form Footbound single work   drama   radio play  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Footbound
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'During the Tang Dynasty in the Kingdom of Wu, a certain duke, forced to marry a woman of the Miao, decides to employ the skills of his terrestrial genie to prepare a potion that when applied will enhance the lady's allure and so promote the necessary consummation of his marriage.

'The prescription is in two parts: a phial full of the love potion and an amulet to be hung around the neck of duke. Unfortunately the delivery and application of this elixir is entrusted to a clubfooted drunkard who bungles the operation with his lack of dexterity. The potion is spilled and the amulet changes hands several times, with the result that the clubfooted imbecile becomes a pirouetting beauty in the eyes of the duke. To keep the duke entranced Clubfoot enhances his feet with bindings, which the duke can't help but admire, but when Clubfoot is imprisoned and executed, the Duke searches for a substitute. There are disposable young girls aplenty in Wu, and the Duke soon acquires a young beauty on whom he can apply all the arts of feet shrinking formerly practised by Clubfoot, but now perfected by the obsessed Duke.

'David Foster's account of the origins of foot binding in China is told in the manner of tale from one of the Thousand and One Nights.'

Source: ABC Radio National's website, http://www.abc.net.au/
Sighted: 11/08/2008

Production Details

  • Broadcast on ABC Radio's Airplay on 10 August 2008.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 25 Sep 2008 16:44:11
Settings:
  • c
    China,
    c
    East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
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