Lines linking lives

Reviving language

Two years ago, Li met Hu Xin, now 36, who helped promote nyushu at its Puwei museum. Hu is the youngest designated inheritor of the script, following support from the authorities to help preserve it. In 2000, Hu, her mother and her sisters attended evening classes to learn nyushu. Hu subsequently became a guide at the museum.

"When I started working at the museum 15 years ago, nyushu was so niche that even many local women didn't know about it," Hu recalls, noting how challenging it was to learn the language from scratch.

She had to memorize two to three characters each day from a dictionary compiled by researchers before the last native users died.

Hu's favorite line in nyushu poetry is, "men are said to have great ambition, but women are just as excellent".

She says that she believes the revival of nyushu is deeply tied to the idea of "women's empowerment", championed by young women like Li.