This project juxtaposes nüshu with traditional Chinese literati painting or calligraphy, questioning the knowledge barriers women faced in a patriarchal culture.

Nüshu (translated as women's writing or women's script) is a writing system known to have been developed and used exclusively among women. This unique writing system was developed in the remote areas of the Province of Hunan, China. In feudal China, women were not allowed to read or write Chinese, a privilege given to the imperial family, nobility, administration, and academics. In remote areas, where transportation and information exchange are difficult, women were excluded from society and were only in charge of the household and children. In order to keep in touch with their sisters and families, the women in these areas have forged a creative practice in their parallel world. This scripted system helps them to express their emotions, exchange knowledge and share their daily life while doing needlework. So, hand-made booklets with weaving work become the most typical carrier of the scripts.

However, the traditional Chinese literati painting and calligraphy, which are regarded as the highest artistic expression in China, are literally self-conscious elite practices. They are thought to represent a person's social, political, and cultural competence. Ancient public officers and literati maintained elite status by engaging in calligraphic and artistic work. The women who used nüshu (like women elsewhere in China) would not be included in this elite system and spent much of their time using labour-intensive embroidery techniques to express their ideas and thoughts.

Through this project, I hope to commemorate nüshu as a subversive act of free creation outside the patriarchal culture, using a combination of language(characters) and painting to distribute knowledge of nüshu, which is a self-motivated artistic practice of non-elite women.

I use the women's script as a visual element to achieve the appropriation of elite forms of painting that were previously reserved for men only. The frame is replaced by the weaving pattern and the calligraphy is replaced by nüshu characters. At the same time, I use the nüshu characters to represent the basic elements of traditional literati painting, such as mountains, water, and trees. The integration of writing and painting is my way of understanding these two opposing artistic practices. The patterns and materials I used are imitating the booklets which are used for the distribution of nüshu by these women years ago. By comparing these two art forms with completely different distributions of people, I present my critique of male dominance and the lack of status of women in artistic and cultural work, and hope I can amplify their voices.