Meet a 102-year-old who is Beijing's oldest lady with bound feet

All images: Cameron Hack/Humans of China

It's estimated that, at its nineteenth-century peak, foot binding was carried out on as high as 50 percent of China's female population, though the controversial practice has largely disappeared in the past century. But it's not yet history. In the coming weeks, we'll be sharing the work of Cameron Hack, the photographer behind the Humans of China project, who's heard the amazing stories of some of the last surviving ladies with bound feet in Beijing.

'I am 102 years old, and I have seen a lot'

I am one of the last remaining ladies in Beijing with bound feet, and probably the oldest. My mum started to bind my feet at the age of six. The bones in the feet are still soft then, so it's a good time to start the process. I didn't really know what was happening, but I trusted and listened to my mother. Back then, all women had bound feet so it was a pretty normal thing. I used white cloth to bind them from the age of six up to the liberation of China in 1949, when I released them. My feet used to be smaller.

In old age, I am happy and healthy, and I have my family around to look after me. For my 100th birthday, we had a big party in our village with all my family. I'd never ever thought that I'd make it to this age as life before was tough, with no food for years and lots of hard work. At about the age of nine, the Red Army and the National Army were fighting around our village. We had to run away into the mountains, where we found a cave and hid away. That was one of the scariest times of my life.

I never had the chance to go to school, only boys had that chance back then. If you were rich, you could have hired a private teacher to educate children but we were too poor. Girls stayed at home and had to learn to make shoes and clothes. If you couldn’t make or mend clothes or shoes, it would have been hard to find a husband to marry.

I married at the age of 16. I was the youngest girl in our village to marry at that time. My family arranged it for me, and the day I married was the day I met my husband. I think he knew that I had bound feet but he didn't see them until our wedding day. After we married, my job was to look after him and his family – to cook, clean, make clothes and make shoes. I made my current shoes myself, but a while ago. I made a few pairs in advance as, nowadays, my eyes aren't good and my hands shake. But I am happy. I now have the chance wear beautiful clothes and eat well.

For further stories from Beijing ladies with bound feet, hit 'Read more', and for more from Cameron and Humans of China, follow the WeChat account (ID: Humans-of-China).

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