PRACTICE AND CULTURAL POLITICS OF “WOMEN’S SCRIPT”

Abstract

A script traditionally used exclusively among women, nüshu (women’s writing), was first identified in southern rural China in 1982. Its discovery opened a new window onto women’s lifeworlds and drew many scholars to explore its ethnographic and theoretical significance. Local authorities paid no attention to this “women’s script” until the 2000s. Scholarly investigation and governmental involvement over the past three decades have shaped nüshu’s cultural politics – specifically, how it is represented and practiced in contemporary society. Based on fieldwork conducted since 1992, this article traces the trajectory of nüshu’s evolving function and social meanings. In the past it served as a communication platform and social forum where women could recount and release their perturbations, and this transformed their vulnerable being into a resilient and determined becoming. This power to transform, however, became a liability once nüshu was claimed as academic property and writing nüshu became a government-supervised profession. All this calls for a rethinking of where nüshu, an endangered expressive tradition, might be heading.

Keywords:

• women
• writing
• China
• endangered heritage
• cultural politics

disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 According to Cathy Silber (“Nüshu” 141–42), this piece was written in 1972 in condolence to He Xijing over the death of her husband in 1969. In addition to lamenting her miserable life, it also includes a description of He Xijing’s sworn sisterhood pact. For the whole text, see Xie (506–45); and Zhao (Anthology 358–66).

2 A woman of the Qing era named Zhong Yun, for example, had tried to burn her poems; fortunately her son Cha Shenxing (1650–1727) had stopped it and later published those works (Sun 138–39).

3 It was not until after the Ming-Qing era (1368–1911) that female literacy gained social recognition as “cultural capital” (Bourdieu), but even so it was confined mainly to the scholar-gentry class or new urban elites. For most Chinese women, who were peasants, literacy remained an unattainable luxury. For pioneering work on Chinese gentry women’s writing world, see, for example, Hu; Ko; and Mann.

4 These “blanks” have only recently been addressed by way of oral life histories in Bossen; Hershatter; and Li and Chen.

5 Zhao revised her 1992 edition into a five-volume set in 2005.

6 For Yang Huanyi, see Zhao (Collection). For He Yanxin, see Endō; Kuo; and Liu (Gendered Words ch. 4). For He Jinghua, see Liu (“Biographical Writing”); and Luo.

7 Interview conducted in August 2015.

8 Sung by He Yanxin and recorded in November 2004. See also Gong (Nüshu 60–65) for the whole text.

9 For how these social changes influenced women’s lives, see Bossen; Hershatter; and Li and Chen.

10 Sung by Mo Yuexing (b.1918) and recorded in October 2000. See also Gong (Nüshu 252–53); Xie (679–83); Zhao (Anthology 473–75); and Zhao (Compilation 2531–40) for slightly different versions.

11 The quotes in this section are based on interviews with Juan conducted in October 1993 and August 2015.

12 Interview conducted in August 2013.

13 However, according to William Chiang (Women’s Mysterious Codes 90), who conducted nüshu fieldwork in the late 1980s, he had spent ten dollars to borrow this nüshu and made a transcript.

14 The year 2003 was the first point at which the title of “nüshu transmitter” was offered. This status was based on one’s reputation in nüshu writing. To ensure the selection of qualified nüshu transmitters, Interim Measures for the Administration of Nüshu Chuanren were promulgated in 2004. According to the Measures, a transmitter has to qualify in four areas: proficiency at singing and writing nüshu, skill in “female needlework” (embroidering and weaving) and knowledge of the local dialect and local customs, demonstration of one’s civic virtue (e.g., observing national laws and village protocols), and loyalty to the Center for Nüshu Cultural and Research Administration, which is supervised under the Jiangyong Propaganda Office.

15 Fang’s biographical nüshu was provided by Meiyue in November 2004.

16 Interview conducted in July 2009.

17 Interview conducted in July 2009.

18 Interview conducted in August 2010.

19 Interview conducted in July 2009.