| Summary: | 碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 織品服裝學系碩士班 === 103 === This research focus on the changes in writing regarding women’s feet and footwear to explore the different aesthetics of women’s feet in the Shanghai society during the late Qing and early Republic. By analyzing the writing about women’s feet and footwear in “Shun Pao”, this research learn more of changes in women’s foot fashion, disciplines for women, changes in aesthetics of women’s feet, and social forces behind these changes from 1872 to 1934, in order to discuss the different body concepts among the trends of footbinding, anti- footbinding, and wearing high heels during the late Qing and early Republic.
During the late Qing and early Republic, the largest change in aesthetic of women’s appearance was related to the aesthetic of their feet. The definition of aesthetic had changed from bound feet to natural unbounded feet. And the changes in footwear showed not only the transition of the society’s expectation of women, but also the influence of social value changes on women’s fashion of wear.
Researcher believe that the change from footbinding to wearing high heels did not happen in a short time, it was a long-term change. The general impression on the modern Chinese history is that the social environment during the early Republic was more tolerant of women than the late Qing, but when women stepped out of her home, the level of the disciplines she had to have increased from the “family level” to the “nation level”. There were even more disciplines applied. Whether women’s feet are bound, unbound, or natural, the aesthetics of their feet had never been something physical, but the meaning behind. Women’s feet had never been their own, but a place where men could implement their political ideals.
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