thenewnushu

<> BRIEF HISTORY OF NUSHU
The words Nü Shu literally means "Woman's Writing" in Chinese. As the name implies, Nushu is a writing system created and used exclusively by women in a remote part of China. Traditional Chinese culture is male-centered and forbids girls from any kind of formal education, so Nushu was developed in secrecy over hundred of years in the Jiangyong county of Hunan province. source:www.ancientscripts.com/nushu.html

Nü Shu was mainly used in the creation of San Chao Shu三朝書 or "Third　Day Missives". San Chao Shu were cloth bound booklets created by Jiebai Zhimei (sworn sisters) and mothers to give to their counterpart Jiebai Zhimei or their　daughters, respectively, upon their marriage. Jiebai Zhimei and　mothers expressed their hopes for the happiness of the young　woman who had left the village to be married and their sorrow at　being parted from her, by writing down songs in Nushu in San Chao　Shu which were then delivered on the third day after the young　woman's marriage.
source:http://nushu.world.coocan.jp/aas99.htm

Nü Shu is a subculture to the mainstream culture which regards man as the centre in the old system. Convergence of the psychology and culture of women constrained to the bottom level of society is what gives Nü Shu its very great cohesiveness and ensuring its survival. Nü Shu uses its cultural strength to unite those simple rural peasant women during the process of making female friends, which ultimately strengthens women's collective ego consciousness and group consciousness. Hence, through confiding troubles to each other and exchanging opinions, it helps to ease the psychological pressure of dealing with the heavy load of life. It has condoled, saved and supported the women of the peasant family at the bottom of the social and economic power structure. Still today, when meeting some difficulties in more modern, civilized society, Nü Shu is providing a social function, allowing the confiding of troubles and exchanging of views, and so is still maintaining its unique value. In summary, then, the functions of Nü Shu include a means for communication and cohesion, amusement and accommodation, and conveyance of custom etiquette, and so is enlightening by education and teaching, while being saved by materialization and demonstrating its general sociological significance
source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCshu_script

<> MORE REFERENCES
- wikipedia
- atlasobscura article
- Landaan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1adan

WHAT WOULD THE NEW NÜ SHU LOOK LIKE TODAY?

AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN A COLLABORATIVE FEMALE SCRIPT MAKING PROJECT.

Inspired by Nu Shu 女书(“Woman’s Writing” in Chinese), an endangered secret script created and used exclusively by women from Hunan province of China, this open call invites women to join ‘The New Nu Shu’ – a project to collectively develop a new contemporary female writing system; which entails discussion, research, design and exploration of the political/social/
cultural potential of such a code.

Nu Shu allowed these women to keep autobiographies, write poetry and stories, and communicate with “sworn sisters,” bonds between women who were not biologically related. It served to create social cohesion as they could better express their feelings in a male dominated society. It is also possible that during the Japanese invasion in the 1930’s-1940’s, the script was suppressed because they feared that the Chinese could use it to send secret messages.

‘The New Nu Shu’ project wants to take the opportunity to discuss communication, visibility, politics, censorship, survelliance, accessibility, activism and feminism in modern day China through the process of designing such a script.

Historical research into the environment/context in which Nu Shu was born can also be used as a starting point to reflect upon women’s lives in contemporary life.

Are you interested to join?
Please contact me via:
email: socsoc85@gmail.com
wechat: amysuowu
facebook: A Sudo Wu