Zhang Yun Ying (born 1928-) in 2005, by British photographer Jo Farrell. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Some men of letters even created poems to praise such "delicate" feet, and their tiny, swaying steps were seen as attractive and arousing for men. Women with "three inch lotus" were likely to make better marriages, while girls with normal size feet would have difficulty finding husbands.

Under such patriarchal and morbid trends, when a girl was about three years old she had to undergo a painful "operation" to get the "three inch lotus". During the process, her toes would be fractured and her feet would be bound tightly with linen strips, forcing her feet to form a concave shape. With such deformed feet, women were confined to the house, and objectified as men's property. In Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, the Three Inch Lotus Museum reopens on Jan 15. It contains more than 5,000 pairs of "lotus shoes" on display, revealing and reflecting the thousand-year history of foot-binding of Chinese women. It is said that the smallest shoes on display are only 9 centimeters long.

Any progress of civilization can never be made without generations' striving. To free women's feet from "three inch lotus" shoes was the first step China took to further women's liberation in its history.