The Audible beyond the Visible: Memory, Creativity and Subjectivity of women’s Narratives in Nüshu Songs
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Abstract
The Chinese women’s script and gender-specific oral literature known as nüshu have attracted scholarly attention as they neared extinction. Previous anthologies and studies were primarily focused on texts from the last surviving natural nüshu transmitters, within a cultural and personal context. This research demonstrates that the originally hybrid written-and-orally transmitted nüshu culture expanded to include a broader group of practitioners, many of whom possessed limited or no literacy in the nüshu script. A field study conducted in Jiangyong and Dao counties in southern Hunan documented the practice and preservation of nüshu among rural women, primarily through oral transmission. The women’s social practices in the Jiangyong region have created a niche of female culture that has produced some original folk literature genres, as well as repurposed existing genres of Chinese official and folk literature from a women’s perspective. The study also examines the relationship between “visible” and “audible” literary norms within nüshu culture, contrasting these with mainstream discourse beyond the nüshu milieu from late imperial China until the second half of the twentieth century, when the use of women’s script declined. Today, although nüshu songs are still maintained by the older generation, the traditional communicative, social, and cultural practices involving written nüshu have become extinct. The current official revitalization and promotion of nüshu heritage have prioritized nüshu script calligraphy and a limited selection of the most common nüge and nüshu songs, decontextualized and aimed to reach broader audiences. The autobiographical genre of expressing grievances through formulaic, versified songs has been a widespread creative practice for women within the traditional nüshu culture community, even among those with limited script literacy. The study also presents Chinese and English translations of previously unpublished original nüshu songs, collected in situ in Jiangyong rural communities. These autobiographical narratives amplify the voices of authors with limited literacy who were underrepresented in former nüshu collections and reveal the role of traditional cultural contexts in their creativity.
How to Cite
Savchenko, M. (2026). The Audible beyond the Visible: Memory, Creativity and Subjectivity of women’s Narratives in Nüshu Songs. The World of the Orient, (1 (130), 148-176. Retrieved from https://oriental-world.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/817
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Keywords
Chinese folk literature; creativity; genre; narrative; nüshu songs; oral literature; text
References
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Chen M. (2016), Gendered ritual and Performative Literacy: Yao Women, Goddesses of Fertility, and the Chinese Imperial State, available at: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/41195 (accessed October 5, 2025).
Dolar M. (2006), A Voice and Nothing More, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
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Idema W. L. and Grant B. (2004), The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China, Harvard University Asia Center, Cambridge, Mass.
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Idema W. L. and Grant B. (2004), The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China, Harvard University Asia Center, Cambridge, Mass.
Liu F.-W. (2001), “The Confrontation between Fidelity and Fertility: Nüshu, Nüge, and Peasant Women’s Conceptions of Widowhood in Jiangyong County, Hunan Province, China”, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 60, No. 4, pp. 1051–1084. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2700020
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Handel Z. J. (2019), Sinography: The Borrowing and Adaptation of the Chinese Script, Brill (Series: Language, Writing and Literary Culture in the Sinographic Cosmopolis, 2589–8787; Volume 1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004352223
Hung C. (1985), Going to the People: Chinese Intellectuals and Folk Literature 1918–1937, Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Idema W. L. (trans.) (2009), Heroines of Jiangyong: Chinese Narrative Ballads in Women’s Script, University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Idema W. L. and Grant B. (2004), The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China, Harvard University Asia Center, Cambridge, Mass.
Liu F.-W. (2001), “The Confrontation between Fidelity and Fertility: Nüshu, Nüge, and Peasant Women’s Conceptions of Widowhood in Jiangyong County, Hunan Province, China”, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 60, No. 4, pp. 1051–1084. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2700020
Liu F.-W. (2004), “From Being to Becoming: Nüshu and Sentiments in a Chinese Rural Community”, American Ethnologist, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 422–439. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2004.31.3.422
Liu F.-W. (2010), “Narrative, Genre, and Contextuality: The ‘Nüshu’-Transcribed Liang-Zhu Ballad in Rural South China”, Asian ethnology, Vol. 69, No. 2, pp. 241–264.
Liu F.-W. (2011), “Text, Practice, and Life Narrative: Bridal Lamentation and a Daughter’s Filial Piety in Changing Rural China”, Modern China, [Online], Vol. 37, Issue 5, pp. 498–527. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700411407607
Liu F.-W. (2012), “Expressive Depths: Dialogic Performance of Bridal Lamentation in Rural South China”, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 125, No. 496, pp. 204–225. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.125.496.0204
Liu F.-W. (2015), Gendered Words: Sentiments and Expression in Changing Rural China, Oxford University Press, New York.
McLaren A. E. (1996), “Women’s Voices and Textuality: Chastity and Abduction in Chinese Nüshu Writing”, Modern China, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 382–416. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/009770049602200402
McLaren A. E. (1998), Chinese Popular Culture and Ming Chantefables, Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands.
McLaren A. E. (2022), Memory Making in Folk Epics of China: The Intimate and the Local in Chinese Regional Culture, Cambria Press, Amherst, New York.
Rees H. (2016), “Environmental Crisis, Culture Loss, and a New Musical Aesthetic: China’s ‘Original Ecology Folksongs’ in Theory and Practice”, Ethnomusicology, [Online], Vol. 60, Issue 1, pp. 53–88. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5406/ethnomusicology.60.1.0053
Silber C. L. (1995), Nushu (Chinese Women’s Script) Literacy and Literature, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
陳其光編 (2006), 女漢字典, 中央民族大學出版社, 北京.
黃雪貞 (1993), 江永方言研究, 社會科學文獻出版社, 北京.
姜葳 (2002), 女性密碼：女書田野調查日記, 三民, 台北.
劉斐玟 (2014), “女書和女歌的文化心理情結：從「訴可憐」到「歌功頌德」”, 收錄於劉斐玟, 朱瑞玲 (主編), 同理心、情感與互為主體：人類學與心理學的對話, 中央研究院民族學研究所, 台北, 頁299–348.
劉斐玟 (2015), “從書寫到出版 – 女書傳記的歷史意涵與當代困境”, 收錄於李奭學, 胡曉真 (主編), 圖書、知識建構與文化傳播, 漢學研究中心, 臺北, 頁487–526.
劉斐玟 (2022), “女書四十年 – 學術力、傳承力和文化政治力”, 近代中國婦女史研究, 39期, 頁97–160.
劉頴 (2005), “中國女書歌曲調與城關土話聲調”, 收錄於遠藤織枝、黃雪貞 (編), 女書的歷史與現狀, 中國社會科學出版社, 北京, 頁152–163.
劉頴 (2017), “「女書習俗」的內涵及其「口頭性」考”, 成城大學大學院文學研究科, 頁116–76.
羅婉儀 (2003), 一冊女書筆記 — 探尋中國湖南省江永縣上江墟鄉女書, 新婦女協進會, 香港.
駱曉戈 (2022), 解讀女書, 湖南大學出版社, 長沙.
謝志民 (1991), 江永「女書」之謎, 上、中、下三冊, 河南人民 出版社, 鄭州.
衣若蘭 (2023), 從列女傳到婦女史：近代中國女性史書寫的蜿蜒之路, 時報文化出版, 台北.
趙麗明 (1995), 女書與女書文化, 新華出版社, 北京.
趙麗明 (2005), 中國女書合集, 中華書局, 上海.
趙麗明 (2018), 傳奇女書：花蹊君子女九簪, 清華大學出版社, 北京.
趙麗明, 宮哲兵 (1990), 女書：一個驚人的發現, 華中師範大學出版社, 武漢.
趙麗明, 周碩沂, 陳其光合編 (1992), 中國女書集成, 清華大學出版社, 北京.
周惠娟 (2023), 女書讀唱本, 中國文化出版社, 香港.
(清) 王春藻修 (2018), “道光二十六年永明縣志” 十三卷, 劉圭、李文耀纂, 江永縣整理重印 “永明縣志” （道光版）工作小組, 江永.
(清) 萬發元修, 周銑詒纂 (1907), 光緒三十三年永明縣志, 五十七卷, CBDB 資料庫, available at: https://www.inindex.com/literature/bookDetails/1148982044699930626 (accessed October 5, 2025).
劉穎 (2023), “女書歌の吟唱法研究の意義： 女書伝承の視点から”, 成城大学大学院文学研究科, 150–89.
REFERENCES
Bol P. K. (2001), “The Rise of Local History: History, Geography, and Culture in Southern Song and Yuan Wuzhou”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 61, No. 1, pp. 37–76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3558587
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