Transcript Nüshu 女書: Women`s Writing in Hunan

Nü Shu
A Women’s Writing System
By Kristen Skipper
 What is Nü Shu ?
 Where did Nü Shu occur?
 Why did Nü Shu occur?
 Sworn Sisterhoods and Old Sames
 Nü Shu Language Structure
 Nü Shu Themes
 Preserving Nü Shu
Nü Shu is:
 Women's Script, as it is known to
its practitioners
 Used by peasant women in
remote villages in Jiang Yong county,
Hunan province in China
 A phonetic script quite distinct
from Chinese character script
 A written version of the local
spoken dialect
Photo - Xinhua News Agency
Source of
Nü Shu
Hunan Province
湖南省
Jiang Yong Prefecture
江永県
Why Did Nü Shu Develop?
Narrowness of a woman’s life
 Strength of sworn sisterhoods
Foot binding
Need for self-expression
Lack of male objection
NüShu, Sworn Sisterhood,
and Old Sames
Sworn sisterhoods:
 Seven girls sworn after foot binding (around 10 years old)
 Remained united until the first girl married then sisterhood
was dissolved
Old Sames:
 Two girls with seven
matching characteristics
Life-long bond
Kristen Skipper collection
Photo by Orie Endo
The design of the houses in Jiang Yong (unlike Han houses) encouraged
women to gather and socialize.
Historical Origins of Nu Shu
Main Theories:
Photo by Orie Endo
 Predates the oracle-bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty (16th -11th
century BC). Official writing of the Yi (ancient name for tribes in the east of
China)
 Remnant of a 4,000-year-old language stamped out elsewhere by the first
emperor of China, Qin Shihuang.
 A concubine of an emperor of the Song dynasty (960-1279), who
embroidered the secret script on handkerchiefs to write to sisters and
friends outside the court.
 Recent researchers consider NüShu a result of a hybrid Yao-Han culture.
Nü Shu’s Emergence in
National Consciousness
Surfaced during the 1960’s
Cultural Revolution buried it
Chinese Intellectual interest revived in the 1980’s
Chinese Government support for the past decade
Miss Tian 1921 – Kristen Skipper collection
Nü Shu Structure
 Nü Shu has between 1,800 and
2,500 characters, each representing
a syllable of the local dialect.
Written top to bottom, right to left
 One character per sound – the
character for father “fu” is the same
as the character for woman “fu”.
The character wang (king) also
represents other “wang”-sounding
words such as “garden” or “whole”.
Photo by Orie Endo
Nü Shu Structure
Phonetic rather than logographic
 Nü Shu is linguistically significant for
its simplification of the Chinese writing
system
Photo by Orie Endo
The passage roughly translates
as "They taught her to apply
makeup and comb her hair; on
her head she was wearing
pearls that are shining
magnificently; she is sitting like
Guanyin (a Buddhist goddess)
out of a Buddhist shrine".
There are obvious similarities
between Nü Shu and Mandarin
characters.
Nü Shu Content
 Most works use rhyming,
seven-syllable lines
 Expressions of independence
and frustration with men
 Sorrow at the loneliness of
married life
 Stories in which female
characters had active roles and
won victories through piety and
fortitude.
Nü Shu Content
 San Chao Shu were decorated in
ink or paper cutouts
 Both sides of the first three pages
would be filled with songs written
for the bride leaving the village
 The rest were left blank for the
bride to write on.
Wedding 1922 – Kristen Skipper collection
San Chao Shu 三朝書
Third Day Book
Photo by Orie Endo
"Now we
Outside
sit together
and inside
because
of a our
three-day
feelings
missive
are disturbed
To help by
ease
thethe
imminent
sting of
marriage
theofseparation,
one of ourthe
sworn
bride’s
sisters
mother
and we
andmust
sworn
write
sisters
themade
third-day
a cloth
book. We
cherishbound
the days
book,
when
known
we are
as atogether
"Third Day
andBook“
hate losing
whichone
contained
of our sisters.
messages
After
she gets
formarried
the bride
it will
in Nü
beShu
difficult
language.
to meet her so we worry that she will be lonely.
For a woman, marriage means losing everything, including her family and her
sworn sisters."
Nü Shu Study and Preservation
 Just over 300 pieces of authentic Nü Shu have been uncovered
 Bronze coin from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851-1864), with a Nü
Shu inscription on the back that reads “All women on earth are one
family.”
Yang Huanyi was the oldest living Nü
Shu writer when she died in 2004 at
age ninety-six.
Photo by Orie Endo
Tombstones for Ms. Gao Yin-xian (1902- 1990), one on the left is written in
Nü Shu , one on the right is written in Hanzi (Pu Wei village)
Photo by Orie Endo
Nü Shu - Fact and Fiction
Nü Shu us the only womenonly language in the world.
Similar female scripts have arisen in other
cultures such as Japan and Korea.
Nü Shu women were only
rarely literate in Chinese script.
The structure of Nü Shu characters indicates that
its origins were Chinese-character based.
Nü Shu is a “secret,
forbidden language”
Men knew about Nü Shu , but found it beneath
their notice.
Nü Shu was “rediscovered”
in the 1980’s
Nü Shu was used continuously since its
creation, albeit by an extremely small group.
Pu Mei - Nü Shu Culture Village
You can witness Hunan
Province’s Nü Shu cultural
preservation efforts by visiting
Pu Mei.
In 2004, the Chinese
Government built this school
and museum in Pumei. Here
village girls and women are
taught Nü Shu and produce
modern handicraft decorated
with the ancient writing system.
Photos Copyright Orie Endo
Bibliography
How a Secret-But-Not-So-Secret Code Let Women in China Share Hardships
Voice of America's Program about the English Language
16 August 2005
World of Nu Shu by Orie Endo
http://homepage3.nifty.com/nushu/home.htm
Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
News and Reviews vol. 4, no. 3 Spring 2001
Women’s Conceptions of Widowhood in Jiang Yong County, Hunan Province, China by Fei Wen Liu
Journal of Asian Studies 60 No. 4, Nov. 2001
The re-invention of a Chinese Language
By Jon Watts
Crossing Gender Boundaries in China: Nüshu Narratives by Anne E. McLaren Intersections: Gender, History
and Culture in the Asian Context Issue 1, September 1998
Heroines of Jiangyong: Chinese Narrative Ballads in Women's Script
Translated by Wilt L. Idema. 2009. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Reviewed by Katherine Dimmery, Indiana University
Bibliography
Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State
by Christina Gilmartin, Gail Hershatter, Lisa Rofel, Tyrene White
Female-Specific Language to be Revealed
March 15, 2004
www.chinaview.cn
CCTV - A Room of One’s Own: Woman’s Script
04-05-2005
Article - A Language by Women, for Women
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4356095/
Hu Mei Yue Teaches Nu Shu in Pumei Village in South Central China by Edward Coty, The
Washington Post
Feb. 24, 2004
Visual Sourcebook on Chinese Civilization http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/contents.htm
Holding Up Half the Sky
By Jie Tao, Bijun Zheng, Shirley L. Mow April 1, 2004
Article - The Women’s Script of Jiangyong: An Invention of Chinese Women by Zhao Liming