Discovering the Bond between Traditional Chinese Women and Women’s Script: The Culture of Nüshu

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Women in distinct contexts

• Confucian patriarchal politics
• Modern and contemporary China

Correction of misunderstanding

1. Nüshu culture is not only composed of Nüshu: Nüge
   • Nüge is even more popular than Nüshu within traditional Chinese woman community (most women are not literate but can speak the local dialect)
2. Recognition but not Subversion
   • Struggle for more rights
   • Unfairly mistreated by men
   • constant Confucian surveillance & cultural hegemony

Functionality

1. Biography, majorly lamentation of miseries
2. Secret letters among sworn sisters
3. Sanzhaoshu (wedding missive)
4. Worship verses
5. Narratives and transcription of hanzi works

Comparisons

• Namelessness and fertility: Venus of Willendorf
• Inferiority and oppression: black spirituals ↔ child bride
• Constant surveillance and hegemony: Panopticon

Conclusion

• many forms (papers, books; handicrafts: handkerchiefs, towels, fans; oral performance: nüge);
• express “true selves”;
• have narratives of feminist work, but more to be recognition of patriarchy (seen from lamentation as the major function);
• inferior -> fight for equality, legal protection (nüshu practitioner didn’t attempt to challenge authority -> but inspired contemporary women to do so)
• After Liberation: crisis of demise + inspiration of gender studies and anthropologists

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