→ Nüshu converter: Chinese-Nüshu & Nüshu-Latin
• Nushu.fr: introduction to Nüshu, by Martine Saussure-Young
• Nüshu: from tears to sunshine, by Chen Xiaorong, in The
• Nüshu: the resistance of Chinese peasant women against patriarchy? by Liying Zhang, in Gender, Sexuality, and Decolonization Resource Page (2025)
• Nüshu and sisterhood communities in southern rural Hunan: literacy, gender, and class, by Fei-Wen Liu, in Nan Nü (2004)
• Nüshu: a curriculum of women's identity by Julia Broussard, in Transnational Curiculum Inquiry (2008)
• Practice and cultural politics of "Women's Script": Nüshu as an endangered heritage in contemporary China, by Fei-wen Liu, in Angelaki (2017)
• Ritual connotations of Nüshu: language, writing, and performance, by Yuan Zhang, in International Conference on Research in Humanities & Social Sciences (2021)
• Nüshu: linguistic, socio-cultural, and musical characterization of a unique women's script by Giulia Falcini, in Asian Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies (2025)
• Crossing gender boundaries in China: Nüshu narratives, by Anne McLaren, in Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context (1998)
• Le nüshu, une forme de sous-culture féminine by Raphaël Jacquet, in Perspectives chinoises (1992)
• Nüshu, signes de femmes du Hunan méridional by Ilaria Maria Sala, in Perspectives chinoises (1995)
• Huellas de la escritura nüshu en un cuento mexicano by Claudia Macías Rodríguez, in México y la Cuenca del Pacífico (2010)
Nüshu 女书 literally means 'women's script', from nǚ 女 (woman) and shū 书 (script, calligraphy): it is the only known writing system in the world created and used by women. It was used to write the local dialect of Jiangyong (Hunan), combining ancient layers of Chinese with elements borrowed from the Yao minority languages.
Neither official nor religious, Nüshu was used in a rural setting to write short poems and narratives about daily life, particularly women's grievances. Most of its characters were derived from Chinese characters (hànzi): the square shapes were transformed into thread-like, oblique and elongated strokes, forming rhombus patterns. Unlike Chinese, where characters carry meaning, Nüshu is a phonetic script.
The last woman to have learned this script through traditional lineage passed away at the beginning of the 21st century.
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