Steps Toward Equality:

Feminist and Communist Theory as Related to Foot Binding

Think about your privileges as a U.S. citizen. You are allowed to vote, to choose where you live, what jobs you take, and what kind of education you receive. You can choose if and when to marry, and to whom. These are rights most citizens of modern countries take for granted. It seems preposterous to consider being told who to marry or what kind of job to take, but this was normalcy for what we refer to as feudal China. Communist China began with aims of equalizing the treatment of all people, rich and poor, men and women. In theory, it succeeded. Chinese Communism instituted many policies making discrimination towards women illegal, however in practice, these policies were not enforced and women's rights were still seriously lacking. In Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern, the images of foot massaging are used to represent the ways in which women remain oppressed by the patriarchy in China despite the Communist theory that claim men and women are equal.

China's family system is reliant on the philosophy of Confucianism. Confucianism, though not a religion, was followed closely and considered very important in dictating the proper ways of behavior. One of Confucianism's main tenets was that of filial piety, the concept that the relationships within a person's life are to be held above all else. “Confucian scholars identified “five human relationships” as pivotal to the system. . . .The husband-wife relationship was thought to be the first in origin, the first step towards social organization.” (Stacey, 30) The pre-Communist station for a woman was basically to be a servant. Filial piety bound a woman irreparably to a man, and there was no room to move away from this. “A wife should obey three persons—her father before marriage, her husband after marriage, and her son after her husband dies.” (Chao, 124) To disobey these ethics was to stand out as a rebel and face severe punishment. Women became slaves to men no matter their stage in life. As daughters they are subject to their fathers, and as wives they are subject only to their husband. “The married woman differs from the ordinary courtesan in that she does not lend her body on piece work as a wage worker, but sells it once and for all into slavery.” (Chao, 125)

Chinese women were not only bound by piety and ethics, but literally. The practice of footbinding further held women in their place in society. Footbinding is the excruciating process by which normal feet are turned into three inch “Golden lilies.” Using a tight wrapping, a girl of about age six would have her feet bound to curl the toes under and toward the heel. Over time, the constant pressure would break the bones of the foot, creating an arch of approximately eighty degrees, contrasted to the normal thirty degree arch of unbound feet. “One girl out of ten may have died of infectious aftereffects, and all were permanently disabled; Chinese parents felt this to be a necessary price to pay.” (Stacey, 41) This binding of feet, based on a perverse image of beauty perpetuated by men's fantasies, further tied women to men. “It informed a daughter of the necessity of sacrificing the products of her body in the service of the Neo-Confucian family system.” (Blake, 672) The process of footbinding was intended to make the foot beautiful and promote the tiny gait considered ideal for good, filial women. Mothers bound the feet of their daughters, crippling them permanently “because small feet became a prerequisite attribute of a desirable bride.” (Stacey, 42) Chinese women were treated as objects existing solely to please men.

After Japan entered its imperialist era, China's shortcomings came to light, and Communism came into China with aims of modernization. Confucianism and the emphasis on the family were considered old ways, while the equality and advancement of oppressed groups were considered modern. To establish this modern state, feminism was one of the modes of choice. The policy took up the feminist ideas with gusto, using them to make the government look progressive. “Moreover, women's emancipation came to symbolize a critical distinction between “feudal” China and China as a “modern” nation-state.” (Gilmartin, 19) Despite the push for a modern China through feminism, it seemed that changes were superficial. Gilmartin says: “Theorists contend that Marxism and feminism are basically incompatible.” (13) Communist China was advocating the equal treatment of women, but continued to discriminate, for instance, in the positions a woman would be offered. Women could hold public office, but marriage was more often than not a prerequisite, and a woman with a husband of high power would carry more influence than a woman with a lower ranking husband. The position the woman carried was minor in comparison to the type of male she was attached to. (243)

Raise the Red Lantern alludes to much of this disappointing disparity between Communist theory on feminism and the ways in which it was practiced. Songlian, an intelligent college student, ends up becoming a concubine for a man referred to only as Master, after the death of her father leaves few options for her. She enters a strange world where the four wives compete for the affection of the Master, because of the special privileges involved in gaining his favor. The Master chooses which woman he will lie with each night by raising a red lantern. The woman with the lantern above her suite will be given a foot massage before the arrival of the Master, and will then spend the night with him, later gaining privileges such as choosing the next day's meal.

The film alludes to many of these downfalls of Communism in practice, such as the gaining of privilege in the society based on the Master's attention and Songlian's inability to continue school after her primary male caretaker passed away. Perhaps the most interesting of these allusions is the importance of the feet. As we explored above, footbinding was a very symbolic act, signifying a woman's subservience to men's desires despite extreme pain and impracticality. The women subjected themselves to this painful and dangerous practice for no other reason than to be a desirable bride. Likewise in the film, the women compete for the affection of a man for no reason other than to have the small privileges attached, and if they are chosen, receive a strange foot massage. The massage is odd at first, almost appearing to be painful at times, but they grow to accept it because it signifies the attention of the Master.

This strange ritual involving feet is an obvious reference to the previous years of footbinding. Though the practice had been outlawed for some time, the massage signified a focus on the feet, and therefore a focus on a bizarre and pointless ritual. The fact that Zhang Yimou chooses this ritual that leads the viewer's attention obviously to feet, and therefore the practice of footbinding, is brilliant and fascinating. We as viewers are drawn to consider the practice of footbinding, and therefore how the feet are still important, suggesting that perhaps the culture had not moved so far beyond the barbaric and oppressive practice. Even though Songlian was educated and proud, she was still subject to this oppressive world, just as the women in China, who were, on the surface, equals, were still viewed mostly in relation to the men around them.

There are many hints in this film that the station of women has not so much improved as the world would like to think. The murder of the third wife because of her affair, the power politics involved in bedding the Master, the Master's faceless anonymity, and especially the foot massage ritual all suggest that feminism and Communism in the context of filial China are, indeed, mutually exclusive. Zhang Yimou uses the film to artfully display the attachments the newly modernized China still held to the feudal times. Finally, Songlian goes insane, portraying the inevitable outcome, should these things remain unchanged.

Raise the Red Lantern successfully promotes equality through the use of images, showing the world the distance China has yet to travel in its quest for progress. In the West we are guilty of taking our freedom for granted. Raise the Red Lantern reminds us all that there is still progress to be made, even when what we see on the outside appears to be modern and progressive.

Sources:

Gilmartin, Christina Kelley. Engendering the Chinese Revolution. California: University of California Press, 1995.

Stacey, Judith. Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China. California: University of California Press, 1983.

Chao, Paul. Women Under Communism. General Hall Inc, 1977.

Blake, C. Fred. “Footbinding in Neo-Confucian China and the Appropriation of Female Labor.” Signs 19.3 (1994): 672-712.

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