Answer: Foot-binding is said to have been inspired by a tenth-century court dancer named Yao Niang who bound her feet into the shape of a new moon. She entranced Emperor Li Yu by dancing on her toes inside a six-foot golden lotus festooned with ribbons and precious stones. Gradually, other court ladies—with money, time and a void to fill—took up foot-binding, making it a status symbol among the elite. These women had so much money that they didn't need their feet to work or make any more money. A small foot in China, no different from a tiny waist in Victorian England, represented the height of female refinement. For families with marriageable daughters, foot size translated into its own form of currency and a means of achieving upward mobility.
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