Nushu: The secret language of women

Nushu, originally meaning ‘women language’, it’s believed to be the last remain of a four
thousand years old language spoken China. It had evolved from a form of old Henzi. The
discovery in 1899 of the Oracle Bone Script shows a well-developed writing system for
Henzi belonging to the Shang Dynasty period (1200-1050BC). This has led experts to believe
that the original Nushu could have developed at an earlier stage, dating it to be at least a four
thousand years old language.
China has traditionally been a male-dominated society, where men were allowed to take
decision of every aspect of life and woman were relegated to household duties. In this
context, women taught themselves how to write simply by watching over their husbands,
brothers and sons, while they were practicing calligraphy. They memorized some characters
and noted them down, giving them their own meaning and deforming them in the process,
thus creating a totally different and new language.
Conceived originally as a written language; Nushu soon evolved into a more complex, oral
idiom. This happened mostly because while men were labouring the farms, the females used
to be kept together and, while performing household duties -among which sewing textiles,
making shoes, embroidery etc were but just a few-; they also sang songs of joy, sorrow and
farewells, composed poems, talked about politics and to taught each other the language that
was secretly being passed on from generation after generation among women.
At first, Nushu had about 550 characters but it grew as it spread to other provinces and was
influenced by other dialects, totalling an amount of one thousand and five hundred characters.
It’s written in columns and it reads from top to bottom and from right to left. Forms of written
Nushu have been found in skilfully and colourfully decorated paper fans, in handkerchiefs
and in booklets with beautiful flower patterns. These texts covered every subject except
finance; from which is understood that it was a part of everyday society to which women had
no access.
When girls came of age, they were forced to marry men they’ve never met before. However,
in order to help young brides in moments of despair, small hand-made booklets -called the
Third Day Missives-, were presented to the wives in the third day of their marriage –hence
the name-; usually were given by their mothers and Jiebai Zimei or ‘sworn sisters’. Sworn
sisters were very close friends with strong bonds in their special friendships that normally
would last throughout the lifetime; exchanging correspondence, often secretly, by the means
of the little books, fans, handkerchiefs, etc, when they had a chance to gather together in
public events like village festivals. The Jiebai Zimei custom was a vast and crucial network
of female support in the face of male domination.
For millenniums, the language carried on and was passed unnoticed under the eye of men
from one generation to the next. It was brought to the public’s attention for the first time in
the early fifties; an attempt of cultural preservation that resulted in his author being sent away
to a ‘rehabilitation program’. During 1966-76 Chinese Cultural Revolution, woman that new
Nushu were seized and protested against and criticized, and many of their cultural tradition
was confiscated and burned.
Several attempts have being made by the local authorities and organizations to preserve
Nushu, with little or no success; due to the lack of interest of the young, who no longer see
the need to keep secrets from their families.
The last Nushu transmitter was Yang Huanyi, who died in September 2004, age 98. She
learned the language in her childhood and could express herself and create new compositions
using that language. Although nobody else is able to do so nowadays, and the language is
now officially dead; six other people still remain who are able to, at a certain degree, translate
Nushu. Their work and effort it’s extremely valuable to help understand Nushu tradition; a
great legacy for the future generations.

C.Uribe