Nu Shu A Hidden Language of Women in China

In feudal China women usually with bound feet were denied educational opportunities and condemned to social isolation But in Jianyong county in Hunan province peasant women miraculously developed a separate written language called Nu Shu meaning female writing A thoroughly engrossing documentary that revolves around the filmmakers discovery of eightysixyearold Huanyi 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 womens lives the film uncovers a womens 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 Shus origins to some distinctly Yao customs that fostered womens creativity