p1751 -
"Golden Lilies" across the Pacific: Footbinding and the American Enforcement of Chinese Exclusion Laws
Saturday, June 3, 2017: 10:15 AM
BRESL 111 (Hofstra University)
In the United States, the ‘otherness’ of China appeared most vividly in the custom of footbinding. Paradoxically, however, American immigration officials perceived bound feet as a sign of better morals and higher class. Thus, bound feet became a means to obtain exemption from American laws against Chinese immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This chapter explains what made inclusion of ‘the other’ possible on this basis. Its purpose is two-fold: first, to describe the varied meanings of footbinding
that emerged on the both sides of the Pacific; second, to demonstrate the ways in which those perceptions, interpretations, and stereotypes of bound feet affected American immigration officials’ enforcement of Chinese exclusion laws.
that emerged on the both sides of the Pacific; second, to demonstrate the ways in which those perceptions, interpretations, and stereotypes of bound feet affected American immigration officials’ enforcement of Chinese exclusion laws.