sisterhood stuff

[HotDamnImAPhiMu]

this I sent out over our listserve, just because I though it was cool (and I loved the quote):


NUSHU -- a little-known southern Chinese language, perhaps the only language just for women. Often written on silk screens, one of its popular sayings is "Beside a well, one does not thirst. Beside a sister, one does not despair."

The words "nu shu" literally means "Woman's Writing" in Chinese. As the name implies, Nushu is a writing system created and used exclusively by women in a remote part of China. Traditional Chinese culture is male-centered and forbids girls from any kind of formal education, so Nushu was developed in secrecy over hundred of years in the Jiangyong county of Hunan province.

Some Nushu characters are taken from Chinese, while others appear to be invented, but all are rendered in a style much more cursive than written Chinese. In addition, the characters are "thinner" than Chinese characters, which tends to be square-shaped. Also, like Chinese, Nushu is written from top to bottom in columns, and the columns are written from right to left.