Speaker: Dorothea Wippermann (Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main) Title: Nüshu 女书, the Women's Script: An "Emancipatory Miracle" from Rural China on Its Way to UNESCO Cultural

If you want to attend the talk via Zoom, please register in advance for this meeting:

https://lu-se.zoom.us/meeting/register/Qm417cquRpqPiEz91xUXyw

 

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Abstract

Nüshu, a script used by peasant women from a remote county in Hunan Province, only came to the attention of scholars in the 1980s, when just a few elderly women still practiced it. Around that time, it also gained recognition abroad, where myths surrounding the script continue to be spread by popular media to this day. The very existence of this script still poses many questions for researchers.

This lecture provides an overview of the system and function of the women's script, its relationship to Chinese characters and the recorded language, as well as its history, usage, and cultural context. At the beginning of the 21st century, the script seemed on the brink of extinction. The lecture also examines the efforts made over the past 20 years to preserve and sustain the script and its practice. It has been designated an intangible cultural heritage of China, leading to the emergence of various activities and initiatives in entirely new organizational and media forms—often accompanied by the functionalization of the script for commercial or political/national purposes. A highly intriguing process of the "reinvention of a tradition" has begun, blending in diverse ways with contemporary culture and leaving fascinating imprints on the creative arts.

The topic is also explored within the broader context of languages and scripts in the People's Republic of China, touching on multiple disciplines, including script linguistics, sociolinguistics, cultural studies, folklore, and literary studies.
 

Prof. Dr. Dorothea Wippermann held a professorship in Chinese language and culture at Goethe University Frankfurt from 2001 to 2020 and continues to pursue research in these fields. Her areas of expertise include Chinese linguistics and script studies (encompassing sociolinguistics and pragmatics), Chinese language didactics, Chinese literature and Chinese-German literary translation, Sino-Western transculturality, and the history of Chinese-German cultural relations — particularly the intercultural and translation work of Richard Wilhelm (1873–1930), the founder of Sinology studies at Frankfurt University.

She studied Sinology, General Linguistics, and German Literary Studies at the Universities of Cologne, Bonn, and Trier. She earned her PhD and habilitation while working as a teaching and research associate in the Department of Sinology at the University of Trier. She also gained practical experience in Chinese language studies in the People's Republic of China and Taiwan and spent two years studying classical Chinese literature at Nanjing University.