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Nüshu 女书 (women's script) is probably the only script in the world used exclusively among women.
It's phonetic (whereas Chinese characters are logographic) and is based on the dialect of Jiangyong, Hunan, where it originated.
There are some origin theories and the one I like
It's phonetic (whereas Chinese characters are logographic) and is based on the dialect of Jiangyong, Hunan, where it originated.
There are some origin theories and the one I like
most is this. The women of Jiangyong developed this because they were not allowed to learn to read and write "men's script" (Chinese characters). They invented this script to communicate with each other. It looks like embroidery patterns and men just dismissed it as such.
Women used Nüshu not only to write letters to each other. They also wrote biographies, folklore, songs, moral essays, and translating Chinese literary works. Writing is empowering. Writing in a script men don't understand is resistance.
One curious historical artefact is a coin issued by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in late Qing. It's a feminist coin.
天下妇女 姊妹一家 (women under the heaven, unite in sisterhood) in Nüshu is inscribed on the coin.
The last natural user of Nüshu passed away in 2004.
天下妇女 姊妹一家 (women under the heaven, unite in sisterhood) in Nüshu is inscribed on the coin.
The last natural user of Nüshu passed away in 2004.
found this article by Zhao Liming, a Tsinghua prof and long-term Nüshu researcher. There's some common misunderstanding that Nüshu is a "secret code" or used to write love stories. She says none of the existing Nüshu texts is about love story. She says https://www.chinafolklore.org/web/index.php?NewsID=4495
it's a "culture of sunshine". Women didn't consider Nüshu a secret and used it to "build a spiritual home of equality and freedom", for everyone.
According to one elderly scholar from the area, some 100 yrs ago a few illiterate men also learned Nüshu from their wives
According to one elderly scholar from the area, some 100 yrs ago a few illiterate men also learned Nüshu from their wives
