Tao Aimin spent much of the 2000s documenting with video, photography, and quotidian objects, the struggles against a slowly degenerating life, but also the fierce independence and tenacious dignity of her elderly landlady, who was one of that last generation of foot-bound women. The product of this relationship and sustained attention was her first documentary project, Lotus Fragments (Can Lian 残莲). The film begins in the summer of 2004, in a courtyard in Changping. The subject of the film is her landlady, Wang Shuqing (王淑清), who shared her courtyard with the artist. Born in 1912, “Granny Wang,” as Tao Aimin called her, was one of the last generation of foot-bound women (chanzu 缠足 or guo xiaojiao 裹小脚) in China. The title refers to the classic appellation for the bound foot as a ‘lotus’ (lian莲).

The first scene begins with a close up of Wang Shuqing removing her foot binding cloth as she does each day. What is striking about this first moment in the film is that the unwrapped, “lotus” foot is traditionally not to be seen. To break the taboo of revealing one’s naked, deformed feet, even in today’s world, where foot binding as an institution has ended, is nothing less than an act of breaking silence, of refusing to keep “dirty little secrets.” By revealing the maimed appendage that was once a fleshy index of patriarchal power and showing it for what it is, with neither erotic fanfare nor grotesque spectacle, Wang Shuqing’s simple act of unveiling of what was hidden, constitutes a reclamation of lost bodily autonomy. Sharing that unveiling with women (and men, of course, too) everywhere, is an act of solidarity and collective overcoming.

Lotus Fragments 残莲, 2002-2011, Documentary film, 46:07″
To the Marrow 裹脚《入骨》, 2018, Short video, 3:13″
Terrifying Waves 折布《惊涛》, 2018, Short video, 1:10″
Alone穿针《孑然》, 2018, Short video, 3:00″
Deep Ocean缝《深海》, 2018, Short video, 2:38″
Fearful Billows 搓衣《骇浪》, 2018, Short video, 3:03″
Twilight Snow 洗脚《暮雪》, 2018, Short video, 1:33″