandaging was a beneficial chance to marry and their parents did it, despite the compassion for daughters. It was believed that mothers should not perform this procedure because they are out of compassion will not be able to tighten the bandage tight enough. There was even a saying: "Mother can't love at the same time my daughter and her leg."

Now the legs of these women permanently deformed, fingers pressed against each other, and the skin is dry and chapped.

There are several legends about how there was a tradition to bandage his feet. According to one version, in China there lived an Emperor who fell in love with a dancer with a bandaged silk feet. Another says that a favorite concubine of the Emperor was clumsy and asked him to do the bandaging mandatory for all girls so that her own feet were considered ugly.

Many of the theories about the origin of the ritual associated with the dancing. Therefore, women in Luyi continue to dance and the martial arts: the village even has a dance team.

86-year-old Zhou Guicheng shows his deformed leg. The bones of all fingers except the thumb, was broken and pressed into the foot, and then for a long time "grow into" her body weight.

Three girls with deformed feet. The photo was taken shortly before bandaging officially banned. This has been tried several times, but the tradition is long gone: in 1902 the corresponding decree issued by the Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and in 1921 a new government.

When in 1949 to power in China the Communists came, they were able to denounce the custom of shame and to seek its abolition, even in remote rural areas. The last known case of binding occurred in 1957.