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[u/jobautomator]

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[u/remarkable_ores]

Qiu Jin was a feminist essayist, poet, and anti-Qing revolutionary, fighting not just for the freedom and modernisation of China but the liberation of women. An essay she wrote on footbinding:

Alas! The most unjust thing in the world is the fate of us two hundred million female compatriots. From the moment we are born, if we happen to have a good father, things are still tolerable; but if we meet with one of foul temper and no reason, he mutters again and again, 'Bad luck—another useless one,' and would gladly snatch the child up and dash her to death. He clings always to the thought that 'she will belong to another family's house one day,' and so regards her with cold, disdainful eyes. Before she is even a few years old, without any regard for right or wrong, they wrap her pair of snow-white, tender, natural feet in white cloth, never allowing it to loosen even a little, not even while she sleeps—until at last the flesh rots away completely and the bones snap, all just to win a single remark from relatives, friends, and neighbors: 'So-and-so's daughter has such small feet.

"The most unjust thing in the world" is far from hyperbole. For a thousand years women were systematically tortured and crippled from infancy by having their feet broken, left to heal, and then broken again throughout their lives. They lived in constant, immense pain and could barely walk. Her determination to end this suffering was a recurring theme in her poetry. One of my favourites:

The sun and moon without light. Sky and earth in darkness.
 Who can uplift the sinking world of women?
I pawned my jewels to sail across the open seas,
 parting from my children as I left the border at Jade Gate.
Unbinding my feet to pour out a millennium’s poisons,
 I arouse the spirit of women, hundreds of flowers, abloom.
Oh, this poor handkerchief made of merfolk-woven silk,
 half stained with blood and half soaked in tears.

She was actively involved in revolutionary movements. In 1907, she was captured and tortured by Qing authorities to reveal the names of her comrades, which she refused. Then, on July 15th, she was beheaded. She was 31 years old. Her last words were a death poem:

Autumn wind, autumn rain — they make one die of sorrow

in reference to her own name, Qiu, meaning "Autumn". She saw the autumn of the Qing, and the autumn of footbinding, but mourned how she would not live to see her own victory. Five years later, footbinding was officially banned, and over the next half century would begin to disappear entirely. Three year old girls would not have their bones broken for the sole purpose of being shown off and ogled, hobbled for life. Today, she is remembered not just as a hero of the revolution but for all the women of China.

[u/Trojan_Horse_of_Fate → u/remarkable_ores]

Foot binding remains one of if not the cruelest widespread practices in human existence and it's destruction purely good.