FormatandGradingforaLitReview xStockPhrasesinLitReview1 xoutlinechristianityinasia xAnnotatedBibliography1 xTemplateforanOutline xLiteratureReviewPaperonFootbinding OutlineofLitReviewProjectXtianityinAsia
A 6-page double-spaced literature review (no bibliography needed; 12-point font, and 1-inch margin) Introduction with a general thesis Historical background/context for your topic taken from an article found in an encyclopedia Three subcategories for your 15 sources Conclusion (these will be given and expanded on) [Proper citation and footnotes in Chicago Manual of Style for your sources] The topic is not an essay but a literature review. It is a literature review about the lives, spirituality, and beliefs of Christians and the Christian Church during the rise of Islam (specifically from after Prophet Muhammad′s death until the end of the Abbasid Caliphate 632 – 1258 ad) Sources, formatting, instructions will be provided.
Re: Literature Review
The goal of the literature review is to write about the debates or approaches among scholars on your topic.
In other words, you need to identify, compare, and evaluate the viewpoints in the books and articles that you have selected. The assignment is not simply on a historical event, but rather on how historians have interpreted that event.
The literature review is not two or three book reviews cut and pasted together. You have to synthesize your material and construct an argument in support of a thesis.
You need to bring up the authors and their theses/approaches up front. See John Witek’s article to learn how a literature review should be.
The format should be like this:
(a) An eye-catching or thought provoking opening paragraph with a clear thesis at the end.
(b) Give a brief history or social/cultural context of your topic. For many of you, your draft currently is at this stage–about a historical event or a cultural practice.
(c) Identify and evaluate “so-and-so” books/articles about your topic. This is the central part of the literature review. You do not have to write on every book or article, but you need to group (synthesize) them according to their particular “school” of thought or interpretation.
(d) Repeat the same analysis for another “so-and-so”
(e) Do it again for another group of authors if there are more of them.
(f) Conclusion: Provide your own assessment on the current scholarship. Such as: Where is it going? Is there a gap in the research? Is there a bias in the current research? Or, what is the strength in the studies?
Start with (b), go from (c) to (e), write (a) and (f) last!
Here are some stock-phrases from John Witek’s article that you may want to try to incorporate some of them into your literature review. As you can see, they are about the authors and the contributions/interpretations/insights/etc. to the field or the topic. If your paper does not have these stock-phrases, it is very likely you write about the event rather than the literature review about that event/topic.
Page 194:
A significant advance in our understanding of the development of…has resulted from the publication of … one by…, the other by….
One of its chief strengths is…
So-and-so’s work differs that…
Both writers are aware…
So-and-so’s work is especially helpful…
Major trends in research on… have ranged from…to studies of…
These are part of an emerging pattern of scholarship that continues to evolve from…
Page 195:
Such research highlights … issues whose study in only beginning to set a trend…
Studies about…focus both on… and on…
So-and-so’s multi-volume of….is based on extensive research pursued for many decades. Its wealth of data on… and on…offers an incomparable glimpse into…
The researches of so-and-so led to the publication of his/her authoritative work on…
Page 196:
So-and-so have written lengthy… that could well be developed into…
So-and-so has also shown that…
These documents research is still in progress.
Page 197:
Recent historiography on… has focused on…
Of all the [Jesuit missions in Asia], only [the Molucas] have now been thoroughly documented, by so-and-so.
Recent studies on… have caused us to realize that…
Studies of these phenomena underline the need to…
Page 198:
This methodology reveals…
Publication of the…helped lay the groundwork for further research.
In a series of … as parts of an ongoing project…
Page 199:
The principle foci of research on… have been the search for…, studies on…, and….
For an understanding of …, the works of so-and-so are indispensable. His/her introductory…lays out…
The [apostolate of Xavier and his immediate successors in Japan] has been analyzed from several perspectives. The last volume of… so-and-so depicts in great detail.
Despite so-and-so’s clear admiration for so-and-so, this is a critical [biography] that highlights… and also casts light on…
One of the more glaring needs in this field is…
Page 200:
… are the focus of some significant research by….
Sociological analysis of… explains some of the difficulties…
Such-and-such is the theme of one of the more important recent work.
In such-and-such, so-and-so has argued that…
So-and-so underscores…
Page 201:
Such-and-such are the focus of several recent works… So-and-so has published an important… on… that touch on…
A complementary, scholarly study offers… on… Its more than…are very helpful for attaining some impression of the impact of the…
All of these studies…have been widely received within certain circles, but they cannot compare to…
An analysis of …remains an unfinished task.
Several lines of inquiry about … have been particularly effectively pursued in recent years-studies about…
Updating the earlier work of so-and-so, this …offers more details and includes…
Page 202:
Before… [no#] noteworthy studies about… were completed, so-and-so focused on such-and-such from a… perspective as…
This lengthy article moved the focus from… to…
So-and-so sketched a remarkable…
Scholars in…. have evinced a generally positive appreciation of…
Assessments of… are one of the more significant advances in recent studies of…
Page 203:
So-and-so has argued that…
So-and-so had earlier discussed…, but so-and-so was unaware of…
In a further analysis of…, so-and-so contends that…
So-and so were unaware of each other’s work, and neither reflect any acquaintance with…scholarship…
So-and-so also has discussed…
So-and-so has surveyed…
The encyclopedia article by so-and-so remains a fundamental guideline.
Page 204:
So-and-so has surveyed the differences…
So-and-so, in the same collection of essays with so-and-so, notes that…
So-and-so has studied…
So-and-so has outlined in a perceptive essay some of the essential elements necessary to develop a comparison of…
So-and-so has portrayed…
So-and-so has pointed out its lack of…
So-and-so thereby shows some of the pitfalls of such a comparative view….
Page 205:
These…studies in any case suggest frameworks for analyzing… in a wide perspective.
There are many questions that need answers before such… can be undertaken. Perhaps the first need is more…, like….
Moreover, none of these… in… has been subjected to [an economic historical analysis].
I will take points off for technical errors. So, please observe the Chicago Manual of Style. The citation in the bibliography is NOT THE SAME as in the footnotes. Here are just samples of two most common citations, a book and an article. There are many other scenarios.
Bibliography for a book:
Last name, First name. The Title of the Book. City: Publisher, year.
Footnote for a book:
First name Last name, The Title of the Book (City: Publisher, year), page number.
Bibliography for an article:
Last name, First name. “The Title of an Article.” The Title of the Journal 123 (Month Year): first page-last page.
Footnote for an article:
First name Last name, “The Title of an Article,” The Title of the Journal 123 (Month Year): page number.
Since this literature review is about authors and their works, you have to mention their names. When you mention an author for the first time, give the full name. In the subsequent mention(s), you can simply use the last name. Well, but if there are two or more authors with the same last name, then you have to mention the whole name, so readers know whom you are talking about.
Outline for Literature Review
ASPA Christianity in Asia
Introduction
During the early days of Christianity, it went through different trials and hardships in an effort to recognize itself by establishing the foundation of the Church, the Mission, and the Christian identity. Not long after, the early Christians were forced to survive through the waves of Islamic rule for centuries. Christians were tested and tried with their faiths, ideals, identities, and future significantly influenced by Islam, both in faith and governance.
1
) Theme of Christian Spirituality influenced by Islam
2) Christian communities and their daily lives under Islamic Caliphate(s)
3) A review of the written works and interpretations of the relations between Christianity and Islam
Context
Interactions between Christianity and Islam can be dated back to 632 ad, when Islam started to spread out north of the Arabian Peninsula with plans of conquest. The relationship would continue for centuries later. The lives of Christians were no doubt altered under Islamic rule. In order to grasp and maintain an accurate representation of the plight of Christians during this period and its reflective effect on its own future, it is imperative to introduce the works of scholars who studied various aspects of the lives of Christians during this time period.
Sub-category (1960-1979)
Works: Ahmad, Hitti, Jurji, O’Callaghan, Von Grunebaum. 1
Sub-category (1980-1999)
Works: Black, Boojamra, Coope, Kopanski, Schick. 2
Sub-category (2000-2019)
Works: Brodeur, Desnoyers, Griffith, Sahner, Stephan. 3
Conclusion
1
The aim of this literature review is to provide insight to the intertwined livelihoods and fates of Christianity and Islam by attending to events that occurred during the rule of the Islamic Caliphate.
1 Gustave E. Von Grunebaum, “Pluralism in the Islamic World,” Islamic Studies 3, no. 2 (June 1962): 34-59.
2 Robert Schick, “Christian Life in Palestine during the Early Islamic Period,” The Biblical Archaeologist 51, no. 4 (December 1988): 218-21, 239-40.
3 Rita Stephan, The Veil (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.)
Bibliography
Ahmad, Aziz. “The Shrinking Frontiers of Islam.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 7, no. 2 (April 1976): 145-59.
Black, Antony. “Islamic Views of International Order.” Rivista di Storia della Filosofia 52, no. 1 (1997): 129-40.
Boojamra, J L. “Christianity in Greater Syria: Surrender and Survival.” Byzantion 67, no. 1 (1997): 148-78.
Brodeur, Patrice C. Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 1st ed., s.v. “Christianity and Islam.” New York: Gale, 2004.
Coope, Jessica A. “Religious and Cultural Conversion to Islam in Ninth-Century Umayyad Cordoba.” Journal of World History 4, no. 1 (Spring 1993): 47-68.
Desnoyers, Charles A., and Peter Von Sivers, and George B. Stow. Patterns of World History: Brief Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press. 2018.
Griffith, Sidney H. The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 2008.
Hitti, Philip K. Capital Cities of Arab Islam. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1973.
Jurji, Edward J. “The Islamic Setting in the History of Religions.” Islamic Studies 8, no. 4 (December 1969): 301-17.
Kelsay, John. Love and Christian Ethics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. 2016.
Kopanski, Ataullah Bogdan. “Islam in Italy and in its Libyan Colony.” Islamic Studies 32, no. 2 (Summer 1993): 191-204.
O’Callaghan, Joseph F. A History of Medieval Spain. New York: Cornell University Press. 1975.
Sahner, Christian C. Christian Martyrs under Islam: Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 2018.
Schick, Robert. “Christian Life in Palestine during the Early Islamic Period.” The Biblical Archaeologist 51, no. 4 (December 1988): 218-21, 239-40.
Stephan, Rita. The Veil. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2008.
Von Grunebaum, Gustave E. “Pluralism in the Islamic World.” Islamic Studies 3, no. 2 (June 1962): 37-59.
1
Annotated Bibliography
ASPA Christianity in Asia
Ahmad, Aziz. “The Shrinking Frontiers of Islam.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 7, no. 2 (April 1976): 145-59. A historical look into the regional areas Islam has influenced but had some minor or major setbacks. The regions discussed are Spain, the Balkans, Crimea, Central Asia, Africa, India, Southeast Asia.
Black, Antony. “Islamic Views of International Order.” Rivista di Storia della Filosofia 52, no. 1 (1997): 129-40. A look into the treatment of ‘dhimmis’ by Islam. The article discusses how Islam views and treat other peoples from different backgrounds and including them in “protected classes”, which include Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc… (page 135)
Boojamra, J L. “Christianity in Greater Syria: Surrender and Survival.” Byzantion 67, no. 1 (1997): 148-78. The subject of this paper is precisely where, how, and when Christians survived as a faith community within the “nation” of Islam. A more pessimistic view of things; this paper gives the impression that Islam is a conquering and dominating ruthless force.
Brodeur, Patrice C. Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 1st ed., s.v. “Christianity and Islam.” New York: Gale, 2004. This article in the encyclopedia talks heavily about the history of Christian-Muslim relations starting from the inception of Islam until the modern era. An excellent resource when looking into how the two ideologies co-existed during a large time period.
Coope, Jessica A. “Religious and Cultural Conversion to Islam in Ninth-Century Umayyad Cordoba.” Journal of World History 4, no. 1 (Spring 1993): 47-68. The purpose of this article is to examine the process of conversion to Islam in one part of the medieval world. The article argues that understanding the conversion to Islam in that time period will provide understanding of conversion into a new group identity or culture.
Desnoyers, Charles A., and Peter Von Sivers, and George B. Stow. Patterns of World History: Brief Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press. 2018. A textbook that details the rise and history of Islamic civilization starting from Chapter 10.
Griffith, Sidney H. The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 2008. This book gives an example of how Christian-Islamic relationships were flourishing and harmonious during the golden age of Islam in the city of Baghdad. Gives an insight into the benefits performed and received by both parties.
Hitti, Philip K. Capital Cities of Arab Islam. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1973. This book mentions the city of Baghdad and how its significance in world history affected people of all backgrounds, including Christianity and the Church.
Jurji, Edward J. “The Islamic Setting in the History of Religions.” Islamic Studies 8, no. 4 (December 1969): 301-17. This article is about the core beliefs and theology of Islam and its practices. It shows on many occasions the relationship between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity on a fundamental level.
Kelsay, John. Love and Christian Ethics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. 2016. A specific chapter in this book discusses the Muslim discourse of neighborly love and provides further insight into the Christian-Islamic relationship of medieval Middle East.
Kopanski, Ataullah Bogdan. “Islam in Italy and in its Libyan colony.” Islamic Studies 32, no. 2 (Summer 1993): 191-204. A history of Islamic and Christian life within Italy and the surrounding areas. A clash and resolution between the two distinct backgrounds and cultures set within a specific geographical location.
O’Callaghan, Joseph F. A History of Medieval Spain. New York: Cornell University Press. 1975. This book offers insight into the Christian movement and Church in a reclaimed 11th century Spain. It shows how Christianity reestablished the Church while building on the foundations of previous residents; growing culturally and spiritually.
Sahner, Christian C. Christian Martyrs under Islam: Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 2018. This article provides insight into the opposing view that differs from most of the other sources. The article states a question of why Umayyad and ‘Abbasid officials executed Christian martyrs.
Schick, Robert. “Christian Life in Palestine during the Early Islamic Period.” The Biblical Archaeologist 51, no. 4 (December 1988): 218-21, 239-40. A discussion of Christian life during the earliest days of Islam centered specifically around Palestine. Contains images for reference.
Stephan, Rita. The Veil. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2008. This book gives us a unique perspective on relationships between Islam and Christianity throughout the historical context of Syria from a woman’s perspective.
Von Grunebaum, Gustave E. “Pluralism in the Islamic World.” Islamic Studies 3, no. 2 (June 1962): 37-59. This journal article speaks in depth about the development and early stages of Islam across the Arabian Peninsula and further out to Spain and West China. There are brief mentions of similarities and differences between the Islamic faith and Christianity both from a theological and practical perspectives.
A Template for a Literature Review
Part I—Introduction with a thesis statement
Part II–Historical or cultural context:
Briefly provide the information on banana and apple from an article found in an encyclopedia.[footnoteRef:1] [1: Title of the Encyclopedia, xth ed., s.v. “Title of an Entry.”]
Part III–Sub-categories (at least three):
a. These authors, Jared Diamond and Colin Mason, focus on the colors of the fruits:
Banana is yellow.[footnoteRef:
2
] [2: Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel (New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), 333.]
Banana is light green yellow.[footnoteRef:3] [3: Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 666.]
Apple is red.[footnoteRef:4] [4: Paul Cohen, Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 999.]
b. Some other authors put an emphasis on the texture of the fruits in their researches:
Banana is soft.[footnoteRef:5] [5: First Name Last Name, Title of the Book (City: Publisher, year), page-page.]
Apple is crunchy.[footnoteRef:6] [6: First Name Last Name, “Title of an Article,” Title of a Journal [Number] (Season Year): page number.]
c. This group of scholars study the origins of the fruits:
Banana is from Asia.[footnoteRef:7] [7: First Name Last Name, “Title of an Article,” Title of a Journal [Number] (Season Year): page number-page number.]
Apple is from the West.[footnoteRef:8] [8: First Name Last Name, Title of the Book (City: Publisher, year), page-page.
]
Part IV—Conclusion:
What is the most important thing that you learn about banana and apple?
Part V—Bibliography (Note: At this time, DO NOT include the annotated section. You need about 10 sources—1 article from an encyclopedia or specialized dictionary and 9 books and/or articles.)
Last Name, First Name. The Title of the Book. City: Name of a Publisher, year.
Cohen, Paul. China and Christianity: The Missionary Movement and the Growth of Chinese Antiforeignism, 1860-1870. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.
___________ . Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.
Last Name, First Name. “Title of an Article.” Title of a Journal Number of volume, number of
issue (Season Year): first page-last page.
Wicks, Robert S. “The Ancient Coinage of Mainland Southeast Asia.” Journal of Southeast
Asian Studies 16, no. 2 (September 1985): 195-225.
2
FOOT BINDING IN CHINA
Name
Asian Civilizations
Month Date, Year
1
Outline
I. Thesis: While marital and sexual incentives may have played some role in furthering
Chinese foot binding, past research has overemphasized this role, and a greater
understanding of the economic motivations as well as the Western bias that helped
shape views on the practice can
provide a fuller understanding of foot binding.
II. Historical/Cultural Context: Foot binding, the practice of binding girls’ feet to limit
growth to an ideal of three inches, was an accepted part of Han women’s lives
throughout China for roughly one thousand years, peaking during the Qing dynasty.
III. Categories of Research on Foot Binding in China:
a. Many scholars have centered their research on the idea of higher sexual appeal
and thus better marriage prospects as the main reason that foot binding prospered
in China for so long, recently evaluating the extent to which this is true.
b. One angle that historians have pursued as either a coinciding or alternative factor
to sexual or marital appeal is that foot binding arose from economic motivations.
c. Recent research has diverged from an exploration of causes into a critique of how
the interpretation of the role of foot binding in Chinese society has been largely
influenced by western perspectives and ideas.
IV. Conclusion: Most women underwent foot binding voluntarily, although there were
certain societal pressures (including economic incentives) involved. Although there
has been an abundance of research on the topic, recent work suggests that a western
bias may have skewed some of the initial inferences as to the causes of the practice,
including an overemphasis on the idea that women were foot bound in order to be
more sexually appealing or marriageable.
2
The practice of foot binding persisted in China for roughly a thousand years, but it is not
considered simply a historical practice – it has deep cultural roots in the context of its history.
Many scholars have attempted to deconstruct and expose these roots and causes along with their
implications for history. However, recent research calls for a more overarching view of foot
binding in order to understand the nuanced and varied causes of a practice that was so
widespread that no one factor could have been the sole determinant for its progression in every
region. While marital and sexual incentives may have played some role in furthering Chinese
foot binding, past research has overemphasized this role, and a greater understanding of the
economic motivations as well as the Western bias that helped shape views on the practice can
provide a fuller understanding of foot binding.
Foot binding was an accepted practice throughout China for roughly one thousand years,
with its peak during the Qing dynasty (from 1644 to 1912). 1 Most Han women had their toes
bound underneath the bottoms of their feet by the age of six, and some had theirs bound as early
as the age of three or four. 2 Often, the mother would perform the task of stretching and securing
damp cloth tightly around their daughters’ feet such that the girls’ toes were forced underneath
their soles. 3 The bandages were then progressively tightened until the end of their period of
growth in order to inhibit feet from growing beyond the ideal length of three inches. 4 Many
theories have emerged as to the reasons that foot binding was popular and wide spread
throughout all classes of women during its most prevalent periods, including that it made women
more sexually appealing and thus increased their marriage prospects. 5 Another theory is that
1. Encyclopedia of Modern China, s.v. “Footbinding”
2. Encyclopedia of Modern China, s.v. “Footbinding”
3. Encyclopedia of Modern China, s.v. “Footbinding”
4. Encyclopedia of Modern China, s.v. “Footbinding”
5. Encyclopedia of Modern China, s.v. “Footbinding”
3
women’s feet were bound to keep them immobile, thus signaling to others a high economic
status which could afford to support a woman unable to do most work. 6 However, this idea is
contested due to the fact that foot binding was widespread even amongst poorer rural families. 7
Most historians agree that at its height, foot binding was a sign of high social status and feminine
beauty; however, by the time the Qing dynasty banned it in 1902, foot binding was recognized
by many as a practice for limiting the freedom and mobility of women.8
Many scholars, including Laurel Bossen, Hill Gates, Dorothy Ko, Melissa J. Brown,
Damian Satterthwaite-Phillips, Birendra Rai, and Kunal Sengupta, have centered their research
on the idea of higher sexual appeal and thus better marriage prospects as the main reason that
foot binding prospered in China for so long, recently evaluating the extent to which this is true.
The work of Birendra Rai and Kunal Sengupta explores the fact that, throughout the world, there
are cultures in which parents use varying methods of discipline to instill “feminine virtues” in
their daughters in order to improve their marital prospects. 9 This process, referred to as pre-
marital confinement, often involves the imposition of restrictions on women’s behavior,
movement, and social interaction. 10 Rai and Sengupta’s framework for pre-marital confinement
suggests that foot binding falls under this categorization and exists because of a valuation of the
produced characteristics by men in the marriage market.11 However, there has been a
progression and divergence from earlier explanations for foot binding involving sexual and
marital appeal.
6. Encyclopedia of Modern China, s.v. “Footbinding”
7. Encyclopedia of Modern China, s.v. “Footbinding”
8. Encyclopedia of Modern China, s.v. “Footbinding”
9. Birendra Rai and Kunal Sengupta, “Pre-Marital Confinement of Women: A Signaling and Matching Approach,”
Journal of Development Economics 105 (November 2013): 48–63.
10. Rai and Sengupta, “Pre-Marital Confinement of Women: A Signaling and Matching Approach,” 53.
11. Rai and Sengupta, “Pre-Marital Confinement of Women: A Signaling and Matching Approach,” 61.
4
Earlier explanations include Freud’s theory of fetishism, Veblen’s theory of conspicuous
consumption, and Laurel Bossen and Hill Gates’s development of a Marxist-feminist view of the
“mystification of female labor.” 12 The widespread perception that women bound their feet
mainly for the sake of upward mobility in seeking a good marriage, along with previous
explanations have helped bring light to the custom of foot binding; however, Dorothy Ko’s
examination of the topic in Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding suggests
that they all rely on the false assumption that foot binding was a “single uniform custom with a
single uniform cause.”13 Research by Melissa J. Brown, Laurel Bossen, Hill Gates, and Damian
Satterthwaite-Phillips furthers this claim by undermining the long-standing general view that
(before 1949) most Chinese women married up the social hierarchy with the assistance of foot
binding and the appeal it created of foot-bound women. In a sample of 7,314 rural women living
in Sichuan, Northern, Central, and Southwestern China in the first half of the twentieth century,
they found that two-thirds of women did not marry up. 14 In fact, 22 percent of all women,
across regions, married down. 15 Furthermore, the study found that although in most regions
more women married up than down, in all regions, the majority did not marry into a higher social
status. 16 To add to this finding, there was no statistically significant difference between the
economic success of marital prospects for footbound versus non-bound girls in most regions,
which contradicts a long held cultural belief that foot binding improved girls’ marital
12. Dorothy Ko, Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University
of California Press, 2005), 109 – 111.
13. Dorothy Ko, Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding, 109.
14. Melissa J. Brown et al., “Marriage Mobility and Footbinding in Pre-1949 Rural China: A Reconsideration of
Gender, Economics, and Meaning in Social Causation,” The Journal of Asian Studies, no. 4 (2012): 1035.
15. Brown et al., “Marriage Mobility and Footbinding in Pre-1949 Rural China: A Reconsideration of Gender,
Economics, and Meaning in Social Causation,” 1056.
16. Brown et al., “Marriage Mobility and Footbinding in Pre-1949 Rural China: A Reconsideration of Gender,
Economics, and Meaning in Social Causation,” 1057.
5
prospects.17 There was, however, variation by region, and Sichuan had a significant association
between foot binding and marital mobility. 18 Regardless, this evidence of rural women’s marital
economic circumstances supports the idea that most women married within their own economic
bracket, even in regions with higher associations between foot binding and marital mobility, such
as Sichuan.19
Brown, Bossen, Gates, and Satterthwaite-Phillips’s findings provide more recent
evidential support for Ko’s evaluation that not every region can be grouped under a single
causality for the practice. In fact, much of the recent research into causes for the prevalence of
foot binding have undermined initial and long-held theories of sexual appeal. Interviews
conducted by Hill Gates with hundreds of village and small-town women who were footbound in
their childhood provide incite that sexual appeal may not have held a major role in sustaining the
practice. 20 Hills’ work, as summarized in his article, “Bound Feet: How Sexy Were They?”,
centers around the fact that classical erotic novels show little sexual attention or interest in bound
feet and shoes, even among the literate. 21 He also argues that since parents arranged most
commoner marriages, and Chinese mothers-in-law were unlikely to want their sons to be
distracted by sexually appealing brides, there is little indication of more than minimal importance
of foot binding to most marriages, even if Chinese culture produced some people with a fetish
for bound feet. 22 The removal of marital prospects from the list of potential driving factors for
17. Brown et al., “Marriage Mobility and Footbinding in Pre-1949 Rural China: A Reconsideration of Gender,
Economics, and Meaning in Social Causation,” 1057- 1058.
18. Brown et al., “Marriage Mobility and Footbinding in Pre-1949 Rural China: A Reconsideration of Gender,
Economics, and Meaning in Social Causation,” 1058.
19. Brown et al., “Marriage Mobility and Footbinding in Pre-1949 Rural China: A Reconsideration of Gender,
Economics, and Meaning in Social Causation,” 1062.
20. Hill Gates, “Bound Feet: How Sexy Were They?” in The History of the Family 13 (January 1, 2008): 68–70.
21. Gates, “Bound Feet: How Sexy Were They,” 58–59.
22. Gates, “Bound Feet: How Sexy Were They,” 68–69.
6
foot binding has pushed scholars to search for other, possibly better, explanations for the
endurance of the custom of foot binding. 23
One angle that historians, including Laurel Bossen, Hill Gates, Melissa J. Brown, Wang
Xurui, and Damian Satterthwaite-Phillips, have pursued as either a coinciding or alternative
factor to sexual or marital appeal is that foot binding arose from economic motivations. Foot
binding was common in China until the early twentieth century, when most Chinese were family
farmers. 24 Even through periods of great unrest, such as the nineteenth century which was
wrought with rebellions and wars (including the Opium War and Taiping Rebellion), foot
binding continued as a practice throughout China. 25 From an economic standpoint (considered
at length by Laurel Bossen and Hill Gates), the common perception that foot binding was a status
or sexual symbol fails to account for the financial motivations of the Chinese during the time. 26
The economic argument Bossen and Hill develop is that it was “an undeniably effective way to
get even very young girls to sit still and work with their hands.” 27 This claim works in
conjunction with the idea that mothers bound their daughters’ feet in order to control the aim of
their labor; their daughters would have to do handiwork with the mother inside instead of
assisting their male relatives with farming. 28 Furthermore, their lack of mobility made them less
costly to feed while not hindering their ability to contribute through “hand-worked tasks,” such
as embroidery.29
23. Gates, “Bound Feet: How Sexy Were They,” 70.
24. Laurel Bossen and Hill Gates, Bound Feet, Young Hands: Tracking the Demise of Footbinding in Village China,
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017), 11 – 12.
25. Bossen and Gates, Bound Feet, Young Hands, 11 – 12.
26. Bossen and Gates, Bound Feet, Young Hands, 12 – 14.
27. Bossen and Gates, Bound Feet, Young Hands, 19 – 20.
28. Bossen and Gates, Bound Feet, Young Hands, 17 – 18.
29. Bossen and Gates, Bound Feet, Young Hands, 17 – 18.
7
Later research by Melissa J. Brown and Damian Satterthwaite-Phillips also undermines
the wide-spread assumption that footbound women created more of an economic burden on their
families than those never bound, and asserts that Chinese daughters, regardless of whether or not
they had bound feet, made important economic contributions to their households, particularly in
rural areas. 30 Hill Gates’ research, “Footloose in Fujian: Economic Correlates of Footbinding,”
also suggests that the economic contributions Chinese women made to their households as well
as the complexity of labor divisions provide a basis for the economic incentives for foot binding
women in the Sichuan Fujian provinces.31 Hill argues that Chinese women are often believed to
have made little economic contribution to their families simply because the evaluation is often
based on wage contributions which women could not make. 32 However, women made up as
much as half of the manual labor force in pre-revolution China. 33 They aided with “food
processing, the making of everyday cotton cloth for clothing and bedding, and the creation of
labor-extravagant luxury commodities such as silk, grasscloth, hemp gauze, tea, opium, white
wax,” and they performed chores around the house. 34 While Hill understands that women’s
contributions have been largely unrecognized due to many factors, including that most historical
accounts record the lives of elite women who were much less likely to work, individual
contributions are hard to discern when resources were often pooled, and work was often
characterized as merely “obedience of the subordinate,” his research is indicative of a trend to
30. Melissa J. Brown and Damian Satterthwaite-Phillips, “Economic Correlates of Footbinding: Implications for the
Importance of Chinese Daughters’ Labor,” PLoS ONE 13, no. 9 (September 20, 2018): 1.
31. Hill Gates, “Footloose in Fujian: Economic Correlates of Footbinding,” Comparative Studies in Society and
History 43, no. 1 (2001): 130-131.
32. Gates, “Footloose in Fujian: Economic Correlates of Footbinding,” 130-131.
33. Gates, “Footloose in Fujian: Economic Correlates of Footbinding,” 132.
34. Gates, “Footloose in Fujian: Economic Correlates of Footbinding,” 137.
8
uncover these contributions as well as the implications for the association between foot binding
and labor.35
Further research by Laurel Bossen, Wang Xurui, Melissa J. Brown, and Hill Gates’
suggests that for rural women, if not all Chinese women, foot binding should be understood
within the context of rural economic conditions, specifically in relation to changes in textile
production. 36 Focusing on two counties in Shaanxi province with historical sources and
interview data from rural women who grew up during a period when foot binding was still
common, evidence emerges that transformations in textile production helped undermine the
custom of foot binding and contributed to its rapid demise since it offered women a new
independent source of income, free from some of the physical and social constrictions of
dependence on the family.37 Thus, a large body of research has transitioned from an emphasis
on sexual and marital causes to a concentration on the potential economic correlates to foot
binding that contributed to its spread and stronghold in China.
Recent research done by scholars, such as John Haddad, Hagar Kotef, Kaz Ross, and
Angela Zito, has diverged from an exploration of causes into a critique of how the interpretation
of the role of foot binding in Chinese society has been largely influenced by Western
perspectives and ideas. John Haddad’s research examines the life of Afong Moy, the Chinese
Lady. 38 The Chinese Lady drew crowds in America for many reasons, but one of the largest
was the fact that she had tiny feet as a result of years of foot binding. 39 Her life was
35. Gates, “Footloose in Fujian: Economic Correlates of Footbinding,” 146.
36. Laurel Bossen et al., “Feet and Fabrication: Footbinding and Early Twentieth-Century Rural Women’s Labor in
Shaanxi,” Modern China 37, no. 4 (July 2011): 347–348.
37. Bossen et al., “Feet and Fabrication: Footbinding and Early Twentieth-Century Rural Women’s Labor in
Shaanxi,” 381-383.
38. John Haddad, “The Chinese Lady and China for the Ladies,” Chinese America: History & Perspectives (January
2011): 5.
39. Haddad, “The Chinese Lady and China for the Ladies,” 5–6.
9
characterized by Western male writers, and thus is portrayed from a skewed perspective, which
although fascinated with her feet, regarded them as the product of a harsh and foreign system. 40
This Western view, according to Haddad, fails to account for the Chinese perspective or attempt
to understand the cultural reasons for the practice. 41 However, it prevailed as a source of
knowledge about Chinese culture and foot binding.42 The influence of writings, such as those on
Afong Moy, has contributed to the rise of many interpretations of Chinese foot binding in
Western political thought. 43 Hagar Kotef emphasizes that Westerners have used the practice as
“a contrast to European freedom or as a mirror reflecting its own limitations.” 44 Kotef argues
that bound feet came to be seen as an illustration of a “lack of freedom via disabled mobility.” 45
Kotef introduces the idea that Western thought also viewed freedom within “global (imperial)
and gendered frameworks” in order to critique that bound feet became a marker of both a
“gendered and an imperial divide” between those with the “freedom of mobility,” and thus are
seen as able to rule, and those who cannot be seen as fit to rule because they lack basic
mobility.46 While Kotef’s article, “Little Chinese Feet Encased in Iron Shoes: Freedom,
Movement, Gender, and Empire in Western Political Thought,” concludes with an assertion that
this division was lessened by interaction with the East and West,47 Kaz Ross’ work in
‘“(Hand)Made in China’: The Curious Return of the Footbinding Shoe” examines how increased
40. Haddad, “The Chinese Lady and China for the Ladies,” 11.
41. Haddad, “The Chinese Lady and China for the Ladies,” 16-17.
42. Haddad, “The Chinese Lady and China for the Ladies,” 18–19.
43. Haddad, “The Chinese Lady and China for the Ladies,” 19.
44. Hagar Kotef, “Little Chinese Feet Encased in Iron Shoes: Freedom, Movement, Gender, and Empire in Western
Political Thought,” Political Theory 43, no. 3 (2015): 334.
45. Kotef, “Little Chinese Feet Encased in Iron Shoes: Freedom, Movement, Gender, and Empire in Western
Political Thought,” 334-335.
46. Kotef, “Little Chinese Feet Encased in Iron Shoes: Freedom, Movement, Gender, and Empire in Western
Political Thought,” 338-339.
47. Kotef, “Little Chinese Feet Encased in Iron Shoes: Freedom, Movement, Gender, and Empire in Western
Political Thought,” 354-355.
10
interaction provided more opportunities for “outsiders” to critique the practice with a double
standard. 48
In particular, Ross’ research delves into the double standard concerning the perception of
“outsiders’” versus Chinese fascination with the lotus shoes worn by foot-bound women.49
When the Chinese appear to be fascinated by foot binding and its products, such as the lotus
shoes, there is often an assumption that this fascination comes from a fetishized view of it;
whereas, “outsiders’” fascination is often regarded as objective (even historical or cultural)
fascination.50 Thus, Ross alongside many scholars, criticizes the lens through which non-
Chinese people have viewed the practice of foot binding. The depiction of the treatment of
women in China has also been largely dependent on the lens through which it is viewed. Often,
foot binding has been seen as an “otherness” marker that separates nonmodern from modern
China. 51 Angela Zito urges that the way that “outsiders” have viewed foot binding in the
context of the nineteenth century offers a basis from which to delve into the difference between
perspectives and the actuality of the treatment. 52 Furthermore, Zito argues that the fetishist and
feminist view of foot binding examine merely one aspect of the practice and conflate it to
represent the whole custom, even making assumptions based on the conflation. 53 For example,
Zito highlights that the pain of foot binding instilled the idea that the practice is barbaric, which
then turned into an assumption that the Chinese who practiced it must also be barbaric.54
48. Kaz Ross, “‘(Hand) Made in China’: The Curious Return of the Footbinding Shoe,” Postcolonial Studies 4, no. 3
(November 2001): 311–314.
49. Ross, “‘(Hand) Made in China’: The Curious Return of the Footbinding Shoe,” 311–312.
50. Ross, “‘(Hand)Made in China’: The Curious Return of the Footbinding Shoe,” 331-332.
51. Angela Zito, Embodied Modernities: Corporeality, Representation, and Chinese Cultures, ed. Martin Fran and
Heinrich Larissa (Hawaii: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006), 21.
52. Zito, Embodied Modernities: Corporeality, Representation, and Chinese Cultures, 21 – 22.
53. Zito, Embodied Modernities: Corporeality, Representation, and Chinese Cultures, 23– 25.
54. Zito, Embodied Modernities: Corporeality, Representation, and Chinese Cultures, 34.
11
Overall, criticisms of Western interpretation of the practice are not new; however, there has been
a new emphasis on the need to highlight the potential bias of past writing on the topic of foot
binding in order to obtain a more holistic understanding of what the custom meant during its
height and why it lasted for over a thousand years in China.
While past trends placed a large emphasis on sexual or marital reasons for foot binding
Chinese girls, the recent deconstruction of this reason as well as the emergence of evidence for
economic motivations and of distorted perceptions of the practice provide a more objective
foundation to delve into the complex cultural and historical incentives for the long persistence of
the practice. Furthermore, although there is still some bias in the study of such a controversial
and deep-rooted cultural practice, the recognition of such bias (that many scholars now have)
may help mitigate the influence it has on future research. The current trend in research is
favorable largely because it accounts for the potential bias of any research, while not shying from
in-depth consideration of the different potential explanations of causality as well as the
interactions amongst such reasons.
12
Bibliography
Bossen, Laurel, and Hill Gates. Bound Feet, Young Hands: Tracking the Demise of Footbinding
in Village China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017.
Bossen, Laurel, Wang Xurui, Melissa J. Brown, and Hill Gates. “Feet and Fabrication:
Footbinding and Early Twentieth-Century Rural Women’s Labor in Shaanxi.” Modern
China 37, no. 4 (July 2011): 347–83. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23053328.
Brown, Melissa J, and Damian Satterthwaite-Phillips. “Economic Correlates of Footbinding:
Implications for the Importance of Chinese Daughters’ Labor.” PLoS ONE 13, no. 9
(September 20, 2018): 1–33. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0201337.
Brown, Melissa J, Laurel Bossen, Hill Gates, and Damian Satterthwaite-Phillips. “Marriage
Mobility and Footbinding in Pre-1949 Rural China: A Reconsideration of Gender,
Economics, and Meaning in Social Causation.” The Journal of Asian Studies, no. 4
(2012): 1035-1067. http://electra.lmu.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/
login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.23357433&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Encyclopedia of Modern China, s.v. “Footbinding.”
Gates, Hill. “Bound Feet: How Sexy Were They?” The History of the Family 13 (January 1,
2008): 58–70. doi:10.1016/j.hisfam.2007.11.001.
Gates, Hill. “Footloose in Fujian: Economic Correlates of Footbinding.” Comparative Studies in
Society and History 43, no. 1 (2001): 130-48. http://jstor.org/stable/2696625.
Haddad, John. “The Chinese Lady and China for the Ladies.” Chinese America: History &
Perspectives (January 2011): 5–19. http://electra.lmu.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.
ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=78022829&site=eds-
live&scope=site.
Ko, Dorothy. Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 2005.
Kotef, Hagar. “Little Chinese Feet Encased in Iron Shoes: Freedom, Movement, Gender, and
Empire in Western Political Thought.” Political Theory 43, no. 3 (2015): 334-355.
http://electra.lmu.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tru
e&db=edsggo&AN=edsgcl.419883890&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Rai, Birendra, and Kunal Sengupta. “Pre-Marital Confinement of Women: A Signaling and
Matching Approach.” Journal of Development Economics 105 (November 2013): 48–63.
doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.07.003.
13
Ross, Kaz. “‘(Hand)Made in China’: The Curious Return of the Footbinding Shoe.” Postcolonial
Studies 4, no. 3 (November 2001): 311–34. http://electra.lmu.edu:2048/login?url=https://
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2008870258&site=eds-
live&scope=site.
Zito, Angela. Embodied Modernities: Corporeality, Representation, and Chinese Cultures.
Edited by Martin Fran and Heinrich Larissa. Hawaii: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006.
1
OUTLINE ASSIGNMENT
Format and Grading (double spaced; 12 point font; and 1-inch margins as stated in the syllabus)
When you submit your outline of a literature review, please cover all 5 parts:
Part I—Introduction
What are the three key words or the three major thematic approaches that you find in the
secondary sources?
Part II–Historical or cultural context:
Briefly provide the information on the topic such as who, what, when as you may find in an
article from an encyclopedia (This is your first library assignment, but you should have a better
grasp of your topic by now).
1
Part III–Sub-categories (at least three):
A. Sub-category 1 for sources before the 1970s
Provide a topic sentence.
Give a summary of each article or book that you want to include in this sub-
category.
2
Footnote each source at the bottom of the page according to the
Chicago Manual of Style.
3
B. Sub-category 2 for sources between the 1980s and the 1990s
Provide a topic sentence.
Give a summary of each article or book that you want to include in this sub-
category.
4
Footnote each source at the bottom of the page according to the
Chicago Manual of Style.
5
C. Sub-category 3 for sources since the 2000s
Provide a topic sentence.
Give a summary of each article or book that you want to include in this sub-
category.
6
Footnote each source at the bottom of the page according to the
Chicago Manual of Style.
7
1
Title of the Encyclopedia, xth ed., s.v. “Title of an Entry.”
2
First Name Last Name, The Title of the Book (City: Name of a Publisher, year), page number-page number.
3
First Name Last Name, “Title of an Article,” Title of a Journal number of the volume, no. of the issue (Season
Year): page number.
4
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
1999), 24-26.
5
Robert S. Wicks, “The Ancient Coinage of Mainland Southeast Asia,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 16, no.
2
(September 1985): 219.
6
First Name Last Name, The Title of the Book (City: Name of a Publisher, year), page number-page number.
7
First Name Last Name, “Title of an Article,” Title of a Journal number of the volume, no. of the issue (Season
Year): page number.
2
Part IV—Conclusion:
What is the most important thing that you learn about this topic.
Part V—Bibliography (Note: At this time, DO NOT include the annotated section. You need
16 sources.)
Last Name, First Name. The Title of the Book. City: Name of a Publisher, year.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.
Last Name, First Name. “Title of an Article.” Title of a Journal Number of volume, number of
issue (Season Year): first page-last page.
Wicks, Robert S. “The Ancient Coinage of Mainland Southeast Asia.” Journal of Southeast
Asian Studies 16, no. 2 (September 1985): 195-225.