{"id":18093,"date":"2018-06-13T22:34:26","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T05:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=18093"},"modified":"2018-06-13T22:34:26","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T05:34:26","slug":"wild-swans-nu-shu-sisters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wild-swans-nu-shu-sisters\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Swans & Nu Shu Sisters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another fascinating read about real-life experiences in China, this time by author Jung Chang (not Chan as the schedule and reading list says J) Her book, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China<\/em>, was an amazing story that chronicled three generations of women and their wild experiences in China. The most heart-wrenching story was that of the grandmother\u2019s experience of being one of the concubines of General Xue.[1]<\/a> Her horrendous experience of having her feet bound and being held in the compound without the freedom to leave and her harrowing escape had me captivated.[2]<\/a> It also became something I was ironically familiar with due to the fact that my wife, Jennifer, started a non-profit a few years ago called Nu Shu Sisters based on the ancient Chinese language developed by these oppressed women with abusively bound feet called Nu Shu. I feel like the story taken from the website will explain better\u2026<\/p>\n

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\u201cSilencing women and their suffering has been an age-old issue that transcends into many times and lands. Women have combated their oppression in a variety of ways, but one of the most intriguing methods women have used to fight oppression is\u00a0their ability to retain their voice. This was most extraordinarily expressed through the Hunan women in China. In feudal China, women were assigned to arranged marriages, which were often abusive and brutal in nature. Small feet were a sign of beauty, so they were made to wear bindings on their feet that often compressed their feet to lengths as small as five inches making it nearly impossible to walk. Not only were they crippled physically, but they were crippled socially when they were forbidden to learn Nan Shu which was \u201cMan\u2019s Writing\u201d. In order to endure these harsh and oppressive situations,\u00a0a group of women calling themselves the \u201csworn sisters\u201d banded together and developed their own culture and language. This unique dialect of an argued 1,200-7,000 characters called \u201cNu Shu\u201d which translates into \u201cWomen\u2019s Writing\u201d has been affectionately referred to as “The Language of the Heart.” \u00a0<\/strong>The language is based on traditional Chinese characters but altered with a wispy and graceful slant as only a woman can create. Nu Shu was sung, written on paper fans, or woven into cloth for more than two centuries to over a millennium. \u00a0The writings, or songs were highly secretive and guarded from men but were passed on to their daughters and granddaughters. With secrecy and beauty, they shared their woes, stories, and determination to hold onto their self-respect through: music, poetry, and artful embroideries. When the melody was sung, those who could hear it came and joined in. Eventually, the men found out about the secret language but they considered it insignificant, so they allowed it to survive.\u00a0This shared language became a way for the women to share their burdens, avoid isolation, and prevent suicide.\u00a0After the Chinese Revolution, literacy was accepted among women and Nu Shu was not needed or used. Many of the old manuscripts were destroyed due to fear of the language being discovered, a cultural tradition to burn the manuscripts on the author\u2019s death, and the mission of the Red Guards to destroy old cultures. Today, only a handful of women can still read, sing, and understand it, but the Chinese government has agreed to preserve the ancient language, even though as few as 600-700 characters remain. In the spirit of survival as modeled from their ancestors, younger women are learning to write Nu Shu today in order to preserve its\u2019 existence.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is the story that inspired my wife to create a non-profit to help advocate and inspire women to walk in their strength and beauty and to speak a new language of collaboration instead of competition. The stories I read in the book for this week has this similar inspiration that made being a part of helping to create this movement with my wife so fulfilling. It also broke my heart to read about the immense suffering and oppression these women in China experienced that was fully endorsed by their culture. Similarly, women in our American culture experience a different kind of suffering and oppression that is also supported by our culture. The #metoo movement is bringing some of this into the light and helping to liberate some of the oppressed and abused women all over the country. Sometimes we can have more empathy for those suffering in other countries and ignore the suffering happening right under our noses. If more of us will stand up and advocate for women and speak out against this injustice, our country may experience the liberation and freedom it deserves, and the gender leadership gap just might begin to get a little smaller. I invite you to join the Nu Shu Sisters movement at www.NuShuSisters.com<\/a><\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1] Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China<\/em>, Kindle Edition, 25.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [2] Ibid., 26-27<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [3] http:\/\/www.nushusisters.com\/about\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another fascinating read about real-life experiences in China, this time by author Jung Chang (not Chan as the schedule and reading list says J) Her book, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, was an amazing story that chronicled three generations of women and their wild experiences in China. The most heart-wrenching story was that of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1259,2],"class_list":["post-18093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chang","tag-dminlgp","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18095,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18093\/revisions\/18095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}