Chen Yulu never thought her home province of Hunan had any culture that she would be proud of, much less become an ambassador of. But these days, the 23-year-old is a self-proclaimed ambassador of ...

Thanks to a gift from the Ford foundation, a unique museum to record and preserve Nushu language is expected to be built in 2007 in Jiangyong County in Hunan. Speaking last week, a Hunan government ...

Nowadays, it would be called empowering women. But back then, centuries ago, it was just a way for the sworn sisters of this rugged and tradition-laden Chinese countryside to share their hopes, their ...

Deep in the south of China's Hunan province, in a rural village just beyond the steeps of lush, green mountains, lives a small, elderly man who is the keeper of an ancient, enigmatic language used ...

JIANGYONG, China — Stooped over like a wilted rose, 95-year-old Yang Huanyi hobbles out of her tiny, spartan home to receive guests who come calling from around the world. In her gnarled hands she ...

China's oldest inheritress of the mysterious Nushu language, probably the world's only female-specific language, died at her Central China home last month. She was in her 90s. A comparison between ...

Nushu – a 400-year-old script invented to allow women to communicate with each other without men understanding – has taken on new significance today. In BBC Culture's Secret Languages series, a ...

This documentary about the enduring legacy of Nushu, an ancient, secret language developed by women in southern China, raises more questions than it successfully answers. By Devika Girish When you ...

Yang Huanyi, the last surviving writer and speaker of an enigmatic language invented and used only by women in a small pocket of central China, has died. She was believed to be in her late 90s. Yang ...