Meryl's Notes Blog
Things wordy, geeky, and webbySecret Writing and Shorthand
Monday, July 24th, 2006 at 9:06 AM |
I just finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan for my reading group, which is about the only time I get to read fiction. The book is wonderful and educational read in under 300 pages. Author Lisa See shows the reader what life was like in China during the days of footbinding, arranged marriages, and social classes. The book was a history lesson in the form of a story.
I learned long ago that Chinese women worked to keep their feet small, but I had no idea about the process behind it. The story details the footbinding process, but I was still amazed when I saw the photos of an adult woman’s bound feet and an x-ray showing what happens to the bones in bound feet in Wikipedia.
The story also tells of secret writing known as Nu Shu. Women weren’t allowed to learn reading and writing like the men, so they developed a secret language to help them communicate with family and sworn sisters. It was tradition to burn a woman’s Nu Shu letters when she died, which means there were few that survived.
I came across Shorthand Press, which I added to the original gift ideas list. I took an interest in shorthand when my 10th grade computer literacy teacher used it in her notes, but alas I never had the opportunity to learn it. I’m sure many of us have developed our own shorthand writing. I use @ to represent at, around, and about. Looks like EasyScript Express is a highly recommended book for learning shorthand.
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3 comments
A writing teacher I know went to China to investigate these “secret societies” of women…she’d gotten a book contract for it, before she went over to teach English for a year after graduating from the U. of Iowa Writers program. It’s interesting…while she never did write that book, she did write a memoir about her year there, called Little Sister. If your group is interested in reading more about China, that might be a good book to pick up. It’s beautifully written. The author is Julie Checkoway.
[...] After reading the book, I researched the topics covered in the story and discovered the author accurately captured 19th-century China. Readers learn about arranged marriages, different classes (poor, rich, farmer, butcher), friendships, married life, education, the secret writing of Nu Shu and the infighting in the country. [...]
May I suggest my novel for your reading group? It is available as a very inexpensive eBook at http://www.nicholasborelli.com. The full first chapter is excerpted there and you can determine if you would like to read on. In addition my bio and a discussion of my other novels is also there. You may eMail me from or link to my blog, where you can read my other writings and comment as well.
Thank you and regards,
Nicholas Borelli
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