An unknown script referred to as nushu (women's script) was rediscovered in the early 1980s in Jiangyong County, Hunan, Southern China. Nushu was said to have been used mainly by women to record matters involving their daily lives. Over 500 pieces of this writing survive today. This thesis argues that Jiangyong women, comprised of the Han and Yao ethnic groups, used nushu as a strategy to maintain their gender values when they were threatened during the Qing reign (1644--1911). By situating nushu writings within the historical-cultural context of their emergence, this study shows that Jiangyong women suffered the greatest impact when the Qing's "civilizing" policy denigrated their cultural status. An analysis of nushu folk stories and folk songs, a category of nushu writing, reveals that Jiangyong women's expressed "transgressions" actually represented their cultural values.
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