The Last Women Who Followed China's 1000-year-old Horrible Foot-binding Tradition

#1 The world has witnessed weird itraditions that are beyond our imagination!

Everyone has a different perception of beauty. Everyone attempts to seek it in a different manner. The cultural variations make women from different parts of the world do different things to 'beautify' themselves. Here is what the Chinese did for almost 10 centuries: They crushed the feet of the women and broke their toes to make them look beautiful. Another chapter in the book of weird traditions around the world.

Thankfully, this sick practice has been banned for more than a hundred years now. But many suffered from it for almost a thousand years and here is the last of the surviving victims of the horific tradition.

#2 Zhou Guizhen is one of the last women on Earth who had to bind their feet.

She says, "I can't dance, I can't move properly. I regret it a lot. But at the time, if you didn't bind your feet, no one would marry you."

#3 Zhou regrets her decision of binding her feet.

It made her impossible to enjoy many comforts of life in many ways.

#4 Photographer Joe Farrell has brought forth Zhou and many other women like her through her project called 'Living History'.

The project involves capturing the lives of the last known victims of foot-binding.

#5 Lotus Feet, as such feet were called, were brought in practice by the Song Dynasty that ruled China.

A symbol of beauty and high social status, the practice began in the 10th century and was banned only in 1912, almost one thousand years later.

#6 The cruel tradition made women have to crush their feet and break their toes in order to fit their feet in small shoes.

The standard length of the Lotus Feet was 3 inches. That explains why so much bone-crushing would be required in order to get the desired results!

#7 The Manchu Emperor Kangxi tried to ban foot-binding in 1664.

But opposition from the nobility thwarted his plans.

#8 The last factory to produce lotus shoes stopped manufacturing it only in 1999. But by then it had long since taken its toll on women's feet.

#9 The worst part was that foot-binding continued to be an accepted practice for a millennium with the consent and delight of women.

#10 Although the foot-binding practice of China ended long ago, The overuse of high heels in Western civilization looks to have threateningly similar mental effects on the women of today.

Body surgeries and high heels that don't allow the feet comfort of any kind, are the new perceptions of beauty. Even if it doesn't necessarily crush the feet, it crushes the mind with the thought of wearing something uncomfortable just to look stylish, and that I reckon, is more dangerous.