Asia
Shoes
China
Collected by Duncan MacPherson
Given to the Museum in 1944
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Until the early twentieth century, young Han Chinese girls had their
feet wrapped tightly in bandages to stop them growing. The bandages remained
on throughout the girls’ lives so that as adult women their feet
were so tiny they could fit into shoes like these. To have bound feet
was considered beautiful and virtuous. Bound feet were painful and sometimes
crippling, and their unpleasant smell, caused by the binding, had to be
masked with perfume. This pair of silk embroidered shoes was collected
in 1841.
View database
record 1944.9.63
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