In 19th-century China, women in the county of Jiangyong in Hunan Province developed their own way of writing, and researchers are still trying to figure out where it came from.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, women used Nüshu to write autobiographies, poetry, stories, and letters to one another. The alphabet was passed down from mother to daughter. While thousands of scripts are specific to men, Nüshu is unique because it was taught only to women, by women. Its existence was not secret, but the fact that it was created at all is significant in an era and nation when women typically weren’t taught to read and write.
No one knows where or how the script originated, thought it’s likely women created it as a protest against their exclusion from education. The last woman known to write in Nüshu died in 2004, but experts are trying to keep the script alive with classes.
What do you think? Who crafted this script and taught it to those who weren’t allowed an education? How was it passed from generation to generation? Though the script was not secret, how was it protected? Who didn’t like it? What secret language do your characters need or create? What happens next?
