Nüshu character U+1B184

It writes a Jiangyong syllable; context supplies its word.

Unicode records its Nüshu reading as khau21: a Latin-letter pronunciation guide, with 21 marking the tone. Nüshu characters usually represent local speech syllables, and one can stand for several words pronounced alike. The sentence shows which word is meant.

Why did women write Nüshu?

It let Jiangyong women write and share their own words.

Traditional Nüshu practice adapted Chinese-character forms to write local speech in Jiangyong, Hunan, where many women had little access to education in Chinese characters. Women used it for letters between sworn sisters—women bound by a friendship pact—laments, life stories, and good-wish books given to brides three days after a wedding. Women also sang Nüshu texts; fieldwork reported in 2010 records singers who could recite pieces without writing them.

A bronze coin from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a rebel state in China (1851–1864), bears an inscription in Nüshu saying that women belong to one family. One of the earliest written descriptions, from 1931, portrays the script as unreadable to men—a snapshot of gendered access, not proof that no man learned it. After researchers identified living practitioners in 1982, Nüshu became a focus of documentation and preservation.