In 1912 the new Republic of China government banned foot binding, though the ban was not actively implemented, and leading intellectuals of the May Fourth Movement saw foot binding as a major symbol of China's backwardness. Provincial leaders, such as Yan Xishan in Shanxi, engaged in their own sustained campaign against foot binding with foot inspectors and fines for those who continued the practice, while regional governments of the later Nanjing regime also enforced the ban. The campaign against foot binding was successful in some regions. In one province, a 1929 survey showed that, while only 2.3% of girls born before 1910 had unbound feet, 95% of those born after were not bound. In a region south of Beijing, Dingxian, where over 99% of women once had bound feet, no new cases were found among those born after 1919. In Taiwan, the practice was also discouraged by the ruling Japanese from the beginning of Japanese rule, and from 1911 to 1915 it was gradually made illegal.Hu, Alex. "The Influence of Western Women on the Anti-Footbinding Movement". Historical Reflections, Vol. 8, No. 3, Women in China: Current Directions in Historical Scholarship, Fall 1981, pp. 179–199. "Besides improvements in civil engineering, progress was made in social areas as well. The traditional Chinese practice of foot binding was widespread in Taiwan's early years. Traditional Chinese society perceived women with smaller feet as being more beautiful. Women would bind their feet with long bandages to stunt growth; housemaids were divided into those with bound feet and those without. The former served the daughters of the house, while the latter were assigned heavier work. This practice was later regarded as barbaric. In the early years of the Japanese colonial period, the Foot-binding Liberation Society was established to promote the idea of natural feet, but its influence was limited. The fact that women suffered higher casualties in the 1906 Meishan quake with 551 men and 700 women dead and 1,099 men and 1,334 women injured—very different from the situation in Japan—raised public concern. Foot binding was blamed and this gave impetus to the drive to stamp out the practice." The practice lingered on in some regions in China. In 1928, a census in rural Shanxi found that 18% of women had bound feet, while in some remote rural areas, such as Yunnan Province, it continued to be practiced until the 1950s.Favazza, Armando R. (2011), Bodies under Siege: Self-mutilation, Nonsuicidal Self-injury, and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry, p. 118.Gillet, Kit (16 April 2012). "In China, foot binding slowly slips into history". The Los Angeles Times. In most parts of China the practice had virtually disappeared by 1949. The practice was also stigmatized in Communist China, and the last vestiges of foot binding were stamped out, with the last new case of foot binding reported in 1957.Li Xiu-ying. "Women with Bound Feet in China: Cessation of Bound Feet during the Communist Era". University of Virginia. . Excerpts from When I was a girl in China, stories collected by Joseph Rupp. By the 21st century, only a few elderly women in China still had bound feet. In 1999, the last shoe factory making lotus shoes, the Zhiqian Shoe Factory in Harbin, closed.
In 1912 the new Republic of China government banned foot binding, though the ban was not actively implemented, and leading intellectuals of the May Fourth Movement saw foot binding as a major symbol of China's backwardness. Provincial leaders, such as Yan Xishan in Shanxi, engaged in their own sustained campaign against foot binding with foot inspectors and fines for those who continued the practice, while regional governments of the later Nanjing regime also enforced the ban. The campaign against foot binding was successful in some regions. In one province, a 1929 survey showed that, while only 2.3% of girls born before 1910 had unbound feet, 95% of those born after were not bound. In a region south of Beijing, Dingxian, where over 99% of women once had bound feet, no new cases were found among those born after 1919. In Taiwan, the practice was also discouraged by the ruling Japanese from the beginning of Japanese rule, and from 1911 to 1915 it was gradually made illegal.Hu, Alex. "The Influence of Western Women on the Anti-Footbinding Movement". Historical Reflections, Vol. 8, No. 3, Women in China: Current Directions in Historical Scholarship, Fall 1981, pp. 179–199. "Besides improvements in civil engineering, progress was made in social areas as well. The traditional Chinese practice of foot binding was widespread in Taiwan's early years. Trad.itional Chinese society perceived women with smaller feet as being more beautiful Women would bind their feet with long bandages to stunt growth; housemaids were divided into those with bound feet and those without. The former served the daughters of the house, while the latter were assigned heavier work. This practice was later regarded as barbaric. In the early years of the Japanese colonial period, the Foot-binding Liberation Society was established to promote the idea of natural feet, but its influence was limited. The fact that women suffered higher casualties in the 1906 Meishan quake with 551 men and 700 women dead and 1,099 men and 1,334 women injured—very different from the situation in Japan—raised public concern. Foot binding was blamed and this gave impetus to the drive to stamp out the practice." The practice lingered on in some regions in China. In 1928, a census in rural Shanxi found that 18% of women had bound feet, while in some remote rural areas, such as Yunnan Province, it continued to be practiced until the 1950s.Favazza, Armando R. (2011), Bodies under Siege: Self-mutilation, Nonsuicidal Self-injury, and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry, p. 118.Gillet, Kit (16 April 2012). "In China, foot binding slowly slips into history". The Los Angeles Times. In most parts of China the practice had virtually disappeared by 1949. The practice was also stigmatized in Communist China, and the last vestiges of foot binding were stamped out, with the last new case of foot binding reported in 1957.Li Xiu-ying. "Women with Bound Feet in China: Cessation of Bound Feet during the Communist Era". University of Virginia. . Excerpts from When I was a girl in China, stories collected by Joseph Rupp. By the 21st century, only a few elderly women in China still had bound feet. In 1999, the last shoe factory making lotus shoes, the Zhiqian Shoe Factory in Harbin, closed.