The Last Generation of Lily-footed Women in China     

When 1.2 billion Chinese strode across the door step of the 21st century, very few of them would have noticed how many pairs of bizarre ¡°lily feet¡± still remained in their country. Foot-binding can be traced back 1000 years to the Five Dynasties period. The action of women unbinding their feet started in the late Qing Dynasty; one hundred years have passed since then. This self-mutilating custom was finally put to an end in the mid 20th century. To this day, there should not be any women with bound feet younger than the age of seventy. However terrible and dominating this custom was in history, it is as absurd and unbelievable to the younger generation today. The small-footed women who once could be seen all over China are hard to find in the present, as the breeze of modernity has swept away the lingering clouds.

Foot-binding has no doubt been abandoned with the progression of history. A young photographer called Li Nan pointed his camera toward this forgotten group; he captured and brought photographs of these women to us. His works are not intended just to show abnormality and to satisfy curiosity; however, when the contemporary generation looks at these photographs they will be surprised and puzzled. How and why did they self-mutilate their feet; out of what reason? These questions lead to cultural introspection.