In traditional China, only males were taught to read and write the Chinese language. But it seems there was a secret script invented and passed down exclusively among women of the Jiangyong county of Hunan province. The script is called “Nushu,” which literally translates to “Woman’s Writing”.
According to an article on MSNBC about it, Nushu is unlike regular Chinese script, because it is based on phonetic sounds, rather than concept-based ideograms. It is also much more “squished” and wispy looking than regular Chinese. When the Communists took over, they began educating both boys and girls in regular Chinese script, so Nushu has become a dying art.
- What seems clear is that nushu was fostered by the region’s ancient custom of “sworn sisters,” whereby village girls would pledge one another fealty and friendship forever. The tight sorority, which included growing up together in cobbled village lanes and gathering with adult women to weave and embroider, inevitably was shattered when the time for marriage came. Tradition dictated that a bride go away to her groom’s home — and that is where nushu came in.
Three days after the wedding, the adolescent bride would receive a “Third Day Book,” a cloth-bound volume in which her sworn sisters and her mother would record their sorrow at losing a friend and daughter and express best wishes for happiness in the married life that lay ahead. The first half-dozen pages contained these laments and hopes, written in nushu that the groom could not read. The rest were left blank for the bride to record her own feelings and experiences — in nushu — for what would become a treasured diary.
Apparently, it’s not just a written script either, but can also be spoken and sung. There is a movement afoot to revive it and maintain it so that it does not die out with the old women who were taught it as girls.
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