Nüshu
May 7, 2023 7:14 AM Subscribe
Nüshu: China’s secret female-only language "Throughout history, women in rural Hunan Province used a coded script to express their most intimate thoughts to one another. Today, this once-“dead” language is making a comeback." [See also: Tan Dun's symphony Nu Shu: the Secret Songs of Women]
It's cool that Nüshu, apart from dots, is written using (per Wikipedia) "horizontals, virgules, and arcs" since those are the three strokes you use to write 女 (woman).
posted by jabah at 2:58 PM on May 7, 2023
posted by jabah at 2:58 PM on May 7, 2023
This picture from the article not only shows off the beauty of the script, but includes the word "nüshu" itself-- it's the left two of the big characters. Read right-to-left, and compare to traditional 女書.)
One thing the article doesn't mention is that there were legends transcribed into nüshu, e.g. the story of Zhu Yingtai, a brilliant girl who disguises herself as a man in order to study.
posted by zompist at 4:05 PM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
One thing the article doesn't mention is that there were legends transcribed into nüshu, e.g. the story of Zhu Yingtai, a brilliant girl who disguises herself as a man in order to study.
posted by zompist at 4:05 PM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
How beautiful and fascinating. The idea of an actual, secret language of women never occurred to me, though of course now that I know about it I can't believe it never did.
posted by peakes at 4:28 PM on May 7, 2023
posted by peakes at 4:28 PM on May 7, 2023
A language and a writing system are two very different things, but that article kept going back and forth, on the one hand describing Nüshu as a script, and on the other hand calling it a language and describing women as singing in it. Which was really unclear and frustrating! Wikipedia says it's a writing system representing the local Tuhua languages, and that Nüshu literally means "women's script". I'm assuming that when the article describes women singing in Nüshu it means singing songs that were written down in that script.
Hiragana is another writing system that was considered "women's writing" for a long time, though unlike Nüshu it wasn't exclusively used by women.
posted by trig at 1:05 PM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Hiragana is another writing system that was considered "women's writing" for a long time, though unlike Nüshu it wasn't exclusively used by women.
posted by trig at 1:05 PM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yes, nüshu is a script, not a language. The article I referenced clarifies that the singing tradition is called nüge (奴歌'women's song') and that some women are proficient in nüge but not in nüshu.
posted by zompist at 2:30 PM on May 8, 2023
posted by zompist at 2:30 PM on May 8, 2023
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posted by kurumi at 10:55 AM on May 7, 2023