the end of foot binding in china

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The End of Footbinding in China as an

Example of the Power of Networks June Holley, Network Weaver [email protected]

How do we make a difference? How do we help bring about transformative change? The story of the end of footbinding is a great example of the way networks can be mobilized to bring about dramatic change in a very short period of time. Footbinding – the practice of tightly wrapping the feet of young girls so that their feet were only a few inches long – started about 1000 year ago and, over time, over 90% of all women in China had bound feet. Because it became a criteria for marriage and upward mobility, footbinding was extremely resistant to change. However, a major change effort began in 1895 and within 20 years the practice has virtually disappeared. How did this happen so quickly? Until the mid 1800’s, China was very isolated from the rest of the world. But after 1850, westerner traders and missionaries entered China, and quickly and opening expressed their horror at the practice of footbinding. Chinese leaders began to see footbinding as holding back the country from modernization. Although anti-‐footbinding language created a receptive context for change, it initially had little impact on behavior, due to the high stakes involved in changing the practice (fear of not being able to marry off daughters). Lesson 1: You need different and/or outside perspectives to make breakthroughs. But in 1895, things began to change. The catalyst for this change was a remarkable woman named Alicia Little. Alicia was a successful novelist who had come to China when, in her 40s, she married a merchant with a thriving business in that country. Lesson 2: Even one energetic and persistent person, acting as a catalyst, can start transformational change but… Network leaders are often not the highly visible individuals: find people who are acting as a catalysts, because they have the potential to start transformational change

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She learned Chinese, built a network of very well-‐connected individuals, and in 1895 formed an anti-‐footbinding association with a small number of influential and energetic Chinese and western women. Lesson 3: A catalytic core needs people who have access to many large and diverse networks to have maximum impact and potential for spreading the change. Instead of funding organizations, support collaboratives that are spanning organizational and different worlds and want to experiment. Fund the collaborative catalyst role and experimentation not a plan. This group decided to act as a catalyst organization – encouraging others to invent solutions to this problem. For example, they encouraged influential officials to come up with slogans that were easily remembered. In one instance, Alicia convinced an influential official to paint a slogan on a fan that she used when she gave talks. Lesson 4: Get high-‐powered individuals to participate in reframing the issue, using phrases that are easy to remember and pass on. Provide support to train and coach collaboratives to identify and build relationships with Influentials and help collabortives develop core ideas in simple ways so they spread through peer networks. The “natural foot” group used money to help jump-‐start the change process. Initially, they raised money for dowries for girls whose families did not bind their feet, so that they would be much more likely to get married. They produced attractive pins that were widely distributed to those who were against footbindg. They also had many contests to encourage ordinary Chinese people to write poems and tracts against footbinding. In just 2 years, over 8,000 poems, booklets and articles were produced arguing against footbinding and in support of natural feet. Lesson 5: Restructure money to support an endless stream of creativity. Provide funds for Innovation Funds that encourage a continual stream of creativity and engagement by ever larger networks.

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The major successful strategy, however, was a new structure – Natural Feet Leagues – where families joined in large associations where they would publicly commit not to bind their daughters’ feet and not to let their sons marry women with bound feet. Once 300,000 people signed up – as was the case in Shanghai after just a short period of recruiting – families began to feel comfortable that their daughters would find marriage partners. The formation of the Shanghai league then led to a tipping point where, within a few more years, all families in the city stopped binding their daughters’ feet. Lesson 6: Keep encouraging innovation and then notice what is really working. Emphasize the importance of deep reflection to identify “patterns of success”. Alicia and many others then took to the road, traveling in carts to cities throughout China. They gave lively talks decrying footbinding, then shared explicit directions for starting an anti-‐footbinding association. Lesson 7: Share the idea with new networks and encourage people to self-‐organize to implement the idea in their community. Once collaboratives have identified “patterns of success”, provide resources to spread those patterns by moving into new networks. Have resources to encourage and support expanded collaboration and self-‐organization. The results: in one rural community where statistics were gathered the results were as follows:

1889 99% bound 1899 94% bound 1919 0% bound

The accompanying powerpoint can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/group/network-‐weaving-‐be-‐rhizomatic

the end of foot binding in china

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