women’s secret language

i’m sure there are many secret languages, but i just read about a chinese secret language used with embroidery called nu shu. for upper class women during the foot binding era, embroidery was one way that women could communicate to each other, stitching messages and poems and expressions directly into their clothing and drawing them onto fans and art work. the language was phonetic instead of pictographic, was closely guarded and kept from men, and has largely been lost because of the cultural revolution and lack of modern relevance. there’s an effort to find and reconstruct the language now and preserve it, but it may be too late.

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