¶ … Inch Golden Lotus
According to the 1000-year-old Chinese tradition, "a pair of perfectly bound feet must meet seven qualifications- small, slim, pointed, arched, fragrant, soft, and straight- in order to become a piece of art, an object of erotic desire." (Wang 2000, p.3) This passage describes what many consider to be a barbaric practice: foot binding, or a process by which a girl's feet were wrapped tightly so as to force the prevention of growth. This process, which can be traced back over a thousand years, was considered to be a sign of beauty and eroticism in women, and carried with it great symbolism within Chinese society. But by the beginning of the 20th century, foot binding was considered by many to be a backward and barbaric practice which forced women into a second class position; and it was outlawed. Feng Jicai, in The Three Inch Golden Lotus, explored the paradoxes, as well as the complexities, involved in the custom of foot binding through the story of a woman who was forced to have her feet bound and the tragedies and triumphs she experienced because of it.
It has been said of Feng Jicai's The Three Inch Golden Lotus that it obliterates the distinctions between kindness and cruelty, history and fable, forgery and authentic work, in other words, the story lies in the realm of ambiguity without declaring well-defined ideals of right and wrong. The title of the book, The Three Inch Golden Lotus refers to the idealized size and shape of a woman's foot; that it should be three inches long and shaped like a lotus flower. According to Chinese tradition, foot binding was a way to demonstrate the high level of society to which the woman belonged. It was almost impossible to perform any type of physical labor if one had their feet bound, and since most peasant women needed to work, only the upper class women...
Butterfly David Henry Hwang's Pulitzer-prize-winning drama M. Butterfly is almost single-minded in its examination of the role played by preconceptions in the establishment of cultural expectations and stereotypes. Based on a true story, the drama to some extent lays out in clear precise terms the ways in which Western prejudices toward China can lead to results that would seem wildly implausible in a brief factual summary, but are nonetheless the foreordained
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now