Jane Yang's debut novel, The Lotus Shoes, transports readers to 19th-century China, offering a poignant exploration of friendship, societal norms, and personal resilience.

Former pharmacist and debut author Jane Yang’s new sweeping historical novel, 'The Lotus Shoes' (Park Row Books, Jan. 2025), is being compared to such classics as 'Memoirs of a Geisha' and ...

And the Shoe. The object of supreme adoration was the bound foot itself. It was caressed with an intensity and ingenuity that often make this volume read like a Chinese Kinsey report. The cult of ...

Foot-binding spread as a symbol of status and wealth — which is not too distant from the undertones of today’s designer shoes.

Foot-binding shoes, a painful and unhealthy practice that was banned long ago for the lifetime deformities caused for women, have been found on sale on online second-hand platforms, sparking outrage ...

Chinese netizens and cultural experts have slammed domestic online platforms selling foot-binding items, a century after the traditional practice was outlawed in the country. Several vendors on ...

Milburn added: “ The Lotus Shoes is a fascinating and vivid insight into how women survived in a strictly regulated culture and the cruel act of foot-binding, that has rarely been explored ...

Thankfully this brutal custom was banned in China in 1912. However, one shop in Melaka offers customers a rare glimpse into the history of foot-binding and the feminine footwear of those days.

In the century following this, the torturous practice of foot-binding was brought to life in 10th century China during the reign of Emperor Li Yu.