Words of females back in the limelight

CHANGSHA - Ahead of Spring Festival, women from a remote village in Central China were busy sending their best wishes in Nyushu, the most gender specific language in the world.

Hanging new red couplets and the Chinese character for "fu" - happiness - on their doors is an important tradition to usher in a prosperous and happy new year.

But old customs have now come alive digitally.

As tens of millions of Alipay users across the world play the "fu"-scanning game to grab a digital red packet, Hu Xin, a museum employee in Jiangyong county in Hunan province, writes by hand.

"In every 12th lunar month of the past four years, I present 'fu' characters I write as a new year gift to those who like my handwriting," Hu said. Over the past month, she has handed out 500 of them in Nyushu characters after posting a notice on her WeChat moments.

Hu has learned the art of Nyushu (women's writing), a rare Chinese syllabic script used only by women in Shangjiangxu town of Jiangyong. The museum she works for collects Nyushu calligraphy and artifacts.

Normally painted on paper or embroidered into cloth, the intricate Nyushu characters, with a unique writing style, were supposed to illustrate female postures. Women used this ancient method to communicate their deeper feelings with each other. They also used it to record their lives and write songs.

It is the only script used exclusively among women ever found and reveals the feminine characteristics of delicacy, according to Hu. Original copies of Nyushu are rare since they are usually burned or buried with the dead.

The creation and small-scale dissemination of Nyushu remains a mystery. "The writing skills are only passed onto females," Hu said.

Nyushu made a worldwide stir upon its discovery in the 1980s and in 2005 set a Guinness World Record as the most gender specific language.

In 2006, the age-old art earned a place on the list of national intangible cultural heritage.

Hu Meiyue, a practitioner of Nyushu in her mid-50s, shares her experiences related to the art and provides on-the-spot teaching of Nyshu calligraphy and singing.

"Reading Nyushu is all about exploring the stories of women," she said. The women who write it have received national and local attention and promotion in recent years, with academic and civilian studies increasing.

In recent years, Nyushu exhibitions have been held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and its office at Geneva. Practitioners have been invited to present and promote the art in Japan.

Xinhua