HY2206: China's Imperial Past

Author(s)

I wrote the podcast script myself and asked my friends to imitate the historians I was pretending to interview in the podcast. They are acting out how historians would hopefully react to the questions asked in the podcast. This way, I do not have to act out all five viewpoints displayed in The Missing Link.

My passion project will take the form of a podcast episode on Chinese foot-binding in Imperial China, specifically around the seventeenth century. This podcast analyses and contemplates the relationship between foot-binding’s cultural role in society and how it was used to legitimise Imperial masculinity and civilisation. A gendered analysis of this topic is employed in this episode to challenge listeners to reframe their conceptions of foot-binding and reflect on the conventional narratives mutilation and shame aligned with the practice. Although foot-binding undoubtedly caused significant and catastrophic pain for all girls and women who underwent the lifelong commitment to foot-binding, this element of the practice often saturates the content and analysis of foot-binding and its role in Imperial China. I was drawn to this topic because this is a problematic generalisation of the complex relationship that foot-binding had with other social morays in Chinese culture in this period. I am interested in how foot-binding was experienced by the women and their conceptions of femininity, rather than how it was perceived by many Christian missionaries and western merchants who wrote most of the sources on this topic. I am curious how foot-binding buttressed Han masculinity and conceptions of civilisation and a united nation. How did foot-binding shape or support gender conventions, and how did these gender conventions impact the functioning of Imperial society?

Regarding why I chose a podcast as the preferred form of media, I immensely love podcasts and listen to them daily. I find them a convenient and accessible form of education in this technological age. During my A-Levels, I regularly listened to podcasts that introduced me to new topics I was learning about. Although I am an avid podcast listener, I have never thought of making one myself, and therefore making one would be a new skill that would give me a unique perspective on the podcasts I listen to so often. This podcast is structured as an interview-based episode. The idea is that three historians are being interviewed by the podcast’s host, myself. The interview is supposed to be an informal conversation between the host and the three historians, allowing them to bounce off each other to reflect on their thought processes. The podcast then closes with a weekly exclusive. This week is an interview with a woman whose grandmothers both encountered foot-binding in their lifetimes. Although they didn’t live their whole lives under Imperial rule, her testimony is included as a reflection of foot-binding’s legacy and long-term impacts on Chinese women and society more broadly. This testimony allows listeners to empathise with a woman from contemporary society and aims to encourage listeners to reframe their preconceived ideas about foot-binding.

The primary learning points about Imperial China conveyed in my passion project focus on how listeners should conceptualise historical phenomena, analyse history through a gendered lens, and challenge preconceived ideas listeners may have about the history and impact of foot-binding on Imperial Chinese society. My podcast unpacks the relationship between foot-binding and femininity, masculinity, and conceptions of Imperial civility. It introduces listeners to analysing historical phenomena through lenses, specifically gender, in this episode. It explores the role of foot-binding beyond the beautification of the female body in Chinese society and the implications of this on conceptions of gender and civilisation.

I hope listeners conceive of historical events more critically from listening to my podcast. The role of Chinese foot-binding within women’s self-identification and the broader conceptualisation of gender in Chinese society reflect the cause for its entrenchment in understanding Chinese womanhood. This podcast is aimed at young intellectuals and students to extend their basic knowledge of foot-binding and inspire them to question their preconceptions of the topic. I implore listeners to go beyond their cultural or modernised bias to consider the significance of foot-binding in Chinese society and the pride and pain it brought to women’s lived experiences.