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6+ Works 204 Membros 4 Críticas

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Dorothy Ko is Professor of History at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Includes the name: Dorothy Ko

Obras por Dorothy Ko

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This book elicits both horror and fascination as you peruse the many beautiful photographs of the hand-made slippers Chinese women made through the centuries to decorate their bound feet. The shoes were often amazing works of art. The horrific practice of foot-binding is explained and illustrated, and still seems incomprehensible by modern standards. Though ladies, you must admit that high heels are also painful and bad for your feet!
 
Assinalado
BaoBao | 1 outra crítica | Mar 10, 2009 |
Ko, presents arguably the most nuanced view of footbinding, attempting to place it as an important practice within Chinese culture. Unlike most historians examining footbinding, Ko goes out of her way to avoid condemning the practice. Ko recognizes the leading role played by missionaries, but she prefers to look at other actors that she believes have been overlooked, seeing that the debate took place in everyday life as opposed to solely in writings and churches.

Anti-footbinding movements were ultimately successful, but Ko wants to look at the subtle processes involved rather than the relentless pressure suggested by others. She argues that anti-footbinding movements were most successful when attacking the cultural value of footbinding, which is where it was most firmly entrenched. Opponents of footbinding turned the arguments of the defenders against them. For instance, when defenders claimed that footbinding was a cherished cultural icon for more than a thousand years, anti-footbinding activists argued that this demonstrated the stagnation of Chinese society, which was the root of Chinese weakness in relation to the West and Japan. Footbinding was the most prominent symptom of that stagnation, so eliminating it was a necessary step towards modernizing the country and returning its dignity. Another, almost equally effective argument, was to take the argument that big-nosed barbarians cannot understand the culture of the Middle Kingdom and to demonstrate that those barbarians are laughing at Chinese culture, largely because of what they saw as the barbarity of footbinding.

The success in reducing the cultural value of footbinding led to the slow death of the practice. She looks at the slow decline of the practice, which drew out until the 1930’s. She also looks at the even slower decline of foot-bound women in society. She particularly sees the “stubbornness of individual bodies” as prolonging footbinding in society. Ko is quite critical of anti-footbinding activists, whom she accuses of being uncaring towards women with bound feet. She argues that some women chose to bind there feet for reasons of status, others had little-to-no choice in the binding of their feet and for all of them footbinding was largely irreversible. Even if footbinding was reduced or eliminated, unbinding women’s feet did not return them to their natural state. In addition, attacking footbinding and scorning foot-bound women was essentially an attack on the character of the women. Ko argues, echoing Levy, that the intense hatred of footbinding blinded activists to the feelings of the Chinese women involved.
Even as Ko emphasizes secondary players, she does not neglect the role of missionaries. She acknowledges their leading role in attacking the cultural value of footbinding. She provides a deep analysis of the demise of footbinding, looking at the effects as much as the motivation and rhetoric. She looks at a variety of sources, including the standard missionary publications and the responses from footbinding’s defenders. She also looks at writings of individuals and how they worked within the struggle. This powerful work is arguably the most thorough on footbinding to date.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Scapegoats | Jan 1, 2008 |
This fascinating collection of writings examines the role and culture of women in the Confucian-regulated eras of China, Korea and Japan, and as such, presents a nonconventional view of Confucianism that is broader than the male oppressive tradition, and allows for the power and richness of the female experience within the social and cultural circumstances of Confucian era life.
½
 
Assinalado
sungene | Oct 30, 2007 |
Odd book on the beauty of footbinding. Honestly, it feels like a coffee table book. It makes some interesting points about how foot binding fits into Chinese society. It also makes a good point about the art, skill, and effort put into making the shoes. It is a really easy read. Overall, though, I wasn't particularly convinced by it. Her argument seems to out distance her sources. Perhaps worth a read if you are interested in Chinese history, but not great otherwise.
 
Assinalado
Scapegoats | 1 outra crítica | Sep 15, 2007 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
6
Also by
1
Membros
204
Popularidade
#108,207
Avaliação
3.9
Críticas
4
ISBN
20
Línguas
1

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