I had the pleasure of attending the Pittsburgh International Film Festival’s screening and Q&A of the documentary “Hidden Letters,” directed by Violet Du Feng and Qing Zhao. The film was produced by Academy Award-nominated producer Su Kim, as well as Emmy nominated producers Jean Tsien and Mette Chang Munthe-Kaas. “Hidden Letters” took five years to complete and was a labor of love for all involved. Du Feng mentioned how the camera made the two women featured in the documentary feel like their voices and their stories finally mattered.
“Hidden Letters” tells the story of two millennial Chinese women, Simu and Hu Xin, connected by the sisterhood language of Nüshu and their desire to protect and preserve it. Historically, women in China were forced into oppressive marriages in which they were forbidden to read or write. In order to cope and share their stories, women created a secret language known as Nüshu. They typically wrote poems which they shared with each other by writing on paper-folded fans and handkerchiefs. These “Hidden Letters” connected women for generations. The language is still relevant today to those women who are trying to figure out who they are in a patriarchal society.
“The legacy of Nüshu should not only exist in China. Rather, it’s for a wider audience,” Du Feng said in an interview with “The China Project.” “I want people across the world to know about Nüshu and that’s how it will thrive and continue to live on as a code of defiance.”
I have to say that before I watched this documentary, I had never even heard of Nüshu. But wow. There is truly no other way for me to describe this masterpiece of a film. It fully followed the emotional journey of two unique women, living different lives, but connected by this beautifully heartbreaking language.
During the Q&A after the film, Du Feng explained that when she was approached to make a film about Nüshu, she didn’t want to just make a film about the history of the language. She wanted to focus on how Nüshu influences women today who are struggling to find themselves amidst the expectations society places on them.
One of the women featured in the film, Simu, was an artist and musician who expressed her creativity and story through Nüshu. Simu was engaged in the beginning of the film, but when it became clear that her fiancé didn’t see her artistic endeavors as an important aspect of her life, she re-thought the engagement and broke it off. She wasn’t going to have time to practice Nüshu in the marriage, which to her felt like she was being pushed into the situation in which Nüshu was born in the first place.
The other woman, Hu Xin, was very accomplished in Nüshu. She has been given several national awards for all the work she has done. In the documentary, she mentions that she had been married, but her husband was abusive. He really wanted a son, so when she became pregnant with a daughter, he forced her to get an abortion. In the Q&A after the screening, Du Feng mentioned that she got a call from Hu Xin, mere days after her husband left her, so Du Feng grabbed her camera and went to talk to her.
Nüshu has helped both of these women find the strength and courage to persevere in a society that isn’t built to benefit them. They are trying to preserve the legacy of Nüshu, which according to Du Feng isn’t necessarily a language itself, but the spirit of resilience and strength that it inspires. So all in all, if you have the opportunity to watch this incredible film, I highly recommend taking advantage of it. Also, don’t forget to check out the Pittsburgh International Film Festival, which put on this amazing event!
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