the musical journey on nu shu by tan dun

7/27/2019 The Musical Journey on Nu Shu by Tan Dun

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Saving the disappearing culture of Nu-Shu

Creating a future from the past

The Music Journey on Nu-Shu by Tan Dun


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Nu-Shu is the only solely female language that exists in the world. It is a character based system exclusively

used by women in the Jiangyong County in southern Hunan, that has a population of just 20,000 people

and which happens to be my home province. Nu-Shu characters, unlike Chinese square shaped characters,are of rhomboidal shape with arced lines, with slim and regular strokes that look like ants, mosquitoes and

even music notes and instruments - such as the pipa and ancient harp. As such, the characters are nicknamed

long-legged mosquito writing or ant writing, but I call it music note writing. Only women use these

characters, so they are called Nu-Shu (Womens Writing) in academia. Scholars have learned about this hid-

den language through women that have passed it down and they understand it to be an ancient language.

However, there are no historical records about Nu-Shu and the time of its origin cannot be traced.

The Nu-Shu characters are structured like Chinese characters, but there is no direct link between the two

writing systems. In addition to serving as a communication system through writing, Nu-Shu was also etched

into cloth, leather and in patterns to adorned clothing.

Where do the pronunciation, sound and melody of the Nu-Shu songs originate? Looking at this tradition with

an anthromusicologic lens where is this ancient womens language going and coming from? It is disappear-

ing and not only because very few women can still write, sing and communicate in it, but also the stories,

the tears and the songs which generations of women lived through.

The slow disappearance of the Nu-Shu tradition and culture has troubled me for many years and each time

I return to my home province in Hunan, I always want to passionately take action. I wanted to do the eld

research, anthromusicology study, collect the songs of Nu-Shu and eventually compose a new symphonic-

concerto piece for the world and for my home village, to continue the tradition and to create a future from

the past.FromApril7thtoApril11thI nallystartedmyjourneytowardstheNu-Shu


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02At the gate of the village, there is an eight hundred year old Song Dynasty bridge built in1120AC half of the bridge has already decayed and collapsed. It reminds me of the ancient

womens language of Nu Shu which is also on the verge of extinction and it is calling for me to

hurry up.

After a day ofying and 10 hours of driving, I nally arrived in the thousand-year-old ancient vil-

lage of Shang Gan Tang in the south of my home province, Hunan.


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Along a rock path in the village, there is a wall etched deeply with curved ancient calligraphy andthousand year old poetry.

This ancient village is truly beautiful.

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Finally, I found six women who have been honored by the county government with the sacredtask of keeping and passing on this ancient language. They are the only ones left.06

In order to nd the older generation of women who still write and understand the Nu Shu lan-

guage, I had to head to the elds to look for them. Here, I have caught one.05


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This womens name is He Yan Xin. She is the oldest women alive in the village that still under-stands the secret womens language. She began teaching me.07


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The Nu Shu characters look like mosquitoes, like music notes ying along on the wind. So grace-ful, like dancers.

The local village established a Nu Shu study room which has a Buddhist Guanyin statue. Its

purpose has also become to invite the young population though its doors to teach them about

their ancestors past.

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Pictured here is a wallet also decorated with Nu Shu. It was believed that these characters addedgood fortune to the wallets carrier and the stored money.

In ancient times, men and women used to wear Nu Shu characters etched into their belts as a

decoration and special design.10

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The man is learning womens writing.

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Hu Xin is one of the six Nu Shu tradition keepers and the youngest of them all. Here, she was

teaching me how to write the language.12

Here are the Chinese characters and their Nu Shu counterparts

lined up side by side.13


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This Nu Shu text is normally communicated by song, called How to Train a Women. It was theblueprint of a womens life, teaching her how to be a daughter, wife and mother. The melody is

incredibly beautiful!15


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16This is the character Nu which means women. It reminds me of a music note or musical instru-ment or ballet dancer.


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I nally found the most famous and legendary Nu Shu writer and teachers home Ms. Gao Yinx-ian. She lived in the village from 1902 1990.

After thanking the two county ocials profusely for kindly taking me around their hometown

and introducing me to their people, we had a meal of noodles and three dierent kinds of chilies,

green, red and yellow.

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Gao Yinxian, the famous Nu Shu writer, who lived in the village almost a hundred years.

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When I knocked on Gao Yinxians door, to my great surprise, her granddaughter Hu Yuehuaopened the door for me. We had a wonderful conversation and I heard so many beautiful stories

about her grandmother and the village.

This is Gao Yinxian pictured with her granddaughter as she teaches her Nu Shu.

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This is Gao Yinxians living room, preserved in its original condition. I can almost see her here

working on her weaving, sewing and making bamboo baskets.

This is her preserved raincoat made out of coconut treebark23

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When you open the back door, behind the house, there is a bamboo forest. After dinner hadbeen cleared away and the children put to sleep, Gao would invite her Lao Tong her close-knit

group of female friends over to her house to trade stories of the day. They exchanged songs

and stories of laughter, tears, marriage, mothering and sex all through their secret language.

Pictured here is Gao Yinxians nephew working on his bamboo baskets exactly what his Auntwould be doing if she were still alive.

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This village is famous for their women bearing twins - pictured here are the villages newest ad-ditions. The grandmothers door is still behind thembut it is without the echo of their grand-

mothers Nu Shu.26


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The text writes of a beautiful song I was honored to receive this gift.

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One of the six teachers of Nu Shu gave me an ancient text of the language that her grandmother

had written and passed down to her.27


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I was able to make a lot of interesting recordings and notes while I was in the eld. This is a pageof Nu Shu text with my musical notations on it.29


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After my lengthy research with the Nu Shu women I was invited to a celebration with theYao music. The banquet consisted of wine that they had made themselves, meat that they had

hunted and vegetables that they had grown and gathered themselves. It was an unforgettable

night.

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30This village is a border village between the Han people and the Yao people the local indige-

nous population. The two populations have enormous inuence on each others past and music.


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After four days of research in the village, I did not want to leave the beauty of the people I hadmet and spent my days with. They brought me to the old stone bridge to say goodbye with tears

and I made a promise to return with a new music composition and nd the means of repairing

their bridge.

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As I drove away from the village, my mind is racing with passionate ideas. I came and collectedimages, sketches and songs from the Nu Shu language. The characters reminded me of musical

instruments the harp and the Chinese stringed pipa and the gesture, shape and color of the

text itself was very musical to me. I decided to combine these elements in my head and maybe

create a symphonic harp concerto to document what I had seen and learned.

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I hope the Nu Shu, through my symphonic work, will pass on the tradition to all womenthroughout the world. The work is a second work to follow my The Map: Concerto for cello, video

and orchestra it is my Map II. From an anthropology direction, the past tradition will embrace

high technology and handover the tradition to the future.

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I want to write this piece for my partners the Philadelphia Orchestra with their harpist Elizabeth

Hainen and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. We have found the origin of the dream and have

inspired a new collaboration to create a future from the past.34


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the musical journey on nu shu by tan dun

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