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In feudal China, women, usually with bound feet, were denied educational
opportunities and condemned to social isolation. But in Jian-yong county in
Hunan province, peasant women miraculously developed a separate written
language, called Nu Shu, meaning "female writing." Believing women to
be inferior, men disregarded this new script, and it remained unknown for
centuries. It wasn't until the 1960s that Nu Shu caught the attention of
Chinese authorities, who suspected that this peculiar writing was a secret code
for international espionage. This thoroughly engrossing documentary revolves
around the filmmaker's discovery of eighty-six-year-old Huan-yi Yang, the only
living resident of the Nu Shu area still able to read and write Nu Shu.
Exploring Nu Shu customs and their role in women's lives, the film uncovers a
women's subculture born of resistance to male dominance, finds a parallel
struggle in the resistance of Yao minorities to Confucian Han Chinese culture,
and traces Nu Shu's origins to some distinctly Yao customs that fostered
women's creativity.
A Women Make Movies film. 59 + 48 minutes.
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