Nüshu 女书 - Chinese Women’s Secret Script
女书-规范字书法字帖 (Nüshu – Standard Script Calligraphy Copybook)
Nüshu (女书) was a writing system created and used by women in Hunan, China during the Qing Dynasty. It means “women’s script.” Unlike standard Chinese characters, it is written in slender, flowing strokes that resemble embroidery or thread. Women used it to write letters, songs, and poems to express their emotions, sisterhood, and suffering in a male-dominated society where they were denied formal education. Often inscribed on fans, handkerchiefs, or cloth, Nüshu became a secret form of communication. Today, it is recognized as a rare and valuable cultural heritage. The script fell into disuse after 1949, when the government’s literacy campaigns encouraged women to learn standard Chinese, and it was officially rediscovered by scholars in 1982.
I first came across Nüshu while scrolling through Chinese social media. Some female tattoo artists in China have started to incorporate Nüshu into their designs, which immediately sparked my interest. I ordered a copy of Nüshu – Standard Script Calligraphy Copybook (as shown in the image above) and found that its meaning, background, and form deeply resonate with my own art practice. The thread-like visual quality of Nüshu echoes my use of textiles, while its role as a secret form of communication connects to my exploration of hidden bodily trauma. As a system created and used exclusively by women, Nüshu also relates to my ongoing inquiry into the female body and identity as an Asian woman artist.
The most interesting thing to me is that the resemblance of my sculptural forms to Nüshu emerged before I even knew about Nüshu (as shown in the image below). Freud proposed that human behavior and creativity are shaped by unconscious desires, memories, and repressed emotions. What we think is a conscious decision often expresses something from the unconscious. In art, this appears as unconscious symbolism — forms, motifs, or gestures that surface from inner drives without the artist’s deliberate intent. My sculpture unconsciously resembling Nüshu could reflect an inner alignment with its symbolic qualities — femininity, secrecy, suffering, resilience — even before I consciously discovered it.
My Monster, Liu Liu, 2025
Zhao, Liming, and Xu, Yan, eds. 女书：规范字书法字帖. (Nüshu – Standard Script Calligraphy Copybook) Beijing, China: Tsinghua University, 2017.
