Niche script

Hunan province leads the revival of Nushu, the female-only writing system, Wang Kaihao reports.

In mountainous Jiangyong county in Central China's Hunan province, Hu Xin is busy receiving the crew of a popular reality TV show. The team has come to find out more about Nushu, a writing system that can look like symbols to a first-time viewer. Hu, a 29-year-old local, writes the rare characters. "I want to promote Nushu and pass it onto the younger generations," she says. "There are many touching stories behind the characters." Nushu, which literally means "female script", is derived from regular Chinese characters that were once used by the female residents of Jiangyong. This slimer and seemingly italicized variant of standard written Chinese is often called "the world's only surviving characters exclusively for women". It was made as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2006.

In olden days, Nushu was taught by elderly women to girls at home because female children weren't allowed to attend formal school.