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Daughter Days: Footbinding

Summary: Daughter Days: Footbinding

Lily’s mother sends for a diviner who will find the luckiest date for Lily to begin her footbinding. After inspecting Lily, the diviner suggests consulting a matchmaker. The family feels suspicious when the diviner returns with Madame Wang, from the county’s best village, Tongkou, instead of the local matchmaker Madame Gao. The diviner explains that Lily could have the most perfect feet in the county after her footbinding. While being inspected by Madame Wang, Lily notices what she sees as “male ambition” in Mama’s eyes. Madame Wang suggests Lily form a laotong relationship with a girl from a more prestigious family, which would lead to a better marriage. After Madame Wang leaves, Mama slaps Lily and says she will only bring trouble to their family. However, Lily knows the slap is meant for good luck and is her mother’s way of showing love.

Lily’s education in the women’s chamber begins, and she learns the Confucian ideals of obedience, the art of sewing, and the language of women, nu shu. Lily learns that as the characters of nu shu are phonetic, context is extremely important. However, the most important rules are that men cannot know nu shu exists and cannot touch it. When Lily is seven, the diviner sets a date for her, Third Sister, and Beautiful Moon to begin their footbinding. Lily knows that footbinding is crucial to eventually marry and give birth to a son, the ultimate goal for a woman. On the morning the footbinding begins, Lily and Beautiful Moon have their binds put on first. Third Sister tries to run away to avoid the footbinding, but Mama and Aunt drag her back. Mama yells at Third Sister while binding her feet. The girls are then made to walk across the room and back ten times, each holding on to one of the older women and crying in pain. This process is repeated every few days, and the girls learn what it means to obey for their own good. Third Sister complains much more than Lily or Beautiful Moon, which Lily believes is a ploy to get more attention. 

One day, Third Sister becomes ill, with red streaks covering her legs and pus and blood coming out of her feet. However, Mama and Aunt continue with the footbinding, as Third Sister will not be considered marriageable if she is crippled. The next day, Lily’s father Baba sends for a doctor, who says there is nothing he can do for Third Sister, and also notices that Grandmother is ill. Four days later, Third Sister dies, followed the next day by Grandmother. Lily realizes that her bound feet will be proof of her obedience and endurance of pain for her future in-laws.

Analysis: Daughter Days: Footbinding

Before beginning her footbinding, which will mark her transition into womanhood, Lily learns the other secrets of being a woman. While women have very little power in Lily’s world, the language of nu shu is a crucial tool for women to assert some power in being able to communicate with each other without the interference of men. However, Lily’s explanation of how context is necessary to understand nu shu foreshadows a major conflict of the novel: a tragic misunderstanding that will result from neglecting to take context into consideration. Women can also find power in something specific to their gender: a laotong. Though Lily comes from a modest family, forming a relationship with a wealthier laotong can provide a chance for a better marriage. In these subtle ways, women are able to take some power in a world where they are considered powerless. Lily views Mama’s hunger for this power in what she thinks of as “male ambition,” as she only knows ambition to be a quality typical of men instead of women.

However, women are severely robbed of their power in the process of footbinding, the agony of which is described in this chapter. Footbinding represents both the pain associated with coming of age and the suffering that will accompany women throughout their lives. In order to fulfill their only possible destinies of getting married and having children, Lily, her sister, and her cousin must have feet that are as small as possible. Breaking bones to create tiny feet that are nearly impossible to walk on shows how women are valued for their appearance over any of their abilities. Even once Third Sister is clearly sick from an infection caused by the footbinding, Mama and Aunt make the decision to continue, showing a girl is better off dead than living without bound feet. Lily reflects that having bound feet is also a reflection of a girl’s obedience, which will be crucial to her relationship with future in-laws, as she is expected to obey them no matter what. Enduring the pain of footbinding can also signal that a girl will be able to endure the pain of childbirth, and so will be able to bear several sons.

Footbinding is one way in which Mama shows her “mother love” to Lily, in addition to the good-luck slap she receives after Madame Wang proposes a laotong relationship. While both of these actions seem cruel and abusive, Lily sees them as proof that her mother does actually love her, just as she has always longed for. Lily knows that her only potential worth is to marry into a more prosperous family and give birth to several sons. By binding her feet and slapping her for good luck, Mama is trying to help Lily reach this potential. Lily’s warped sense of love, which she sees as normal due to her culture and her mother, will lead only to pain in another relationship in which she also craves love and affection.

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