Nu Shu — A Secret Language — - IELTS Reading Answers & Explanations

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 on the following pages.

Nu shu — a secret language —

A It is sometimes said that men and women communicate in different languages. For hundreds of years in the Jianyong County of Hunan province, China, this was quite literally the case. Sometime between 400 and 1,000 years ago women defied the patriarchal norms of the time that forbade them to read or write, and conceived of Nu shu—literally, ‘women’s language’—a secretive script and language of their own. Through building informal networks of ‘sworn sisters’ who committed themselves to teaching the language only to other women, and by using it artistically in ways that could be passed off as artwork (such as writing characters on a decorative fan), Nu shu was able to grow and spread without attracting too much suspicion.

B Nu shu has many orthographical distinctions from the standard Chinese script. Whereas standard Chinese has large, bold strokes that look as if they might have been shaped with a thick permanent marker pen, Nu shu characters are thin, slanted and have a slightly ‘scratchy’ appearance that bears more similarity to calligraphy. Whereas standard Chinese is logographic, with characters that represent words and meanings, Nu shu is completely phonetic—each character represents a sound; the meaning must be acquired from the context of what is being said. Users of Nu shu developed coded meanings for various words and phrases, but it is likely that only a tiny fraction of these will ever be known. Many secrets of Nu shu have gone to the grave.

C Nu shu was developed as a way to allow women to communicate with one another in confidence. To some extent this demand came from a desire for privacy, and Nu shu allowed women a forum for personal written communication in a society that was dominated by a male-orientated social culture. There was also a practical element to the rise of Nu shu, however: until the mid 20th century, women were rarely encouraged to become literate in the standard Chinese script. Nu shu provided a practical and easy-to-learn alternative. Women who were separated from their families and friends by marriage could therefore send ‘letters’ to each other. Unlike traditional correspondence, however, Nu shu characters were painted or embroidered onto everyday items like fans, pillowcases and handkerchiefs and embodied in ‘artwork’ in order to avoid making men suspicious.

D After the Chinese Revolution, more women were encouraged to become literate in the standard Chinese script, and much of the need for a special form of women’s communication was dampened. When the Red Guard discovered the script in the 1960s, they thought it to be a code used for espionage. Upon learning that it was a secret women’s language they were suspicious and fearful. Numerous letters, weavings, embroideries and other artifacts were destroyed and women were forbidden to practise Nu shu customs. As a consequence, the generational chains of linguistic transmission were broken up, and the language ceased being passed down through sworn sisters. There is no longer anyone alive who has learnt Nu shu in this traditional manner; Yang Huanyi, the last proficient user of the language, died on September 20, 2004, in her late 90s.

E In recent years, however, popular and scholarly interest in Nu shu has blossomed. The Ford Foundation granted US $209,000 to build a Nu shu Museum that houses artifacts such as audio recordings, manuscripts and articles, some of which date back over 100 years. The investment from Hong Kong SAR is also being used to build infrastructure at potential tourist sites in Hunan, and some schools in the area have begun instruction in the language. Incidentally, the use of Nu shu is also a theme in Lisa See’s historical novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which has since been adapted for film.