Old China: Bound Feet and Bad Smell, by Torbjørn Færøvik

We don't know when Chinese women began binding their feet. It was most likely around 800-900 A.D. The curious custom had to do with marriage, with sex, with beauty - and duty. This is a chapter from my book "Midtens rike" (The Middle Kingdom, Oslo 2024). By Torbjørn Færøvikwriter and historian“Women carry half of the heavens”, says an old Chinese proverb. Reality certainly was not so.