Gendered words : sentiments and expression in changing rural China

This is the first ethnography to explore the world's only gender-defined and now disappearing 'women's script', known as nüshu, script circulated exclusively in Jiangyong County of Hunan Province in south China. Based on twenty years of fieldwork conducted since 1992, this book uses nüshu in conjunction with its affiliated singing tradition nüge (women's song), complemented by a life narrative approach, to unfold peasant women's lifeworlds that constitute a summation of shifting realities that engage women's voice (sentiments and perspectives), expression/performance, and practice.